European Railroad Discussion > London St.Pancras station in 1971

Today, St.Pancras is the station served by high speed trains from Europe through the channel tunnel. Just visible is part of the St.Pancras freight terminal, once one of the largest parcel terminals in Europe.

St.Pancras was the Midland Railway's terminal in London and was built in the heart of the Gothic Revival era. By the 1970's, BR had downgraded the service to the Midlands of Britain, and St.Pancras was mostly a suburban train terminal.

For motor vehicle fans, there are some interesting vehicles. The white Bedford van has a strong resemblance to a Chevy van , with good reason. It was a GM vehicle. There is a European Ford Transit van (blue) following. There is a three wheel Reliant Robin waiting at the traffic light. Some classic cars are visible too. Is that a brown US Ford car beside the Robin?

The street lamp is a sodium arc light, which cast an orange glow, effective in fog.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/05/20 16:52 by eminence_grise.

Thats a beautiful building.Almost like a church.
Regards,DK

The frontage of the station was built as a hotel and was restored along with the rest of the station when converted to the Eurostar facility. Much of the hotel is in a new building built atop the old more towards the rear. However the really expensive rooms are in the original hotel portion including the grand staircase. There's a private apartment under the clock tower. A really beautiful building resurrected from what had become a rather fun down empty facility.

Attached below is a photo taken in 2008 from beneath the Eurostar platform level, through which passengers exit after leaving their train above but before passing through border control. On either side of the photo you can see the glassed-in ramps descending from the platforms.

I deliberately hung back after leaving my train from Brussels, first to get photos of the train itself and then to get this shot of the famous "undercroft" without anyone in the photo. I'd barely snapped it when some official emerged and ordered me not to take photos. Sorry, too late.

The historical significance of the undercroft lies in the fact that the Midland Railway served some of Britain's major brewing towns, in particular Burton-on-Trent. Casks of beer coming into London on Midland trains would be unloaded and stored here in the undercroft prior to distribution to London's pubs. The undercroft would not have been seen by the general travelling public, nor would it have had such a genteel appearance.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/20 05:01 by railsmith.

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I've always wondered what was behind those very tall multi storey windows at the far left of my image.

A few more from more from after the restoration. The new extended train shed blocks any exterior view of the original shed. 

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This is the interior pre-Eurostar, taken in June 1988. By that time St Pancras was principally a station for medium and long distance services between London, the East Midlands and South Yorkshire. Virtually all commuter trains had been diverted via Thameslink to Blackfriars and other destinations to the south of London. This is a mail set with an 08 Gronk.

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andersonb109 Wrote:
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> A few more from more from after the restoration.
> The new extended train shed blocks any exterior
> view of the original shed. 

The shed can be seen when looking in the opposite direction from your first photo. I took the shot below standing outside the extension, roughly at the very right side of the first photo. From there I'm looking south, along the east side of the original station, which was nicely cleaned up for the project to accommodate Eurostar.

My photo is from 2014. At left is the Great Northern Hotel associated with neighbouring Kings Cross, and the view includes a trace of the very modern extension to Kings Cross that shifted the booking hall actvity to the west side of the station. What's seen here is the lip of the glass canopy around the edge of the extension, which abuts the hotel.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/20 01:53 by railsmith.

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Great photos. I’ll go back to 1981 when most Inter City passenger trains were ‘Peak’ hauled. Chris uk

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I'll add to the thread. Here are several from Tuesday September 24 2013. We took the East Midlands 1M66 to Kettering.

Jim

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DKay Wrote:
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> Thats a beautiful building.Almost like a church.

Indeed, it's like a cathedral to me.

No photo thread on St. Pancras would be complete without a shot of the statue of Sir John Betjeman, Britain's poet laureate, who led a campaign to save the station from demolition in the 1960s. What a sacrilege that would have been!

His name is also commemorated by a pub, the Betjeman Arms, in the southeast corner on the Eurostar level, from which I took the second photo. That was on a Sunday evening in 2009. I had several hours to kill before taking a sleeper train from Paddington, and this seemed a good place to while away the hours and get some food, drink and photos. The station was nearly deserted except for the brief intervals when a Eurostar drew in from the continent and disgorged its passengers. I stayed well after departure time for the last Eurostar, but one by one the sets would depart for the maintenance depot at Temple Mills, with their traction motor blowers making a surprising amount of noise in the empty cathedral.  For this railfan, it was a religious experience.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/20 22:56 by railsmith.

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