More scaffolding on the south side of the original trainshed. For those of you interested in staying
somewhere close to the station for at least one night come 2008, there will be a new luxury 5-star
hotel waiting for your custom!
St. Pancras Chambers, as this part of London St. Pancras is known, used to be a luxury hotel for the
customers of Midland Railway from 1873 until 1935. In the 1960's, British Rail made the chambers their
offices and were planning a Euston-style conversion of the station (ie. demolish the beautiful architecture
and replace it with loads of ugly concrete; or just demolish the chambers), but luckily their plans never
came to fruition.
Since then, the chambers failed their fire certificate in 1985 and had also undergone changes to their
stucture (make it sound) and also were made weatherproof, courtesy of English Heritage. Plans for a hotel
in the chambers were produced by the Manhattan Loft Corporation and were given the go-ahead
earlier this year. From January of next year the work will begin, and come 2008, you can check it out!

Picture taken: 26th March 2005
Author: Edward Sloley
E-mail address: edward.sloley@ntlworld.com