It's a busy life being Queen. In the morning you go to the Houses of Parliament in your gold coach and read out a tedious speech to cynical MPs, and in the evening you get to reopen a station. Not just any station though, this was St Pancras, surely the most magnificent rail terminus in London. Over the last few years its soaring glass roof and Victorian brickwork have all been painstakingly restored ready for the arrival of Eurostar services next week, and last night the Queen officiated at the officialreopening ceremony. Two Gothic masterpieces in one day.
Once only the great and good were allowed to attend opening ceremonies, but things have changed. This time we were all invited, and we didn't even have to leave the house and sit on a draughty platform. All we had to do was log on to a streaming webcast, kindly provided by development partners London & Continental Railways, and we could watch all the festivities for ourselves. If only the Queen had thought to do the same she could have saved all that dressing up, and watching rather a lot of promotional videos too.
In an inspired piece of stagemanship St Pancras's Master of Ceremonies for the evening was William Henry Barlow, the engineer who constructed the great vaulting train shed. Not the real WHB, obviously, because he died a century ago, but Victorian lookalike actor Timothy West. In his top hat and trademark whiskers he delivered a well-disguised history lesson recounting the trials and triumphs of the station's construction. His audio-visual presentation went on a bit, but it had been good to give the original builders due respect for their architectural innovation. Eventually somebody out of sight flicked a big switch and all the lights came on. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra fiddled and scraped, and the assembled dignitaries applauded politely.
Further schmaltzy muzak heralded the arrival of a trio of Eurostar & Javelin trains. A billowing cloud of dry ice obscured most of their entrance, but the three nosecones eventually poked through the mist to give a really good view of the name of a train manufacturer's website plastered across the front. There followed several further films on the big video wall erected for the occasion. Some concentrated on the legacy that the High Speed 1 link will bring to East London and to Kent, while others were shameless promotional epics which you could easily imagine being screened during a Channel 4 commercial break. "Mr Barlow" linked each together by following a well-plotted script, although occasionally this sounded more appropriate to a very posh shopping centre than an international station. Rail and retail - such a dual-purposed fate will be the future of split personality St Pancras.
At last Her Majesty strode up to the lectern to deliver her speech. She sounded almost convincing as she spoke of "bringing people together" and looking forward to the 2012 Olympics. But there were just a few too many marketing buzzphrases slipped into her words. I bet that London & Continental Railways' chief PR guru had a minor orgasm when he heard the sovereign describe St Pancras as "not just as a station but as a destination". This particular word has been at the heart of St Pancras's mission statement for several years, and here was the Queen giving it her unbiased endorsement. Ah yes, this was less an opening ceremony and more a celebratory rebranding.
Who more perfect to sing the praises of the new station than cosy opera diva Katherine Jenkins? She warbled her way through a short medley of Beatles songs (mainly Ticket To Ride, of course), accompanied by popstrel Lemar for added R&B cool. A series of multi-coloured lights duly blazed across the roof of the Barlow Shed, and the great clock on the wall ticked round to "just over an hour since the ceremony began". Time for beardy William to bid us farewell, and for the VIPs to head downstairs for "supper in the undercroft". I'm sure that Gordon and Boris and Ken and Liz enjoyed their grand evening out, witnessing the glorious rebirth of a great Victorian architectural treasure. I sort of enjoyed watching it, even without the canapes afterwards, but it wasn't quite the same as actually being there. The public are invited back inside St Pancras next Wednesday for the first day's services and some special celebratory arty stuff (and, the owners hope, lots of shopping and drinking too). I'm looking forward to going back. Meet you there?
It's a busy life being Queen. In the morning you go to the Houses of Parliament in your gold coach and read out a tedious speech to cynical MPs, and in the evening you get to reopen a station. Not just any station though, this was St Pancras, surely the most magnificent rail terminus in London. Over the last few years its soaring glass roof and Victorian brickwork have all been painstakingly restored ready for the arrival of Eurostar services next week, and last night the Queen officiated at the official reopening ceremony. Two Gothic masterpieces in one day.
