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A fine romance
Since the creation of St Pancras Station a great sculpture has always been envisaged to hold the space beneath the imposing iron archways of Barlow’s train shed. Exhausted funds put paid to the idea on the original Victorian project but the thought of an iconic stalwart, standing tall in a sea of travellers, lingered on. Now – with the opening of the new St Pancras International – the station will finally get its monument
Standing 30 feet (9 metres) high and weighing nearly eight tonnes, The Meeting Place is a solid bronze couple locked in embrace under the large concourse clock, giving the timepiece the semblance of a full, illuminated moon in the night sky.
Sculptor Paul Day was the man charged with the small task of creating an icon for a national treasure. “My first impression was shock, awe and wonder at the beauty and scale of the Barlow shed,” he remembers. “I think the contrast of it with Scott’s St Pancras Chambers building makes a potent cocktail. What could one put in that space that would be visible and hold its own, and create some sort of meaning but would enhance what was already there and give focus to the whole building?”
The 39-year-old artist, who created the Battle of Britain monument which stands at Embankment, admits being intimidated by the original brief from London and Continental Railways.
Paul says: “It stipulated that they wanted a bronze sculpture which must not take up more than 4.5 metres of floor; that it ought to be a very democratic piece of work, something accessible and easily appreciated by the mass of people that are going to go through the station; that it must be as iconic and memorable as the Statue of Liberty and must emphasise the romantic nature of train travel.”
Daunted but undeterred, Mr Day went away to think about the project. Twenty four hours later he was back, armed with three preliminary ideas. The one which provoked the most excitement was an embracing couple; but although the panel was unanimous in its decision, the devil was in the detail.
“When I presented the drawings, everybody at LCR felt that the simple silhouette of the couple could be recognised instantly from the other end of the station, so there is no ambiguity of ‘What is that lump of bronze?’ The couple being reunited is something that can be universally recognised: young people aspire to it, old people reminisce about it. It had the romantic element.”
“Originally, it showed a couple actually kissing – a bit like The Kiss – but it was thought to be a bit too risque, so I had to come up with an idea for another pose.”
Paul retreated to his studio in the French village of Sainte-Sabine, near Dijon, where he has lived with his wife Catherine for the past 14 years. He produced four preparatory studies based on poses struck by him and his wife, photographed by his assistant. From these poses he made a dozen small clay studies – each one about the size of an action man – to work out the best version.
“Catherine came up with the final pose, of the two foreheads touching and the woman’s hand touching the man’s face. It was much more poignant than a full-blown snog. With their foreheads touching and their gaze meeting it is not just a physical encounter, but a meeting of minds. This struck a chord with everybody.
“The figures themselves I wanted to transcend race and time – they are the icon of the sculpture but around the base, on the frieze which goes in in 2009, will be a rich tapestry of interweaving stories about people getting together again after being apart. I also hope to touch on the Irish navvies who built the station, the cadaverous figures exhumed by Thomas Hardy and so on.”
Once the pose was agreed in September 2006, Paul spent two and a half months constructing a detailed model or maquette about 3 feet tall in clay. From that clay model he took a plaster cast which was then sliced “like a loaf of bread” by a specialist company in Chichester. Each slice was scaled up onto blocks of polystyrene before being glued back together one on top of the other, producing a very rough version of the original plaster form.
Assistants carried out the rough carving, leaving Mr Day to do the finishing carving: detailing the surface and getting the subtlety of folds into the polystyrene. Then, about six weeks after the original plaster cast was made, the polystyrene was coated in a plaster and resin mix to give it a smooth surface, sanded down (so the bronze would “take” the surface), cut into manageable sections and sent to the foundry.
“There,” Paul explains, “a sand mould is made around the outside of these big sections, it is injected with CO2 to go hard, so the sand becomes like a rock, we remove the polystyrene and put in a core and pour bronze into the space between the core and sand mould. Like that we create bronze sections that will be welded together to form the finished sculpture.”
At the time of our interview, just a fortnight before the grand unveiling of the new station, Paul is frantically putting the finishing touches to his colossus. “It’s coming into being,” he shouts over the roar of the workplace. “I feel like a father whose wife is giving birth but I’m not allowed into the room. The midwives in the foundry are finishing it. I have served as the guide and the inspiration of the project, but it’s out of my hands now.”
Before The Meeting Place can be fixed on site it must be welded, sand-blasted, patinated (treated with chemicals to determine the permanent colour of the bronze) and then waxed from head to toe.
Later that week the sculpture finally took its place beneath the station clock at an estimated cost of £1 million. When we spoke again, Paul was exhausted but delighted with the results.
“It’s rare when I finish a piece I feel good about it, but haven’t been let down by my idea. I want to go back and see it every five minutes to make sure it’s still really there. The construction workers were admiring the girl’s legs when we put it in and I think that’s great. People can read it however they like.”
Fifty million passengers are expected to pass through St Pancras and past its embracing lovers every year. Comparisons are already being drawn between it and Rodin’s Kiss or the Statue of Liberty, but Mr Day remains indefatigably modest about his achievement.
“For any vainglorious artist to have the opportunity to put their work in such a public space is very exciting,” he says. “Art is always trying to touch the hearts and minds of people you don’t know. If people can get into your work then you’re sharing an experience that can’t be put into words. It is a massive responsibility.”
“Hopefully it will become a romantic place to meet but I don’t know if it’s going to become as iconic as the Statue of Liberty,” he laughs.
“That happens from people’s reactions to it, and only time will tell.”
SIMON WROE
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