When I lived in Bedford, St Pancras was my gateway to London. Trains from the East Midlands would crawl to a halt beneath its grimy roof and out we'd pour, dwarfed and overshadowed by the dark arched ceiling above. There was nothing much to see beyond the buffers, just a few destination boards, a ticket office and a WH Smiths. And a choice of exits. Either out via a grim twisty staircase in the far corner down to Kings Cross tube station, or else depart through the main arched entrance, dodging the black cabs nipping out onto the Euston Road. And there was all of London spread out before us - a traffic jam, a bureau de change and a McDonalds. Not the greatest welcome to the capital.
Today's first international arrivals at St Pancras will get a very different experience. They'll glide in to gleaming new platforms between freshly scrubbed Victorian brickwork. They'll alight from their carriages beneath a freshly-restored sky-blue roof. They'll exit down gently-sloping escalators into the undercroft where they'll be growled at by wand-waving security guards. And then they'll exit into an upmarket shopping centre selling diamond jewellery, cufflinks and croissants. There's still a traffic jam and a McDonalds outside, that much hasn't changed. But give it time.
The first Eurostar train from St Pancras to Paris is due to set off just after 11:00 this morning. Expect a host of celebs and CIPs to be on the inaugural service, followed by some real people on the first timetabled train a few minutes later. But half the station is open already. Passengers for Bedford and beyond have been using the glassy first floor extension at the rear of the station for a couple of years (and suffering a terribly long walk in the process). I climbed the Midland Mainline escalator last weekend to take a few photos of the new station, and to gawp appreciably at the spectacular engineering work that has brought this old station back to life. That enormous roof, it really is something else. That ornate orangey-brown brickwork, it looks more like 140 days old than 140 years. Those glass interior walls, they really do bring a sense of openness and space. All that was really missing on Saturday were the trains. Now that they've arrived, the wooden barriers have come down and the remainder of the station has finally reopened to the public, I'm sure that London and the rest of Europe will be duly impressed.
When I lived in Bedford, St Pancras was my gateway to London. Trains from the East Midlands would crawl to a halt beneath its grimy roof and out we'd pour, dwarfed and overshadowed by the dark arched ceiling above. There was nothing much to see beyond the buffers, just a few destination boards, a ticket office and a WH Smiths. And a choice of exits. Either out via a grim twisty staircase in the far corner down to Kings Cross tube station, or else depart through the main arched entrance, dodging the black cabs nipping out onto the Euston Road. And there was all of London spread out before us - a traffic jam, a bureau de change and a McDonalds. Not the greatest welcome to the capital.
Today's first international arrivals at St Pancras will get a very different experience. They'll glide in to gleaming new platforms between freshly scrubbed Victorian brickwork. They'll alight from their carriages beneath a freshly-restored sky-blue roof. They'll exit down gently-sloping escalators into the undercroft where they'll be growled at by wand-waving security guards. And then they'll exit into an upmarket shopping centre selling diamond jewellery, cufflinks and croissants. There's still a traffic jam and a McDonalds outside, that much hasn't changed. But give it time.
The first Eurostar train from St Pancras to Paris is due to set off just after 11:00 this morning. Expect a host of celebs and CIPs to be on the inaugural service, followed by some real people on the first timetabled train a few minutes later. But half the station is open already. Passengers for Bedford and beyond have been using the glassy first floor extension at the rear of the station for a couple of years (and suffering a terribly long walk in the process). I climbed the Midland Mainline escalator last weekend to take a few photos of the new station, and to gawp appreciably at the spectacular engineering work that has brought this old station back to life. That enormous roof, it really is something else. That ornate orangey-brown brickwork, it looks more like 140 days old than 140 years. Those glass interior walls, they really do bring a sense of openness and space. All that was really missing on Saturday were the trains. Now that they've arrived, the wooden barriers have come down and the remainder of the station has finally reopened to the public, I'm sure that London and the rest of Europe will be duly impressed.
