St Pancras Station

Today I had organised a walking tour for the parents arts society around St Pancras Station, Kings Cross Station and Regents Canal. I could not have chosen a better day for it as it was sunny and very warm, everyone had their jackets off and it got very hot sitting in the sun at lunchtime.

St Pancras must rate as one of the better railway stations in the world - as one French person on the tour said, it cannot be compared to Gare du Nord which is so ugly and dirty by comparison. St Pancras would compare favourably with any of the upmarket shopping malls, it has such a wide selection of classy shops and restaurants and then also happens to be a domestic and international railway station.

This is a bronze statue of the former poet laureate Sir John Betjeman, depicted gazing in apparent wonder at the Barlow roof. Designed by British sculptor Martin Jennings, the statue commemorates the poet's successful campaign to save the station from demolition in the 1960s. After it escaped the planned demolition, the complex was renovated and expanded from 2001 to 2007 at a cost of £800 million, culminating in a ceremony attended by Queen Elizabeth.

The area around Kings Cross station is currently undergoing extensive expansion and development, notably the development of an enormous office site for the London headquarters of Google for its 7000 employees - which is going ahead despite any reservations regarding Brexit. What was once an underused industrial wasteland is being transformed into a new part of the city with homes, shops, offices, galleries, bars, restaurants, schools, and even a university. It’s a whole new piece of London with a brand new postcode – N1C

It was a fascinating walking tour and all the better for the glorious sunny day today which felt like summer.