Creative Outlooks - St. Pancras Station - Transport In The Modern Era.
Sep, 21 2025
We all want to commute and use transport services in an economical way. However, what if the place where we like to travel has a contemporary feel and look about it designed to make your journey a pleasant one. In this month’s ‘Creative Outlooks’ – I’ll be highlighting the positive impact of London’s iconic St. Pancras Station.
To get started please watch this 5 minute video revealing fascinating facts you didn’t know about St. Pancras Station –
Interestingly, St Pancras station takes its name from the surrounding parish of St Pancras, named after St Pancras Old Church, named after Saint Pancras — a 14-year-old boy who refused to denounce his Christian faith, and was therefore beheaded by Diocletian. Christians still sometimes invoke St Pancras against headaches.
When the station was built in the 1860s by the Midland Railway Company (MRC), huge chunks of the surrounding Agar Town and Somers Town neighbourhoods were demolished to make way. Thousands of people wound up homeless: you can go on a guided tour led by a formerly homeless person, that discusses this in more depth.
Dry hotel rooms: George Gilbert Scott's Midland Grand Hotel opened in 1873, five years after the station. Early ads perhaps slightly undersold the 250 rooms, stating they were "perfectly dry". An article from the Illustrated London News in 1967 claims that "Scott's friends thought the building the finest in London. Others thought it vulgar and ridiculous." The erstwhile Gilbert Scott cocktail bar mixed a concoction called... The Londonist.
One of the first things passengers notice pulling into the station is the gargantuan Grace clock. Spoiler alert: this is not the original. That was dropped and smashed into many pieces by cack-handed British Rail staff in 1968. Another member of staff bought the pieces and rebuilt it onto the side of his Nottinghamshire barn. Shame the whole incident didn't happen in the last few years, because it would've made a cracking episode of The Repair Shop.
The grand porch where many foot passengers now arrive was initially where horse-drawn carts, and later on, vans, would drive through to unload freight. (The space where you'll now find Hamleys, M&S et al., was also used as a car park, after beer imports dried up in the 1960s.
Not content with stealing King's Cross's thunder when it opened, St Pancras did the same to Waterloo in 2007, when its Eurostar services were moved here. The Queen opened the new terminal on 7 November. Trains came with the added bonus of 20 mins shorter run-in to Paris. Hopefully passengers didn't have an onward journey to make from France; a massive strike was on that day, and transport was crippled.
On 18 March 2020 — just a few days before the UK went into total lockdown — Anglo-French couple Claire and Matt Zinsner had a rushed wedding at St Pancras station, with a reception at the Searcy's champagne bar. Well, it is called the 'Cathedral of the Rails' after all.
The first direct London to Amsterdam train service ran on 4 April 2018, with passengers greeted at the latter with bunches of tulips.
For more information simply visit the following website link –
https://stpancras-highspeed.com/st-pancras-international/
Historical past and modern appreciation makes St. Pancras station one of the most attractive and appealing stations of the 21st century. Commuters find it a relaxing and enjoyable place to prepare for their arduous journey during which they can switch on to the world around them and take a moment to absorb the atmosphere around them. Royal connections and cultural relevance make it one of London’s most creative outlooks with a deliberate pull to travellers making their connections an enjoyable and satisfying experience.
^Alex Ashworth CCG Art Blogger
