True story - my mum once arrived at Kings Cross from Scotland, went to the taxi rank and tried to get a taxi to St. Pancras! The driver took pity on her and pointed her to the building just in front of her.
Reminds me of a tale of a 19th Century Chess player who was at an American city for a tournament. He did not like his hotel room and wandered around until he found a hotel room he liked. He then went to get a porter to transfer his luggage, only to find that the room he liked was downstairs from the room he disliked in the same hotel.
I met a taxi driver in Warrington who said he'd taken Alex Hurricane Higgins from Warrington Bank Quay to the Patton Arms hotel just over the road (a duration just enough for the passenger to light a cigarette).
I directed an American (after dark) to the Victoria Coach Station by telling him "See on the opposite corner of this crossroads there's a building with a whit e light?" "Yes" "That's it."
I quite enjoyed this! I used to live right by King's Cross, on Keystone Crescent. So close that I could be on my train to Cambridge (where I worked) within 5 minutes. When taking the tube and when using St. Pancras, I could easily spend more time waking *within* the station than I did from my house *to* the station. Now I know why!
What I like about Kings Cross is that it looks quite timeless, quite modern in fact. It's good to see that newer stuff attached to the front has been removed, although the view from the road is still obscured by what looks like the Underground entrance.
The view from the road is not obscured, although personally I am surprised that entrance wasn't removed as it's ugly. There are 3 entrances but one of them was built one-way for some bizarre reason.
@@molybdomancer195 nothing like the scale of the "temporary" structure that was there before. It is in fact the largest public square in Central London. (Don't get me started on nearly all of these squares not being square. Soho Square is square I think)
The first time that I saw King's Cross, I thought it was a fairly recent structure so I was surprised when I found out how old it was. As you said, quite timeless, modern. And to me, an attractive station.
@@cockneyse Saved largely due to the efforts of the poet Sir John Betjeman. A nice statue of him is in the station. He was unable to save the Euston Arch, but he was able to prevent the "criminal folly" of tearing down St. Pancras. That effort could make a good video...
The beautiful statue of poet and railfan John Betjeman who campaigned to stop the place being bulldozed in the 60s by barbarian planners is well worthy of the traveller's attention. God knows what would be there now. A brutalist concrete office block perhaps?
One of the grandest termini ever built. Glad the LMR decided to put their mark on London, and fortunately, it was incorporated into the underground much better than other late additions e.g. Marylebone
Absolutely love St. Pancras, the most beautiful station in London (for me at least). I always wondered why it was so close to King's Cross, till I knew the different companies stories, duh!
@@Genevasplaytime I would say, That looks at least equal as beautiful and grand is Paddington. At least in terms of the train shed. Victoria doesn’t look as beautiful anymore.
Yes, it was a consequence of crossing over the canal by a bridge instead of tunnelling under it as the Great Northern had done next door. The advantage was that trains leaving St Pancras didn't have the steep climb just as they were getting going that trains leaving King's Cross faced. The disadvantage was that the platforms at St Pancras ended up several feet above ground level. So what to use the space underneath for?
@@johnm2012 Using the space underneath as beer stores involving massive, almost biblical quantities of Burton Ale, and related activities such as bottling, was the ingenious solution. The undercroft had a relatively stable temperature, and was ideally situated - the stores were divided in two by railway lines and a turntable, and a trainful of beer came down from Burton every day.
"The Midland Railway As It's Name Implies, Originated In The Midlands" - As we have seen in past Jago vignettes, this can never safely be assumed. Names and the actual location of stations and infrastructure, is purely conincidental.
Worth mentioning the St Pancras frontage was and is a hotel. It was empty for many decades and there were numerous attempts to demolish this wonderful building, which has only in recent years been restored to its former glory.
St Pancreas is my favourite london building. I remember standing on the platforms as a child with my nan, the noise of the diesel HSTs rumbling around the station. The smell of the fumes from the exhaust plume as they sparked into life, all in BR blue with what seemed to me at the time yellow smiley faces. Pulling into the Thames link seems such an anticlimax compared to the old days of arriving at your journeys end in a proper terminus station. I have a vague memory of looking into the undercroft and it being full of mail bags, instead of Pret A Manger.
'St Pancreas' is my favourite organ of the digestive system... ;) I remember before the HSTs when the place was full of Class 45s, and Class 127 Diesel-Hydraulic DMUs.
As someone who visits the UK annually, I often arrive and/or depart London via Kings Cross, which is my route to Edinburgh. As a result, even decades on, I am still thrilled to being within its often crowded space as well as nipping next door to have a look at the shops in St. Pancras. Of course there is also now the rejuvinated area out back of Kings Cross, which is a nice distraction from the station if one has time to kill. True, everyday users might not hold the romantic view of an occasional one, but it is well worth savouring the delights of both buildings and appreciating the works of art they are...as well as the efforts by individuals and groups over the years to preserve and improve them. In both instances those efforts have defintiely paid off. So, let us take the time and appreciate them.
St Pancras is a funny kind of station these days. Three stations in one really, separated by fair bit of confusing walking through shopping malls and futuristic spaces. The poor old Midland lines get the worst deal, displaced to the north end of the shed, almost as an afterthought. The International platforms are the glamorous ones slap in the middle, and the Kent lines platforms to the east side of the station on another level, somewhat more utilitarian despite having the fastest domestic trains in Britain (the trains may be impressively fast, but the interiors are unprepossessing 'commuter' designs, crammed seats and dull greyish blue in colour as I recall) And oh, from a personal p.o.v., that b. trek from Euston to St.P with luggage, whether by tube, by bus or on foot! (can't afford taxis...) I wonder if a travelator will ever connect the two?
