St Pancras railway station
St Pancras station is a railway station in north central
London,
England, between the new
British Library building to its west and
King's Cross station to its east. It is the southern terminus of the
Midland Main Line, and is the main departure point from London for services to the
East Midlands and parts of
Yorkshire.
St Pancras includes two of the most celebrated structures built in Britain in the
Victorian era. The main trainshed (completed 1868), by the engineer
William Henry Barlow, was the largest single-span structure built up to that time. In front of it is
St Pancras Chambers, formerly the
Midland Grand Hotel (1868-77), one of the most impressive examples of a type of
Victorian gothic architecture. Designed by architect
George Gilbert Scott, the building primarily themed around the gothic style but incorporates other features from a variety of periods and countries. From such an eclectic approach, Scott, anticipated that a new genre would emerge.
The Trainshed is currently closed to the public. Access to the spectacular interiors of the former hotel is by tour only.
As of
17 July 2006, Midland Mainline trains terminate in the western part of the extension which will accommodate
Eurostar trains when the station becomes the London terminus of the
Channel Tunnel Rail Link (scheduled for October 2007). Passengers using Midland Mainline services are now able to catch a glimpse of the restored roof of the Trainshed from the escalators to platform level.
Incentive
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The interior of the Barlow Trainshed, circa 1870 |
The station was commissioned by the
Midland Railway. Prior to the
1860s the company had a concentration of routes in the Midlands and north of London but not its own route to the capital. From
1840 Midland trains to and from London ran from
Euston using the
London and North Western line via a junction at
Rugby. Congestion and delays south of Rugby quickly became commonplace as services expanded.
A new London line was proposed around
1845, towards the end of the period of speculation later dubbed "Railway Mania". The
Great Northern line was approved by Parliament in
1846 and a Midland Railway spur from
Leicester to
Hitchin was agreed in
1847. While the Great Northern line was constructed, the Midland spur was quietly abandoned in 1850 due to financial problems. Pressure from businesses in
Leicestershire,
Northamptonshire and
Bedfordshire, notably from
William Whitbread, who owned roughly 12% of the land over which the line would run, revived the spur scheme. The line was re-presented to Parliament and approved in
1853. Building began quickly but did not proceed at any great pace: the line was opened in mid-
1857. The Midland Railway secured initial running power for seven years at a minimum of £20,000 a year. The Midland Company now had two routes into London, through Euston and King's Cross, and traffic quickly expanded to take advantage, especially with the coal trade with the Midland Railway transporting around a fifth of the total coal to London by 1852.
In mid-1862, due to the enormous traffic for the second
International Exhibition, the Great Northern and the Midland companies clashed over the restricted capacity of the line. This was regarded as the stimulus for the Midland Company to build its own line and surveying for a 49.75-mile (80-km) line from Bedford to London began in October 1862. However, the Midland Company had been buying large portions of land in the parish of
St Pancras since
1861.
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Close up view of the clock tower. |
St Pancras was an unprepossessing district, with notorious slums. The area's other landmarks were the covered
Fleet River,
Regent's Canal, a gas-works, and an old church with a large graveyard. For the terminus the
Midland Railway chose a site backing onto New Road (later
Euston Road) and bounded by
St Pancras Road and Brewer Street, a few hundred yards to the east of
Euston and immediately to the west of
King's Cross station. The problem canal was to be tunnelled under (the
Belsize Tunnel), although the churchyard and the gas-works were added problems. The site was occupied by housing, the estates of
Somers Town and the slums of
Agar-Town. The landlords sold up for £19,500 and cleared out the residents, without compensation, for a further £200. The church was demolished and a replacement built for £12,000 in 1868-69 in
Kentish Town. The demolished church was re-erected piece by piece in 1867 as a Congregational church in
Wanstead, and still exists (now a
United Reformed church).
The company intended to connect from the site through a tunnel (the St Pancras Branch) to the new
Metropolitan Line, opened in
1863 running from
Paddington to
Farringdon Street below the Euston Road, providing for a through route to
Kent.
Design and construction
The sloping and irregular form of the site posed certain problems and the Midland Railway directors were determined to impress London with their new station. They could see the ornateness of Euston, with its famous arch; the functional success of
Lewis Cubitt's King's Cross; the design innovations in iron, glass and layout by
Brunel at Paddington; and, significantly, the single span roof designs of
John Hawkshaw being built at
Charing Cross and
Cannon Street.
