London St Pancras International railway station (London)

London's primary Eurostar rail terminal.
It was built as the terminus of the Midland Main Line, which runs to Luton and its airport, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield. There are also trains to Leeds Barnsley and soon Lincoln and Corby which use this route. However, it has now been developed for Eurostar's international services to Paris and Brussels, and future High Speed services to Kent which will use this line.

The most famous feature of the station is its facade, which used to be the Midland Grand Hotel. Built of neo-gothic, it is currently being converted back to a modern hotel, as the old hotel closed in 1935. Beyond it is the iron trainshed, which is equally celebrated, and has 6 platforms within it. Below are the former beer cellars which now have shops and facilities for international passengers. The northern extension has the remaining terminus platforms. It contains the concourse, a market, many shops and facilities for domestic passengers.

The station at present has 10 platforms, and will ultimately be 15:

1-4: Midland Main Line, provided by East Midlands Trains. These are located at the western end of the new building.
5-10: International High Speed One, provided by Eurostar. These are located in the Barlow trainshed and extend into the new building.
11-13: Future Domestic High Speed One which will be provided by Southeastern.
Lower level: Two platforms which will be used by Thameslink services from First Capital Connect: these run northbound to Luton and Bedford and southbound to Brighton and Sutton.

Additionally, major work is ongoing at King's Cross St. Pancras tube station to link the various station entrances to two new ticket halls for London Underground and reduce overcrowding.

The station will be the terminus for the Olympic Javelin, a seven minute shuttle service that will ferry spectators between Central London and the London Olympic Park in Stratford during the 2012 Olympic Games.

Fictional uses
St Pancras station doubles as the residence of the Asgardian gods in Douglas Adams' novel The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.

In the story "Gordon Goes Foreign" from The Eight Famous Engines, a foreign engine visiting Sodor argues with Gordon and Duck about London's station. Gordon says it's King's Cross, Duck says it's Paddington, and the visitor says it's Euston. When events transpire leading Gordon to take a train to London, he is disappointed to find that it's St. Pancras.

www.stpancras.com
 railway terminusGrade I Listed (UK)
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Pancras_railway_station
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:  51°31'54"N -0°7'35"E
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Comments

  • Very nice building
  • When the Midland Railway chose the site to build the station, there were several houses and a cemetery on the site. Ironically, for the cemetery they had to pay the famillies of the dead to move the dead people out to another burial places. But with the living people in the houses, they just chucked them out! It seemed the Victorians cared more about the dead than the living!
This article was last modified 3 years ago