The Telegraph & Argus calls St. Pancras London a lavish five-star historic masterpiece

ONE of the most imposing sights when you arrive by train at Kings Cross from Yorkshire is the sweeping neo-gothic St Pancras London hotel façade in Midland red brick with its fantastical turrets and spires.

I often imagine what might have replaced it if British Rail bosses had got their way and demolished it in the 1960s. Back then, concrete brutalism reigned. Thankfully, railway enthusiast and poet John Betjeman and the Victorian Society fought to save architect Sir George Gilbert Scott’s masterpiece that opened as the Midland Grand Hotel in 1873. It’s safe now – through Grade I listed status.

Later, the decaying pile earned cult status. One of the world’s most beautiful staircases starred in the Spice Girls’ music video Wannabe, as Hogwarts staircase in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Batman Begins. The hotel reopened in 2011 and joined the Autograph Collection last year.