The initial plan of the station was laid out by
William Henry Barlow, the Midland's consulting engineer. The single span roof of 74 m (243 ft), the greatest built up to that time, was adopted on purely economic grounds to make maximum use of the space without obstructions (the roof design was a collaboration between Barlow and
Rowland Mason Ordish). A space for a fronting transverse hotel was included in the plan and the overall plan was accepted in early 1865.
A competition was held for the actual design of the station buildings and hotel in May 1865. Eleven architects were invited to compete, submitting their designs in August. In January 1866 the brick
Gothic revival designs of the prominent
George Gilbert Scott were chosen. There was some disquiet at the choice, in part because Scott's designs, at £315,000, were by far the most expensive. The sheer grandeur of Scott's frontage impressed the Midland Railway directors, achieving their objective of outclassing every other station in the capital. A subsequent financial squeeze trimmed several floors from the frontage and certain ornateness but the impressive design largely remained.
Construction of the station, minus the roof which was a separate tender, was budgeted at £310,000, and after a few problems Waring Brothers' tender of £320,000 was accepted. The roof tender went to the Butterley Company for £117,000. Work began in the autumn of 1864 with a temporary bridge over the canal and the demolition of Somers Town and Agar Town. Construction of the station foundations did not start until July 1866 and delays through technical problems, especially in the roof construction, were commonplace.
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The former Midland Grand Hotel at the front of St Pancras railway station. |
The graveyard posed the initial problems - the main line was to pass over it on a girder bridge and the branch to the Metropolitan under it in a tunnel. Disturbance of the remains was expected but was, initially, carelessly handled. The tunnelling was especially delayed by the presence of decomposing human remains, the many coffins encountered, and a London-wide outbreak of cholera leading to the requirement to enclose the
River Fleet entirely in iron. Despite this the connection was completed in January 1867.
The company was hoping to complete most essential building by January 1868. The goods station in Agar Town received its first train in September 1867, but passenger services through to the Metropolitan line did not begin until July 1868. However, the station was not finished when it opened, to little ceremony, on 1 October. The final rib for the train shed roof had been fitted only in mid-September and the station was a mass of temporary structures for the passengers. The first train, an express for
Manchester, ran non-stop from
Kentish Town to Leicester - the longest non-stop run in the world at 97 miles (156 km).
Work on the
Midland Grand Hotel did not begin until mid-
1868. With construction in a number of stages, the hotel did not open to customers until
5 May 1873. The process of adding fixtures and fittings was contentious as the Midland Railway cut Scott's perceived extravagances and only in late
1876 was Scott finally paid off. The total costs for the building were £438,000. The hotel was closed in
1935, and the building was subsequently used as offices before falling vacant in the
1980s. The Hotel was a popular location for film and television productions and appeared in both the
Spice Girls first video and
Batman Begins. In
2005 planning consent was granted for a refurbishment of the hotel building. Most of the public rooms and a small fraction of the bedrooms of the original hotel will be incorporated into a new hotel, but the majority of the new hotel's bedrooms will be in a newly built wing to the west of the Victorian trainshed. The remainder of the original hotel will be converted into apartments.
London and Continental Railways (LCR) was selected by the UK government in 1996 to undertake the reconstruction of St Pancras, as well as construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and the takeover of the British share of the
Eurostar operation,
Eurostar (UK). The original LCR consortium members were
National Express Group,
Virgin Group,
SG Warburg,
Bechtel and
London Electricity. Whilst the project was under development by
British Rail it was managed by
Union Railways which became a wholly owned subsidiary of LCR.
Originally the whole of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, including St Pancras, was to be constructed as a single project. However, in 1998 it ran into serious financial difficulties and with its future looking uncertain the project was split into two separate phases, to be managed by
Union Railways (South) and
Union Railways (North). A recovery programme was agreed whereby LCR sold government-backed
bonds worth £1.6bn to pay for the construction of section 1, with the future of section 2 (including St Pancras) still looking in doubt. The original intention had been for the new railway, once completed, to be run by
Union Railways as a separate line to the rest of the British railway network. However as part of the 1998 rescue plan it was agreed that following completion section 1 would be purchased by
Railtrack, along with an option to purchase section 2. In return Railtrack were committed to operate the whole route as well as St Pancras station which, unlike all other former British Rail stations, was transferred to LCR/Union Railways in 1996.
