Camden New Journal - St Pancras International Magazine: Wonder of the modern age

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Camden New Journal - ST PANCRAS INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE
Published: November 2007

Wonder of the modern age

EXPECTATIONS have always been high for St Pancras. When Sir George Gilbert Scott built the station front and hotel in 1876, he intended it to “rule its neighbourhood”, while the engineer William Henry Barlow was inspired to create the largest single-span structure in the world when he designed the accompanying train shed.
Admiring Victorians cooed about a “wonder of the modern age”. Even when it fell from grace in the 1960s and whispers of destruction permeated, there were always a few prepared to extol St Pancras’s virtues.
“St Pancras was a 14-year-old Christian boy martyred in Rome, but in England he is better known as a railway station,” began Sir John Betjeman’s plea to save it.
Pulled from nadir in the mid-1990s, the past five years have seen £800 million and 15 million man hours spent on renovating one of Britain’s best-loved landmarks.
From November 14, high-speed Eurostar trains, state-of-the-art technology and cutting edge design will link the historic station with both the rest of Europe and the 21st century.
Up to 45 million passengers will use the station in the next year alone: parting, shopping and meeting under the original, immaculately restored Victorian roof.
Once more, expectations are high.
But in an age where so many grand architectural schemes amount to little more than white elephants, St Pancras (delivered on time and on budget) stands a real chance of living up to, even surpassing, its own awesome reputation.

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