St Pancras Station and Former Midland Grand Hotel, St Pancras and Somers Town, London

Description

CAMDEN

TQ3082NW EUSTON ROAD
798-1/90/421 (North side)
07/11/67 St Pancras Station and former
Midland Grand Hotel
(Formerly Listed as:
EUSTON ROAD
St Pancras Station (incl. train
shed, Chambers & ancillary buildings)

GV I

Railway terminus and hotel, comprising train shed, terminus
facilities and offices, ancillary buildings, taxi stand,
warehousing: including substructure and storage areas to sides
and rear, and structures to the forecourt.
Station, 1865-1869; former Midland Grand Hotel, 1868-76, both
by George Gilbert Scott. Train shed, 1865-8 by William Henry
Barlow (engineer). Deep red Gripper's patent Nottingham bricks
with Ancaster stone dressings and shafts of grey and red
Peterhead granite; slated roofs renewed in 1994 in carefully
diminishing courses.
STYLE: monumental, picturesquely composed Gothic Revival
building of 23 windows flanked by towers and a curved 10
window wing to the west.
EXTERIOR: 4 main storeys with 2 extra storeys in the roof lit
by stacks of gabled dormers. Station entered through 2
pointed, vaulted vehicle arches, flanked by pedestrian arches,
one in the left hand tower and one to the right. Arches with
recessed, elaborately patterned cast-iron pedestrian
footbridges with cast-iron plate tracery windows on foliated
cast-iron brackets. Hotel facade with round-arched ground
floor openings linked by impost bands; 2nd floor, pointed
2-light windows with plate tracery & colonnettes; 3rd floor,
cusped with colonnettes; 4th floor, arcaded windows of 3
lights. Articulated vertically and horizontally with strings
and with much elaborate carving. Lombard frieze below
balustraded parapet. Western curve similar to south elevation
of west range, that nearest Euston Road with elaborate stepped
gable over right hand entrance bay with similar gable.
South-east tower with 2-storey oriel, gabled clocks on each
face with pinnacles at each corner and spire. Left hand tower,
3 storeys of elaborately arcaded windows above the entrance
with Lombard friezes and bartizans with spires at angles.
Mansard roof with gabled windows to the south; other sides
with gables and chimneys. Main hotel entrance on end of curve
to Euston Road; arcaded porte-cochere above which 3 cusped
arches with small gabled roofs. Carved, stepped gable above
balustraded parapet flanked by turrets with spires and gables
over pointed windows.
West return elevation along Midland Road: first 3 bays
reproduce elevation found on principal facade. After the first
three bays of the return, the long elevation angles back to
follow the line of Midland Road with 8-window range followed
by a full height stepped gabled range marking the line of the
grand staircase. Former entrance from Midland Road simplified:
on first floor level above three segmental arches filled with
traceried windows; above this rising nearly to the top of the
gable is tripartite light with stone tracery.
This system of fenestration continues for one bay to the north
at which point the elevation begins to step down towards the
ancillary railway buildings to the north.
4 storeys over basement terminating in a corbelled parapet, a
total of 6 window ranges comprised of 2 and 3-light
double-height windows. 3-storey polygonal wing set between 2
storey blocks, that block to the right having one window range
and that to the left with 3-window range. St Pancras Station
is unusual in retaining a good deal of its related former
warehousing facilities. These are concentrated to the north of
the Hotel along Midland Road and Pancras Road, located at and
below track level. Although the elevation to Midland Road is
quite varied, a consistent feature is the pointed blind arcade
to ground floor.
Towards the Euston Road end there is a set-back which also has
blind pointed arcade; this section runs for roughly 11 bays of
the arched ground-floor structure. More elaborate 2-storey
structure of 8 window range with a flat arched opening for
vehicles consisting of a wrought-iron lintel set in the fifth
window range. To either side of this entrance the pointed
blinded arcade previously noted is continued.
Continuing north along Midland Road, there is another
carriageway entrance: a pointed arch with wooden doors and
hinges of original design. There follows railway arches Nos 17
through 25. To the first floor of this range is a blind
pointed arch arcade. Railway arches 14, 15 and 16 have been
rebuilt. Railway arches 4 through 9 have received a
first-floor brick addition.
Pancras Road elevation to the east.
Hotel elevation: the design of the main elevation continues
for 5 window ranges along the return, concluding in an
octagonal turret. On the east flank of the train shed a
2-storey structure with a lean-to roof, numbering Nos 9-91
Pancras Road. It is roofed in slate and on alternate bays
there are stacks. This structure has a 45-window range. At the
north it curves slightly. The elevation of every bay is
identical: on the ground floor a pointed segmental arch
carried on plain piers rebated to accommodate attached
