The seat includes many famous London neighbourhoods, such as Holborn, on the fringe of the City of London with its many financial institutions and law firms; Bloomsbury, with its academic and literary tradition; Kings Cross and St Pancras; Camden Town, Kentish Town and Primrose Hill.
Many properties here are rented, and only 24% are owner occupied. The area is diverse - Kings Cross is a well-known centre for prostitution, and there are large numbers of homeless in Camden Town. Conversely, Primrose Hill houses many upwardly mobile young professionals. 44% of those in the seat are in professional and managerial employment. There is a growing ethnic minority population here, which at the 1991 census stood at 21%.
This is former Health Secretary Frank Dobson's seat, and he won three times as many votes as his second place rival in the 1997 election. His electoral fortunes were not so successful in the London Mayor elections in May 2001, when he came third in the overall contest behind independent Ken Livingstone and Conservative Steve Norris.