Home, part 8: London St Pancras International Station
Lots of you have been to London and seen the sights, but you may not have seen my favourite.
London St Pancras International Railway Station is a wonderfully ostentatious example of Victorian gothic architecture. It was built in 1873 not only as a railway terminus, but also as a grand hotel.
Unfortunately, while the station continued to be a major feature on the London transport map throughout its history, the hotel has been derelict since the 1920s... but in 2012 it was restored, re-opened, I'm happy to say, and lives again, and I love the place - while I haven't slept there, I often pass through, and I adore the style and the buzz of the place.
Sir John Betjeman called this Gothic treasure “too beautiful and too romantic to survive” in a world of tower blocks and concrete. Its survival against the odds will cause wonder; the building itself will take your breath away.
After years of devoted restoration, the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel is being hailed as London’s most romantic building. Its glorious Gothic Revival metalwork, gold leaf ceilings, hand-stencilled wall designs and a jaw-dropping grand staircase are as dazzling as the day Queen Victoria opened the hotel in 1873.
- from the hotel website
There's a photo gallery of the stunning interiors on the hotel website, and for candid daylight pictures of the exterior, do a little Google image search.
Look familiar? You've seen St Pancras many times in movies and TV. Here's where you're most likely to have seen it, and before its restoration, you'll have seen a little of the remaining interiors in the debut video of a certain then-unknown British girl band. You have seen it recently too... when Edith went to London to see Gregson in the first new episode of Downton Abbey.
Let me show you around in the dark, as best I can...
Click to viewThe story so far:
Home, part 1: Fairfax
Home, part 2: Sausalito
Home, part 3: Alameda
Home, part 4: San Jose
Home, part 5: Trans Atlantic
Home, part 6: Demi's house, with bonus kitteh
Home, part 7: Antique Textiles, Bath