Tuesday, March 29, 2011

St Pancras Station, London

A Victorian masterpiece, the former Midland Grand Hotel, now restored to its full glory as a five star hotel, is extravagantly romantic and breathtakingly beautiful, a sheer red brick fantasy. 
Richard Day's bronze statue The Meeting Place is enticingly suggestive: are they parting or are they reuniting? The tenderness is palpable.  A fitting statue at the entrance to the Eurostar terminal.
John Betjeman's statue stands proud under the railway arches, with the Olympic 2012 rings and the famous St Pancras International clock in the background.  JB, a famous poet and a railway enthusiast, was instrumental in saving St Pancras from demolition in the 1960's.  Such a visionary.