# St Pancras Hotel re-opens



## hendo (Feb 26, 2011)

Nice picture feature on the re-opening St Pancras Hotel.

Apparently has a smoking room for Ladies.


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## toblerone3 (Feb 26, 2011)

Will pop down for a drink in the bar when it opens.


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## London_Calling (Feb 26, 2011)

No smoking rooms these days. Ditto on the bar, or bars.


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## trashpony (Feb 26, 2011)

hendo said:


> Nice picture feature on the re-opening St Pancras Hotel.
> 
> Apparently has a smoking room for Ladies.



I heard that on the radio this morning and meant to go and have a look at the link so thanks. I want to go


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## editor (Feb 26, 2011)

Tis a beautiful building.


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## Bungle73 (Feb 26, 2011)

According that link it doesn't reopen until next month.



editor said:


> Tis a beautiful building.


 
And it almost got demolished, if it wasn't for a campaign led by John Betjeman (a statue of whom is located in the main station).


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## lang rabbie (Feb 27, 2011)

The most photographed bit of the restored decor - those gold fleurs-de-lys on a Pompeian red background in the spectacular staircase - isn't actually Victorian.   It is apparently a (remarkably sympathetic) later paint job. [Depending on your source it is late Edwardian or 1920s]


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## cybertect (Feb 27, 2011)

Bungle73 said:


> And it almost got demolished, if it wasn't for a campaign led by John Betjeman (a statue of whom is located in the main station).


 
Indeed




Bejamin by cybertect, on Flickr


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## ExtraRefined (Feb 28, 2011)

hendo said:


> Apparently has a smoking room for Ladies.



More civilised times


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## editor (Feb 28, 2011)

Here's a panorama of the unrestored smoking room: http://www.urban75.org/vista/st_pancras.html


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## Crispy (Feb 28, 2011)

London_Calling said:


> No smoking rooms these days. Ditto on the bar, or bars.


 
Heh, you should see the way the regs are being bent to allow this. One of the few exemptions to the law are Cigar Shops. So now all the fancy hotels are having cigar shops installed, some really quite elaborate.


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## davesgcr (Mar 2, 2011)

It was built with the best materials - Butterly Iron , Gripper bricks and Minton tiles (such was the optimism of the Midland Railway) - whereas Kings Cross was much lower specification. 

Course the undercroft was built in measurable units of a Burton beer barrel.


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## Oswaldtwistle (Mar 11, 2011)

editor said:


> Tis a beautiful building.



Certainly is 



davesgcr said:


> Course the undercroft was built in measurable units of a Burton beer barrel.



Was that the main route for Burton beer into the capital, then?

Rather than via Euston?


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## cybertect (Mar 11, 2011)

Oswaldtwistle said:


> Was that the main route for Burton beer into the capital, then?


 
The Midland Railway served Burton-on-Trent.


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## Bahnhof Strasse (Mar 13, 2011)

Can't wait to go in for a snoop. Love these pics: http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/th...-Meet-me-at-St-Pancras-quot?highlight=pancras


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## toblerone3 (Mar 19, 2011)

Its open now. People have  been going in for drinks and tours.


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## manny-p (Mar 19, 2011)

> Many victorian guests preferred the safety of the stairs to the hotel's hydraulic lifts. Although cutting edge for its age, the lift designers had not thought of doors, and people were killed falling into the open lift shaft.


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## zenie (Mar 22, 2011)

It looked amazing on the news this morning 

How much is a room though?!


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## Ivana Nap (Mar 22, 2011)

It is very impressive now the surrounds are down and it's in it's full glory, I walk past it twice a day. They have a bouncer at the end of the driveway even at 7am but I've not seen many people about.


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## zenie (Mar 22, 2011)

Ivana Nap said:


> It is very impressive now the surrounds are down and it's in it's full glory, I walk past it twice a day. They have a bouncer at the end of the driveway even at 7am but I've not seen many people about.


 
Do you mean a doormen/bellboy like they do most big hotels? Or is it a hench looking guy with a shaved head in shades?


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## Ivana Nap (Mar 22, 2011)

Probably the former but looks like the latter - all in black with shades on this morning, I'll check for the shaved head on my way home tonight.


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## Crispy (Mar 22, 2011)

zenie said:


> It looked amazing on the news this morning
> 
> How much is a room though?!


 
For a weeknight in August:

Barlow Room: £275
Barlow King: £300
Barlow Club: £375

Those are all in the new-build wing down the side of the train shed. To stay in the restored building you need to pay:

Chambers, Guest Room: £450
Chambers, Junior Suite: £650
Chambers Grand, Junior Suite: £950
Chambers Suite: £2,000
Chambers Bi-Level Suite: £2,500
Queen Victoria Suite: £3,000
Royal Suite: £10,000


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## London_Calling (Mar 22, 2011)

Named after  Deirdre or Tracy Barlow?


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## Crispy (Mar 22, 2011)

William, the train shed's engineer.


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## London_Calling (Mar 22, 2011)

He wasn't even in Corrie.


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## Bungle73 (Mar 22, 2011)

Ivana Nap said:


> It is very impressive now the surrounds are down and it's in it's full glory, I walk past it twice a day. They have a bouncer at the end of the driveway even at 7am but I've not seen many people about.


