St Pancras
It’s one of the most famous train stations in the UK, yet St Pancras nearly disappeared, following decades of neglect. It’s a towering representation of Victorian architecture, and it has been revitalised. What can I say about this gorgeous gothic station?
The history of St Pancras is not dissimilar to that of many London termini. The Midland Railway constructed the station to grant them a route into the heart of the capital, and it served to relieve other lines (such as the neighbouring line into King’s Cross), which had suffered from capacity problems during the 1862 International Exhibition. Some of the initial inspiration for a London terminus was centred around the movement of goods, such as coal, but the Midland Railway also understood the importance of a passenger terminal, and made sure St Pancras would have a grand frontage, right on Euston Road. Because the route into St Pancras required that the rails be elevated, the void underneath the platforms became a storage centre of another important commodity: beer! Beer trains would run from Burton-on-Trent to St Pancras, and the ample storage became a warehouse.
In the early days of services, passengers could choose between St Pancras or King’s Cross for services to the prestigious university town of Cambridge, and St Pancras also provided services to the likes of Great Yarmouth and Southend. The station, like many others, would face bombs and chaos during the World Wars, and in the post-war turmoil, it would see services curtailed, and the building itself suffer from neglect. In the 1960s British Rail desired to close the station completely, and reroute Midland services to Euston and King’s Cross. Given that Euston had suffered at the hands of government bureaucracy (becoming a grey concrete slab, and losing its own rich Victorian heritage), passionate campaigns kicked off to save St Pancras from a similar fate.
Among the people responsible for saving St Pancras was Poet Laureate John Betjeman. He, along with Jane Fawcett of the Victorian Society, worked to make sure London did not lose yet another iconic example of Victorian engineering, and their success ensured that the station survived. Unfortunately, it still fell into a semi-derelict state, with limited services during the 1980s.
The advent of the Channel Tunnel and Britain’s first high speed rail line brought new focus to St Pancras. Whilst the initial Eurostar terminal had been Waterloo, this was prior to High Speed 1 being completed, and the government desired a different London terminal for the new, highly important route to Europe. St Pancras received the honour, and in 2004 an extensive refit began, which was finished in 2007. Eurostar and regional high-speed services turned the one dilapidated station into an important and beautiful hub for passengers to appreciate.
Through these dramatic changes, St Pancras remains the terminus of the Midland Main Line, and via the Thameslink programme, passengers can also get trains to Cambridge, Peterborough, Horsham and Brighton. It has gone from nearly being lost, to being the centrepiece of some of the most important rail services in the country. It’s quite the turnaround!
I don’t have a lot of direct experience with St Pancras. Once or twice I’ve made use of the Thameslink services, and off the top of my head I’ve used the Midland Mainline once, when my wife and I visited Alton Towers, and that was pre-refit, so the station lacked the beauty of its restoration. Since the upgrade, I have poked my nose inside a few times, and it must be said that St Pancras offers international arrivals a wonderful greeting. I am eternally grateful to all the people involved in saving this remarkable icon of Victorian engineering.