The Ozymandias Complex

By Neil Matthews

Editor's Note: This article was written following a TravelSIG visit to St Pancras Chambers, formerly the Midland Grand Hotel, in 1997. At that time, the future of the building was uncertain. Now, it is restored to former glory as the Renaissance Hotel. 

There are surely few more depressing sights than a once-proud building fallen into disrepair. St Pancras Chambers, formerly the Midland Grand Hotel, is a prime example and was a good subject for a recent TravelSlG event. Twenty two people, including a number of London Mensans, gathered in the heart of London on May 10 for a stimulating guided tour.

The origins of the hotel lie in the great days of rail travel, back in the nineteenth century. A London terminus was an attractive option for the various competing railway firms and the Midland Railway Company had not acted quickly enough to secure one of the most attractive sites viz. King's Cross or Euston. So the company opted for St. Pancras. At the same time, Midland decided to build a Station Hotel bigger and better than those already in existence. Sir George Gilbert Scott won a competition to design the new hotel - which would also be the Midland's headquarters.

By October 1, 1868, when the first train ran into St Pancras, work on the new hotel was well underway and the first part of the hotel was opened in 1873 - there were both technological and financial obstacles to overcome. The hotel prospered until the 1914-18 war, after which the railway system was depleted. It gradually ceased to be viable as a hotel and was converted in 1935 to office use - it was used by British Rail in later years. It was closed in 1980 after failing its fire certificate inspection, but was a Grade I listed building. BR has spent over £10 million restoring the outside of the building (but only £130,000 has been spent on the inside to date).

The inside is something of a curiosity. Scott was essentially a Church architect and this shows in the dramatic Grand Staircase and the vaulted ceiling of blue spangled with gold stars. There are also allegorical paintings of the Virtues and of railway heraldry. Yet various parts of the inside are a jumble of architectural styles, from Baroque to Gothic to Romanesque. Some of the red Devonshire limestone is so highly polished that it passes for marble to the casual glance. There is an array of fine metalwork and the hotel also used the recent invention of "ascending chambers", namely water-powered lifts!

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the old Hotel is its possible future. As with the design of the building, this will be decided by competition - this time, run by the current owners, London & Continental Stations As St. Pancras becomes the London link to the Channel Tunnel early in the next century, the building could be used in a number of ways, most obviously as a hotel again. Due to its size, it may have more than one use - what odds on it becoming the home of the promised successor to the Greater London Council ...?

First published in VISA issue 25 (summer 1997).