St Pancras Station

St Pancras railway station is a central London railway terminus and Grade I listed building. It is one of the biggest landmarks in London and serves as a gateway to Europe. It is used by 45 million passengers annually and is home to the Eurostar.

Built by the Midland Railway Company to connect London to the east Midlands and Yorkshire over a two-year period and opened in 1868, it was designed to dwarf in both size and elegance next door King's Cross, owned by rival company Great Northern Railway, which had been built 15 years earlier and until that time was the most impressive such building in north London.

St. Pancras stands between the British Library, King's Cross station and the Regent's Canal and is a structure widely known for its Gothic architecture. Often termed the "cathedral of the railways", it includes two of the most celebrated structures built in Britain in the Victorian era.

The first, completed in 1868 by engineer William Henry Barlow, is the 'Train Shed'. This was the largest single-span structure built in the world up to that time. The stunning roof is 689ft long and 100ft high, with arches spanning 240ft. This was extended by a modern roof a further 656ft long during the renovation which took place early in the 21st Century.

The frontage of the station is formed by the former Midland Grand Hotel, designed by George Gilbert Scott, another example of Victorian Gothic architecture. This is now occupied by the five-star Renaissance London Hotel and apartments.

The entire complex was renovated and expanded from 2001 to 2007 to a design by Sir Norman Foster at a cost of £800 million with a ceremony attended by the Queen on 6 November 2007. The restored station has 15 platforms, a shopping centre and a bus station as well as the underground station.

The terminal is one of relatively few railway stations in England to feature multilingual signage; all notices are written in English and French.

St Pancras was officially re-opened as St Pancras International and the High Speed 1 service was launched on 6 November 2007

Features

There are several items of art on display to the public at St Pancras. At the south end of the upper level, a 9-metre (29.5 ft) high 20-tonne (19.7-long-ton; 22.0-short-ton) bronze statue named The Meeting Place stands beneath the station clock. Designed by British artist Paul Day, it is intended to evoke the romance of travel through the depiction of a couple locked in an amorous embrace.

On the upper level, above the Arcade concourse, stands a bronze statue of the former Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman, depicted gazing in apparent wonder at the Barlow roof. Designed by British sculptor Martin Jennings, the statue commemorates the poet's successful campaign to save the station from demolition in the 1960s. The 2-metre (6 ft 7 in) high statue stands on a flat disc of Cumbrian slate inscribed with lines from Betjeman's poem Cornish Cliffs.

And in the shadowless unclouded glare / Deep blue above us fades to whiteness where / A misty sea-line meets the wash of air.

Outside St Pancras Chambers, affixed to a wall, is an example of the "London Noses" installation art created by Rick Buckley – a replica of his nose. This was created in 1997 and survived the renovation of the building.

St Pancras Station in the Media

In the film of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the exterior of St. Pancras station is used instead of King's Cross, since its Gothic façade was considered more impressive than the real King's Cross: another example of the two stations being neighbours in some ways, but rivals in others.

Who was St Pancras? 

St Pancras was a 14-year-old Christian orphan who was martyred in Rome, having been taken there by his uncle – in AD 303. His relics were sent to England by Pope St Vitalian in the 7th century – the first St Pancras church was built close to Canterbury with St Pancras church in Camden following soon afterwards.