St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel

St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel

St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel
Location within Central London
General information
Location Euston Road, London, England
Coordinates 51°31′48″N 0°07′31″W / 51.53000°N 0.12528°W / 51.53000; -0.12528Coordinates: 51°31′48″N 0°07′31″W / 51.53000°N 0.12528°W / 51.53000; -0.12528
Opening 2011
Owner Manhattan Loft Corporation
Management Marriott International
Height 82m (269ft) [1]
Design and construction
Architect George Gilbert Scott
Developer Manhattan Loft Corporation
Other information
Number of rooms 207[2]
Number of suites 38[2]
Number of restaurants 1
Website
Official website

The St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel is a hotel in London, England, forming the frontispiece of St Pancras railway station. It opened in 2011, and occupies much of the former Midland Grand Hotel designed by George Gilbert Scott which opened in 1873 and closed in 1935. The building as a whole including the apartments is known as St Pancras Chambers and between 1935 and the 1980s was used as railway offices.[3][4] Its clock tower stands at 82m tall, with more than half its height usable.[1]

The upper levels of the original building were redeveloped between 2005 and 2011 as apartments by the Manhattan Loft Corporation.[5]

The Midland Grand Hotel

In 1865 the Midland Railway Company held a competition for the design of a 150-bed hotel to be constructed next to its railway station, St Pancras, which was still under construction at the time. Eleven designs were submitted, including one by George Gilbert Scott, which, at 300 rooms, was much bigger and more expensive than the original specifications. Despite this, the company liked his plans and construction began.[6]

The east wing opened in 1873, and the rest followed in Spring 1876. The hotel was expensive, with costly fixtures including a grand staircase, rooms with gold leaf walls and a fireplace in every room. It had many innovative features such as hydraulic lifts, concrete floors, revolving doors and fireproof floor constructions, though (as was the convention of the time) none of the rooms had bathrooms.[6] The hotel was taken over by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1922 before closing in 1935, by which time its utilities were outdated and too costly to maintain, such as the armies of servants needed to carry chamber pots, tubs, bowls and spittoons.[6]

Rail use and preservation

After closing as a hotel, the building was renamed St Pancras Chambers and used as railway offices, latterly for British Rail. British Rail had hoped to demolish it, but was thwarted in a high-profile campaign by Jane Hughes Fawcett and her colleagues at the Victorian Society, a historic preservationist organisation founded in part to preserve the Victorian railways and other buildings.[7] Officials dubbed Jane Fawcett the "furious Mrs. Fawcett" for her unceasing efforts,[8] and in 1967, the Hotel and the St. Pancras station received Grade I listed status.[9]

The building continued its use as rail offices, until the 1980s when it failed fire safety regulations and was shut down.[6] The exterior was restored and made structurally sound at a cost of around £10 million in the 1990s.[6]

Reopening as hotel and apartments

Planning permission was granted in 2004 for the building to be redeveloped into a new hotel. The main public rooms of the old Midland Grand were restored, along with some of the bedrooms. The former driveway for taxis entering St. Pancras station, passing under the main tower of the building, was converted into the hotel's lobby. In order to cater for the more modern expectations of guests, a new bedroom wing was constructed on the western side of the Barlow train shed.[10] As redeveloped the hotel contains 244 bedrooms, 2 restaurants, 2 bars, a health and leisure centre, a ballroom, and 20 meeting and function rooms.[6] The architects for the redevelopment were Aedas RHWL.

At the same time, the upper floors of the original building were redeveloped as 68 apartments by the Manhattan Loft Corporation.[5]

The St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel opened on 14 March 2011 to guests; however, the formal Grand Opening was on 5 May – exactly 138 years after its original opening in 1873.[11][12]

Media appearances

In 1996, the music video for the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" was filmed in the entrance and main staircase of the building.[13] In 2003, the television series Most Haunted Live broadcast a live event from the building, the theme being "Peril in St. Pancras".

The hotel in 1928 
The new bedroom wing under construction 
George Gilbert Scott's Grand Staircase inside the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel 
Atrium of St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, formerly the taxi entry driveway to St. Pancras station 

References

  1. 1 2 Gerard Peet (2011). "The Origin of the Skyscraper". CTBUH. p. 23. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  2. 1 2 "St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel". 15 October 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014. Our luxury lifestyle hotel in London boasts 245 guest rooms, including 38 beautifully restored and updated suites.
  3. ↑ Pearman, Hugh (5 July 2009). "St Pancras: The right side of the tracks". The Times. London. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
  4. ↑ Lane, Thomas (22 May 2009). "Sleeping beauty awakes: the St Pancras Midland Grand hotel". building.co.uk. Archived from the original on 28 October 2010.
  5. 1 2 "St Pancras Chambers by Manhattan Loft Corporation". Manhattan Loft Corporation. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Midland Grand Hotel St Pancras". urban75. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
  7. ↑ "Jane Fawcett, Bletchley Decoder -- Obituary", The Daily Telegraph, 25 May 2016.
  8. ↑ Matt Schudel, "Jane Fawcett, British code-breaker During World War II, Dies at 95", Washington Post, 28 May 2016.
  9. ↑ Lefort, Rebecca (12 March 2011). "Inside London's lost landmark, the St Pancras Midland Grand hotel". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  10. ↑ "Before and after: historic buildings restored and transformed". Daily Telegraph.
  11. ↑ Mark Easton (5 May 2011). "A monument to the British craftsman". BBC. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  12. ↑ "In Pictures: Gothic St Pancras". BBC. 26 February 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  13. ↑ Sinclair, David (2004). Wannabe: How the Spice Girls Reinvented Pop Fame. Omnibus Press. p. 75. ISBN 0-7119-8643-6.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel and St Pancras Chambers.


Records
Preceded by
 		 Tallest Building in the United Kingdom
1869—1911
82m 		Succeeded by
Royal Liver Building
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