A Look Inside The Stunning St Pancras Renaissance Hotel

The St Pancras Renaissance Hotel is a truly iconic landmark and one of the finest examples of Victorian architecture in London.

I recently went on a fantastic tour of the hotel, read on for the history and my tour highlights.

The Arrival Of The Railway

In 1862, the Midland Railway company, who already ran a network of railways in the midlands, commissioned their own railway line into London. The main motivation behind the project was to be able to transport coal and other goods into the city.

Construction finished on the new railway line and station in 1865. A competition was subsequently launched to design a hotel for the station with a grand frontage onto Euston Road.

The Midland Grand Hotel

The most extravagant (and expensive) plan was put forward by the prolific gothic-revival architect George Gilbert Scott.

Scott’s other projects in London include the Albert Memorial and St Mary Abbot’s church in Kensington.

He won the competition and the building was completed in 1876.

The Architecture

As well as the plethora of neo-gothic features, there is also a sprinkling of elements inspired by other styles such as Norman (you can see a combination of rounded Norman arches and pointed gothic arches in the photo above), Flemish and Venetian. 

No Expense Spared

The inside is equally resplendent. Gold leaf is used throughout the hotel and the decoration is elaborate, from the wallpaper to the plasterwork.

The highlight for me was the grand staircase.

It was designed to be wide enough to allow two ladies to pass in their large dresses and was famously used in the Spice Girls’ Wannabe music video. 

The hotel was fitted with all the mod cons, such as hydraulic lifts and England’s first revolving door. 

Every room had a fireplace meaning there were a whopping 600 fireplaces and 7 miles of flues in the hotel. A hardworking team of 160 maids therefore had to clean out all the fireplaces twice a day. 

A Detail To Spot

Another little detail that you can spot all over the hotel are the numerous images of ‘wyverns’.

A wyvern is a mythological two-legged dragon-like creature and features on the coat of arms of the Midland Railway. These in turn were created from an amalgamation of the coat of arms of lots of cities in the Midlands including Leicester, Derby and Birmingham.

If we go even further back, the wyvern was the symbol of the Kingdom of Mercia, an Anglo-Saxon territory in the midlands. 

There is lots of other medieval and mythological imagery, often hand-painted, such as those at the top of the staircase, pictured below.

Decline and Near Destruction

Despite, for a time, it being the first choice accommodation for wealthy visitors to the city, in the early 1900s the Midland Grand Hotel fell out of favour. Other fashionable, particularly West End, hotels such as the Savoy took precedence, boasting new-fangled ensuite bathrooms, something the Midland Grand did not have.

The Midland Grand shut as a hotel in 1935, becoming offices and accommodation for the railway. British Rail actually initially wanted to knock it down but thankfully a vigorous campaign led by Jane Hughes Fawcett, John Betjeman and the Victorian Society saved the building and secured it a Grade I listing in 1967, the highest level of heritage protection.

In the 1980s it was shut due to fire regulations and sat there for years unused and unloved. 

A New Lease Of Life

In 2004 planning permission was given to Marriott to turn it back into a hotel.

It reopened its doors in 2011 and, as I hope you have seen, is absolutely incredible. 

As part of the refurbishment they also turned parts of the hotel into apartments, available to buy. At time of writing there is a 2 bed flat for sale in there for £1.75 million.

The clock tower also has an apartment in it, which went on sale for in 2021 for £4.6 million.

Another detail I spotted in the hotel was this strange artwork at the end of one of the corridors. The description says that the artist Tom Friedman had an 11 inch spherical space above this pedestal cursed by a witch.

I also enjoyed that you get various views into the railway station from the hotel (although it did really make me want to hop on a train to Paris!).

I was lucky enough to see the hotel on a tour with Luxury Vacations. Guests can go on the tour for free or £25 for everyone else.

Thank you for reading, more amazing London history below…