The church began as a district chapelry in 1876 before becoming a parish in 1888. Its parish was merged with that of StJude Gray's Inn Road (demolished 1936) in 1935 and that of St Peter's Regent Square in 1954 (damaged in the Blitz and demolished in 1954). In 1988 its Crypt Centre was set up to work for the homeless, and the church is still in use under its parish priest Christopher Cawrse.
As a result of industrial decline in the second half of the 20th century, by the 1980s the area around King's Cross Station, including Cromer Street, had become notorious for prostitution and drug abuse. In November 1982, the English Collective of Prostitutes staged a 12-day sit-in at Holy Cross as a protest against police harassment, attracting national media coverage. The then rector, Reverend Trevor Richardson, said at the time that the sit-in could continue so long as it didn't interfere with services. He also commented that too much attention was being paid to the women occupying the church and not enough to the evils of society that had given rise to their sit-in.[3]
