Part 3 – St Pancras Transformed: The Story of Britain’s Greatest Railway Building

Lecture Summary:

St Pancras Station is a landmark of Victorian engineering and architecture, celebrated for its awe-inspiring train shed designed by William Barlow and the opulent Midland Grand Hotel by George Gilbert Scott. Its regeneration in the 21st century restored the grandeur of the original structure while modernizing it for contemporary use, blending historical preservation with cutting-edge design. This transformation underscores the enduring significance of St Pancras as both a symbol of Victorian ambition and a model of adaptive reuse, bridging the past and present in Britain’s railway heritage.

Speaker: Simon Bradley

Biography

Simon Bradley is joint editor of the Pevsner Architectural Guides series (Yale University Press), for which he has written several revised volumes covering London and the English counties, including Oxfordshire: Oxford and the South East (2023). His other books include a study of St Pancras station (2011), and two larger works of railway history, The Railways: Nation, Network and People (2015) and Bradley’s Railway Guide (2024).