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St. Pancras – UK Rail Journeys
Series 2 Episode 01
In ‘St. Pancras’ I arrive at the station to start my journey along the route of the Midland Railway’s Scotch Expresses and the LMS Thames Clyde Express.
Please click on a thumbnail to see the photographs that go with this podcast:
The Midland Railway:
The Midland Railway was a proud organisation. From their base in Derby their powerbase is between Birmingham and York; however their services stretch as far as Carlisle and Bournemouth.
Their ambition is to reach London. For many years they have to share tracks with other companies. At one stage they are paying the Great Northern £20,000 a year to use Kings Cross.
The involvement of George Hudson, known as the Railway King, means that they can’t get approval for a London terminus. However, once the disgraced Hudson is out of the way, they win Parliamentary approval for a terminus.
St. Pancras:
The Midland purchase land from the estate of Lord Somers on the north side of the New Road. Like Kings Cross, Euston and the much later Marylebone, the station is between the New Road and the Regent’s Canal.
The chosen area houses many people, has a gasworks, is on the course of the buried River Fleet and has the ancient church of St. Pancras, with a burial ground. A site with a great number of difficulties!
William Barlow, the Midland’s engineer, is told to build something dramatic. His roof is a single span, 243 feet across which, until 1888, is the largest in the world.
The station is built of the finest materials, all transported from the Midland’s heartland. The building work leads to many evictions, with little notice, from slum homes and the exhumation of 8,000 bodies from the churchyard.
On the 1st October 1868 the first trains arrive.
The Midland Grand Hotel:
George Gilbert Scott wins the competition to design the grand hotel to stand in front of the train shed. The budget is £316,000.
When the hotel opens it is the most expensive railway hotel in London. For a charge of 14 shillings you get dinner, bed and breakfast; however there is only one bathroom on each floor!
Proposed demolition:
In the 1960s and 1970s see plans to demolish the station and hotel buildings. This leads to uproar and a Grade 1 listing. The introduction of Eurostar services leads to a £800 million renovation.
Listen to the podcast to hear more about ‘St. Pancras’.
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Music:
AKM Music licenses Steam Railway and Corporate Winners for use in this podcast.