columns. Above is a pointed arched window set in a shallow
pointed recess; all of the openings and recesses linked by a
carved impost. Many of the original shopfronts to the railway
arches survive intact. Also surviving are carriageway arches
to storage vaults under the station, originally for Burton
beer; these have double wooden doors with original ironwork,
grilles and hinges. North of No.91, the elevation steps up to
a tower with a blind arcade near the top. The substructure of
the station continues northwards to the first railway bridge.
The ground floor being articulated into bays pierced by
pointed arches. This arrangement continues to No.111. There is
an additional blind arch, formerly a carriageway, north of
this. There are 4 rectangular chimneys on the parapet line of
Nos 93 to 111. The original shopfronts have been altered,
though the structure itself is intact. Drinking fountain
comprising gabled stone block with granite eared and
shouldered inscribed aedicule having a semicircular basin.
Station approached by dramatic ramp rising from the western
end with arcaded retaining wall having inset shops. Ramp
gained by steps from the eastern end with pair of original
iron gates at the foot and bollards.
25-bay train shed a single 240 foot span in cast-iron arched
braces manufactured by the Butterley Iron Company (dated 1867)
and tied together by the floor girders of the station floor
which is effectively at 1st floor level. Ribs in the form of
pointed arches and whole structure supported under the
platform floor by a grid of iron columns; the structure of the
space was determined by the module of the Burton beer barrel.
Screen wall between concourse and hotel with pointed arch,
plate traceried windows which continue along the sides of the
shed at the southern end.
INTERIORS: booking hall: rectangular in plan and having 6 bays
and double height. Linenfold panelling to ground floor level
dates to the 1880s as does the curving wood screen of the
ticket office. Elaborately carved corbels to serving as
springers for former vaulting. The elevations of the booking
hall on north, south, east and west intact, that of greatest
interest to the east since it features 2 double-height, glazed
pointed arches with mullions and transoms: the glazing pattern
of original design; this forms a screen wall between the
booking hall and the platform. To west, decorative cast-iron
glazed canopy to taxi rank, narrow exit under arch to Midland
Road (qv). At east of concourse, Ladies' lavatories with
tiling and early C20 fittings.
Former hotel: painted decoration begun late in 1872 by
Frederick Sang at the suggestion of Scott; in December of 1873
Sang was replaced by Gillow and Co., who were also supplying
the furniture and fittings to the Hotel. Andrew Benjamin
Donaldson, a painter, oversaw the completion of the interior
decorations for Gillow and himself painted the figures at the
top of the grand staircase in 1876-77. By the summer of 1877
the interiors were largely complete. The interiors were
redecorated when electric light was installed between 1885 and
1889, the overseeing architects being Trubshaw and Towles.
This affected most of the principal public rooms; the entrance
hall from Euston Road and the lounge above did retain the
painted decoration from the first half of the 1870s. The
500-bedroomed hotel closed in 1935 and was used as offices but
has retained many original features, fixings and fittings
including tiles in fine ecclesiastical Gothic and Queen Anne
Revival styles. There are several interiors of exceptional
architectural interest. The entrance hall of Euston Road in
the west wing and the ladies' saloon above are said to have
been decorated by F Sang. Saloon with arcaded paired columns,
trabeated ceilings and other decorations, with balcony over
entrance. The Grand Staircase, also in the west wing, is of
stone supported on exposed and decorated cast-iron. It is set
in a rib-vaulted well, the spandrels to the vaults filled with
paintings of the virtues dressed in medieval and classicising
garb with the spandrel to the east depicting the arms of the
Midland Railway (being consolidated and restored at time of
inspection in September 1994). The Coffee Room on the ground
floor of the west wing has a crescent-shaped, square-ended
plan. It was altered with an overlay of Classical ornament in
the late C19 or possibly early C20, but many of the original
elements survive, the cornices and ceilings protected behind
later partitioning and false ceilings. Main staircase the most
dramatic space, the stone treads supported on exposed and
expressed cast-iron beams.
HISTORICAL NOTE: St Pancras was the terminus of the Midland
Railway and when built was the largest station roof in the
world without internal supports. In terms of both architecture
and engineering, it has claim to be Britain's most impressive
station. Dramatic roof line with gables and spires forms an
important landmark.
(Hunter M and Thorne R: Change at King's Cross: London: -1990:
65-74).

Listing NGR: TQ2980782564

External Links

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