Exuberant gothic …or Adventures in the undercroft

First issued in Directions 47

The train shed was designed by Victorian engineer William Barlow and when St Pancras was originally completed in 1868 the station had the largest single-span roof in the world, 100 feet high at its apex. As a result of Betjeman’s campaigning, St Pancras was designated a Grade 1 listed building in 1967 and over forty years’ later his influence still resonates. Betjeman wrote:

… the great arc of Barlow’s train shed gaping to devour incoming engines, and the sudden burst of exuberant Gothic of the hotel…

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