St Pancras - loved and unloved
St Pancras Station has been rescued. It’s a glorious architectural work - a huge glass and cast iron roof, with a stunning Victorian Gothic entrance and an amazing undercroft (now only accessible to Eurostar passengers).
When William Henry Barlow set up the train shed, it was the largest single span structure ever built. The lovely pale eggshell blue of the painted ironwork and the fine curves of the roof are still one of London’s great sights.
In front of the station, the Midland Grand Hotel by Giles Gilbert Scott looks like a mixture of Addams family haunted house and fairy tale castle. Scott mixed eclectic elements of Gothic style from France and Italy to create a highly decorative, polychrome exterior.
But unfortunately though the train shed has been preserved, the whole townscape behind St Pancras and King’s Cross has been destroyed. All the gasometers are gone except one (though some are apparently in storage, broken down into pieces) - and if you think a gasometer can’t be beautiful, go and have a look at it. The classical detailing is every bit as fine as if it were a Renaissance palace. All the little buildings tucked in the railway have been razed, and instead we’re going to get some great new office buildings, just like anywhere else in London.
And the Culross Buildings are coming down, too. Here they are, surrounded by barbed wire, unloved and condemned. No, this isn’t a listed building and it’s not as fine as the train shed, but it’s a fine little building in its way - look at that lovely yellow-brown brick where the sun has caught it, and the touches of red brick that give it definition and articulation. This 1890s building encapsulates the spirit of late Victorian London - dignity, a certain plainness, and the use of that lovely brickwork.
I was quite impressed at first by the restoration of St Pancras station. But the hypocrisy and the high level of spin involved in restoring one Victorian building while making away with an entire urban landscape right next to it is appalling. If the developers really cared about the architectural heritage, the Culross buildings and the gasometers would have been saved.
Photos: Andrea Kirkby
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