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St Pancras station spires; in the foreground is the trainshed undergoing renovation. |
In 2001 Railtrack announced that due to its own financial problems it would not undertake to purchase section 2 once it was completed. This triggered a second restructuring. The 2002 plan agreed that the two sections would have different infrastructure owners (Railtrack for section 1, LCR for section 2) but with common management by Railtrack. Following yet further financial problems at Railtrack its interest in the CTRL was sold back to LCR who then sold the operating rights for the completed line to
Network Rail, Railtrack's successor. Under this arrangement LCR will become the sole owner of both sections of the CTRL and St Pancras, as per the original 1996 plan.
As a consequence of the project's restructuring the LCR consortium is,
as of 2006, construction firms
Arup,
Bechtel,
Halcrow and
Systra (who form
Rail Link Engineering (RLE)), transport operators
National Express Group and
SNCF (who operate the
Eurostar (UK) share of the Eurostar service with
SNCB and
British Airways), electricity company
EDF and the
UBS Investment Bank. On completion of section 1 by RLE, the line was handed over to Union Railways (South), who then handed it over to
London & Continental Stations and Property (LCSP) who are the long term owners of the line. Once section 2 of the line has been completed it will be handed over to Union Railways (North) who will hand it over to LCSP. Management, operation and maintenance of the entire project, including St Pancras, will be undertaken by Network Rail.
St Pancras is the terminus of the
Midland Main Line. Rail services operated by
Midland Mainline serve routes to the
East Midlands and
Yorkshire regions of
England, including
Luton,
Bedford,
Kettering,
Wellingborough,
Market Harborough,
Leicester,
Loughborough,
Beeston,
Nottingham,
Long Eaton,
Derby,
Chesterfield and
Sheffield. Occasional trains also run to
Burton upon Trent,
Leeds,
Barnsley,
Scarborough and
York.
The platforms in the interim station are at an upper level and accessible by lift or escalator. Space for passenger facilities at the interim station, in particular waiting rooms and catering, is limited. However facilities at the interim station are
Disability Discrimination Act–compliant, and station staff can provide assistance to passengers who require it.
Because of the ongoing building works on the old station, vehicle and pedestrian access to the interim station is not easy. There is a 500 m walk from
King's Cross St. Pancras tube station, Euston Road and most bus stops. However there is a car and taxi drop-off point next to the station entrance, which passengers with limited mobility should use.
Between
12 April 2004 and
14 July 2006, trains terminated at an interim station occupying the eastern part of the extension immediately adjacent to the entrance. With the move of services to the western platforms, there is now an additional 70m walk at the lower level to the lifts/escalators.
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The interim St Pancras railway station, immediately to the north of the Victorian building; the latter will reopen in 2007 |
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New signage at St Pancras reflects the changing status of the station |
The main building will be re-used from
2007 as a terminus for
Eurostar trains after completion of the
Channel Tunnel Rail Link. The international departure hall will be built in the undercroft of the existing station, which is raised some 20 feet (6 m) above street level. The undercroft was formerly used to store
beer barrels brought down from Burton-upon-Trent.
The station will ultimately have 13 platforms at the main level.
Eurostar services will use the middle platforms, to be numbered 5–10, which will continue into the Victorian station hall;
Midland Mainline services will continue to use the western platforms (as they have done since
17 July 2006) to be numbered 1–4; and long distance commuter services from
Kent will occupy the eastern platforms, to be numbered 11–13.
A new
Thameslink station (to be named
St Pancras Thameslink) will replace
King's Cross Thameslink station for cross-London
First Capital Connect services from December 2007. Additionally, major work is ongoing at
King's Cross St. Pancras tube station to link the various station entrances to two new ticket halls for
London Underground and reduce overcrowding.
The station will be the terminus for the
Olympic Javelin, a seven minute shuttle service that will ferry spectators between Central London and the
London Olympic Park in
Stratford during the
2012 Olympic Games.
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Aerial photo from Google maps
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Construction progress information from the
Channel Tunnel Rail Link*
Urban75 web magazine feature - photos of St Pancras and Midland Grand Hotel interiors
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Skyscrapernews.com building detail - photos and info of the building and its history