 
Does that mean you can't enter the actual station from the original entrance (facing Euston Road) any more?


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## JHE (Mar 22, 2011)

I went into the hotel some years ago (5? 6? more?) when there was an exhibition/sale by some artists, one of whom I knew.  The hotel had obviously been disused for a long time and was very dilapidated.  You could see, though, that it had been very grand in its day.  I'm glad it's been done up and has reopened.

The only problem is...



Crispy said:


> For a weeknight in August:
> 
> Barlow Room: £275
> Barlow King: £300
> ...


 
Ooof!  Kinell!  It doesn't seem likely I'll be staying there unless I win the lottery or something.

Still... when I go to London I arrive at St Pancras and I think I might just pop in and see if there's a bar where someone will sell a pint to a slightly scruffy and impecunious visitor.


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## toblerone3 (Mar 23, 2011)

New reception rooms are really beautiful. I had a talk with the security staff on the door today. They seemed alright. Looking forward to a big night out here sometime in the next year.


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## toblerone3 (Mar 23, 2011)




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## toblerone3 (Mar 23, 2011)

The bar ain't open to the public for a couple of weeks though yet.


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## London_Calling (Mar 23, 2011)

When you take everything into account - the new pedestrain square between Euston and St P, the new facade of Euston, the immense residential and office redevelopment around the back, St P station itself (Eurostar, etc) - it's quite the regeneration spot. Spectacular, tbf.


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## Ivana Nap (Mar 23, 2011)

Bungle73 said:


> Does that mean you can't enter the actual station from the original entrance (facing Euston Road) any more?


 
If you drive over the bouncer you can , they have to move the VIP rope poles at the moment to let in traffic, I suppose when it opens properly that will all be opened up but they don't even seem to have finished the main front door from Euston Rd yet. 


And yes, the bouncer on this morning did have a shaved head.


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## Retrorhythm (Mar 24, 2011)

This has always been one of my favourite London buildings, and it's great to see it being used for its intended purpose again. They've done a really impressive restoration of the Grand Staircase:




More here


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## lang rabbie (Mar 27, 2011)

The thing I shall miss most following the tarting up of St Pancras is the old cab exit into Midland Road with that wonderful unlit double twist tunnel barely large enough to get a taxicab through.  As a kid I pondered that it could actually be a wormhole in the space-time continuum and you would emerge from the darkness in a Hansom cab driving through the streets of Sherlock Holmes' London.


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## Giles (Mar 27, 2011)

I remember reading somewhere that when the building was getting really run down, and partially used as cheap office / storage space for the railway, that as the top floors suffered from more and more roof leaks, rotten window-frames and other problems, they didn't fix them, just retreated further down the building and gave up on it, a floor at a time! 

Because they saw it as destined for eventual demolition, and so weren't going to spend any money on the fabric of the building.

It is good to see it fully restored after coming so close to demolition. Will have to pop into the  bar for a (probably very expensive) drink some time.

Giles..


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## twentythreedom (Mar 27, 2011)

Should have an urban75 meet-up there I reckon


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## Mapped (Apr 20, 2011)

The bar is now open to Joe public, I just used it for a quick meeting. It's nice, lots of dark wood, fairly posh and coffee is £3.


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## quimcunx (Apr 20, 2011)

Retrorhythm said:


> This has always been one of my favourite London buildings, and it's great to see it being used for its intended purpose again. They've done a really impressive restoration of the Grand Staircase:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
Am I  a bad person if I think that's horrible?


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## TitanSound (Apr 20, 2011)

twentythreedom said:


> Should have an urban75 meet-up there I reckon


 
We'll be chucked out within 10 minutes.


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## temper_tantrum (Apr 20, 2011)

N1 Buoy said:


> The bar is now open to Joe public, I just used it for a quick meeting. It's nice, lots of dark wood, fairly posh and coffee is £3.


 
OOooooooh YES, thanks for saying. I've been planning a date there ever since I heard it was gonna re-open. Will drag someone along


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## editor (May 10, 2011)

Low drama at St Pancras with a brown bowler hatted football stand off
http://www.urban75.org/blog/st-pancras-brown-bowler-hatted-football-stand-off/


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## London_Calling (May 10, 2011)

Bloke on the left looks like he's concealing one of those bollards in a very personal space.


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## marty21 (May 10, 2011)

walked past it yesterday - it looks great!


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## davesgcr (May 11, 2011)

What is now the shopping and ticketing area , was the beer store (beer came in trainloads from Burton) - BR filled the area with file storeage in the old paper based railway - there was of course , tons and tons of it. An ex colleauage was a claims "detective" and spent many hours down  there trying to find matching paper work on staff records and so on. He described it as one of the scariest and dirtiest places on the railway.

I had some staff who worked for me , who were taken on in the late 1940's and early 50's who were recruited by the then Divisonal Operating Superindent at St Pancras Chambers - course when they retired , I got their personal staff files out to find out a bit about their career history , and I thumbed through many priceless letters , interviews and test results which were carried out by these young hopefulls in this building. (trouble is , I enjoyed reading the records too much !) - all part of social history (and of course preserved in the archives elsewhere in the UK)


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