Pictures of St Pancras

About St Pancras

St. Pancras is perhaps best known for being one of the two principal Railway Stations in London, the other being Euston. The station lies close to King's Cross and is connected to the Northern, Piccadilly Circle, Metropolitan and Victoria lines of London's vast underground network of rail lines.

The railway station was one of the two most celebrated structures of the region built in Victorian Britain. It had the largest single span structure railway shed built at that time, this is now known as the Barlow Train-shed, commemorating its engineer William Henry Barlow. The other building is what was once the impressive Midland Grand Hotel, one of the finest examples of Victorian-Gothic architecture, built to a design by architect George Gilbert Scott. This building is now known as St. Pancras Chambers, it contains many remarkable features from when it was first built, including a grand staircase and marble columns.

The name of the area is taken from the boy martyred in AD 304. Pancras was the orphaned Christian son of a Phrygian nobleman who was brought up at the court of the Emperor in Rome. He was decapitated at the age of 14 for refusing to betray his Christian faith, and later near the spot where he was executed a Basilica was built in his honour.

The London Church of St. Pancras is believed to have been built some ten years after the events in Rome, with the present church following a rebuild of medieval times and of 1848. Today's church still stands in the historic churchyard on St.Pancras Road, behind the railway station.

St.Pancras is an area full of hotels, many of these occupy elegant buildings of earlier centuries, some pre-dating Victorian times. The area is close to all of London's great historic attractions, its great shopping, theatres and lively night life. It is the ideal place to choose to stay for a weekend while you discover all this magnificent English capital has to offer.