Customer Reviews

St Pancras Station (Wonders of the World)

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This slim book, published around the time that St Pancras was re-opening as the new hub for Eurostar trains from London to the continent is perfectly pitched as a treasure trove of history about this station - the greatest of the London termini. You might think this book would only appeal to retired history teachers and train spotters, but it has actually sold by the thousands. Aided in no small part by being published by savvy boutique publisher Profile books who specialise in turbo boosting surprising titles to literary success (most especially Eats, Shoots and Leaves).

The author Simon Bradley is clearly an affecionado of the architecture of St Pancras, detailing in technological mastery the famous Scott arch. But he also has time to look at the history of the hotel, with dollops of Victorian social history and the development of the railways as well.

He doesn't spare us his prejudices (classical architecture over modernism) and is clearly doubtful at the end over the juxtaposition of the flying carpet roof extension - a piece of modern design that abuts out of the classic arch in complete contrast to the existing station. Still, the changes did allow St Pancras to survive and thrive in the 21st Century (it was threatened with closure in the 1960s - a mad, bad decade for architecture).