In London during the mid 19th Century, the railway revolution was in full swing.
By the late 1860’s, most of the passenger rail terminal stations we recognise today had been built by independent regional rail companies. Alongside these stations the trend was to include a grand hotel for prestige and profit.
Arriving late on the scene, the Midland Railway Company began construction of St Pancras Station in 1866, and held a competition for architects to submit designs for a new hotel.
Thirteen designs were submitted and the prize went to Sir George Gilbert Scott.
Scott was a Victorian Gothic Revivalist architect and had recently built the Albert Memorial.
He had won a competition to design the new Foreign office at Whitehall in the Gothic style, but his plans were rejected by the new Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, who insisted he change the design to a more conservative Classical style.
Disappointed with this rejection, Scott went on to use his original ideas on the Midland Grand Hotel.
Opened in 1873, the building was quoted by Scott to be better than its intended purpose.
More Palace-like than hotel.
Many of the materials used, such as the Red Brick and Sandstone, were sourced from the Midlands at the request of the rail company to increase their income through transportation.
The hotel was the height of luxury, with lavish furnishings and internal decorations: a fire place and sink in each room, flushing toilets – an innovation at the time – and a hydraulic lift powered by the hotels own water source, a 60 meter deep well.
It was the first building to have a revolving door, and an electric bell system to summon the servants, who had accommodation in the roof space.
It had built-in linen chutes and speaking tubes for communications.
The granite cobbled ramp you see climbing up and through the main archway was originally the vehicle access for taxis to service the hotel and station.
Indeed, I recall back 20 years ago before the building was converted. I had recently become a London Taxi Driver and would wait there patiently for the trains and people to arrive. What a contrast that area is today.
Where once you’d hear the sound of horse hooves, carriage wheels, Taxi horns and train whistles, you’ll now find a splendid peaceful cafe, bar and reception area where you’ll see people reclining in comfortable chairs, sipping filtered coffee and cocktails.
With the arrival in the late 19th Century of electric lighting and the move towards en-suite bathrooms, it wasn’t long before the hotel became outdated.
And what with the solid construction of thick concrete walls and floors (included at the time as a fire precaution) it was deemed too costly to update.
Finally closing in 1935, it became offices for the Midland Railway and then after nationalisation British Rail.
By the mid 20th Century, with fashions changing, it was considered flashy and vulgar.
It came under serious threat of demolition, but was saved in 1967 when it gained protection with a Grade 1 Listed Status, largely through the efforts of Jane Hughes Fawcett and English poet John Betjeman.
They were both early secretaries and founding members of the Victorian Society.
Jane Fawcett had been a code breaker at Bletchley Park during WW2 and the Society was set up to prevent demolition of Victorian buildings by overzealous modernists.
In 1988, the building failed safety regulations and was left vacant.
Before and during this time it was used as a Gothic Set for the making of many movies, such as Harry Potter, Batman, 101 Dalmatians, and the hotel and surrounding area feature as a backdrop to the 1955 Ealing Comedy Film The Lady Killers – a favourite of mine – staring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers.
If you haven’t yet seen, I do recommend for a good depiction of post war London.
In 1995, £9 million of public money was used to restore the masonry exterior.
In 2005 the Manhattan Loft Corporation started work converting the roof and upper floor into residential apartments, popular with commuters to Paris since the arrival there of the Eurostar.
And in 2011 the building went full circle when it opened again as a modern 245 room Luxury Hotel, one of London’s finest buildings now called “The St Pancras Renaissance Hotel”
Adam