The east Midland railway doesn't have it so bad, at least they are not down in the basement with thameslink, and they are generally much faster than thameslink to bedford, despite using the same route
Crossrail 2 - if it ever happens - is slated to get a Euston St Pancras station. Platforms would run from Eversholt Street (the eastern boundary of Euston Station) to Ossulston Street, the western boundary of the British Library site, which is just the other side of Midland Road from St Pancras. There would be an entrance within St Pancras station. Once completed, you could walk from Euston Square - being integrated into Euston Station as part of HS2 - to Kings Cross without ever going above ground. I don't think they're planning any travelators though.
I made a similar comment about getting from St. Pancras/ HS1 to Euston/ HS2 to someone who thought the sun shone out of the HS2 designers' rear ends. He seemed to think that there was no point in having easy connectivity between the two when I could take a taxi. By the way, I also am not impressed by the St. Pancras Shopping Centre with trains on top! It has gone the way of airports which want me to have a shopping experience, rather than catch a plane. How I miss the old British Rail station buffets and newspaper kiosks.
When I was a lad (early 70's) St Pancras was known as the "Black Hole" and it was indeed a horrible grimy place that seemed to make the loco's and rolling stock look even dirtier than they were, I'm not surprised that there was talk demolition. Still it scrubbed up quite well !
On my first trip to the UK, I took the Eurostar from Paris and arrived at St. Pancras. And on my 2nd trip to the UK, I started in Edinburgh, then York, then to London by train, arriving at Kings Cross. Both are great buildings, very visually appealing, but I'm partial to St. Pancras. I love the old hotel and took several photos. I think it was on my 2nd trip, I wanted to look around some, and came across a random gentleman playing the piano they have sitting out on the lower level. I took a video for about a minute. If I ever get around to it, I'll upload it to here one day. I also like the neon sign they have hanging above the Eurostar platforms to greet you when you arrive, but it doesn't photograph too well, at least not during the day. Thanks for another great video. Perhaps do a video on Kings Cross and St. Pancras individually, if you haven't already (you have so many videos that I can't remember if you've talked about them already without browsing through all of your uploads)
i play this game with my nose and fat lines of cocaine. My nose is the train, the lines of cocaine are the train lines and my birds tooting annie is the station. Choo choo
Given the hike from Euston Road to catch the East Midlands Trains to the Midlands (alas not Manchester via the Peak District anymore), I presume the four platforms for them must be about on the Agar Town goods location
Special thanks for the route _maps!_ These are especially helpful when you #1. describe the _proximity_ of lines and stations _&_ #2. describe route _extensions_ over time. - - - - This extra effort is appreciated, since London is so large, complex, & UNknown. - - - - BTW: This is _truly_ the case here, coming from NYC's simplistic street _grid_ & spagetti-free train _routes_ ... Mike
Another thank you for the maps. As a foreigner (meaning I live outside of London though still in the U.K.), I don’t know where many of these places are. Maps greatly improve my understanding of the routes. Your work is much appreciated.
0:18 - See that curtained window on the far left? That very flat was featured on ‘Britain’s Most Expensive Homes’ on Channel 4 last Wednesday. 2 bedrooms, 4.6 million pounds.
Excellent as always! Always had a soft spot for St Pancras. I was brought up in Leicester and my dad was an engineer on the railways. St Pancras was always the gateway to London for us.
One of the main reasons for the Midland building its own line from Bedford was that the Great Northern signalmen used to give priority to their own company's trains at Hitchin. It is recorded that sometimes, the Midland had many of their southbound trains queued up on the approach to the junction for several hours. Wouldn't happen today, would it?
@@bentilbury2002 The line between Hitchin and Bedford didn't close until the early 1960s. I think the villages that lost their stations are still all within about 5 miles or so of a mainline station.
Nah, still happens (see: Lumo). Network Rail still publishes regulation policies than can be quite punitive towards trains that are not "priority" (class 1/9 - though they are supposed to take performance considerations into this, but this generally only happens after much fussing has happened).
I've only ever heard Bedford - St Pancras referred to as 'Bedpan' after the electric trains started running in about 1983? The whole history of the way the Thameslink station has moved and the ghost station of Kings Cross Thameslink (one of the most cramped and poky major city termini ever) is a subject worthy in itself, I'd say
That it became known as the Bedpan line made me laugh out loud. We used to take a train to Hitchin and spend a semi-idle Saturday afternoon there now and again when I was at boarding school in Letchworth in the late 70s.
@@hairyairey No, but if you were coming into London from Bedford, Luton or St Albans, unless you got one of the Midland Mainline expresses it was your London terminus, and people from Luton would often have rather a lot of luggage, and it got HORRENDOUSLY crowded in peak hours
I have been told that some - well, quite a lot of the buildings that were destroyed in order to build St Pancras it's sidings etc. were not run down hovels but were rather nice. The Midland Railway just said that they were hovels to help justify their destruction. I treasure the memory I once saw written on a blackboard in the 1960's on the underground platform at Kings + St Pancras “There will be long delays due to an absence of trains.” Well that's me told.
It is an interesting question for sure, to me at least. Always seemed very well-planned - too well-planned for our system, lol - that both shared a major interchange like that. And so it turns out, it was never 'meant to' be that way, it more panned out after the fact. I also never knew that the old King's Cross Thameslink station was once the even older King's Cross Met station, or that it was separate from the other tube stations for a time. The more you know! Also, how wonderful that we still *have* a St. Pancras, as it is a magnificent building. It did not go the way of Broad Street or Holborn Viaduct. Long may it live! Great video!
That's a beautiful building, I would love to explore all those nooks and crannies. Perhaps you could do a whole video on all the towers and whatever of this building.
@@JagoHazzard You could start with the Monopoly stations first? I always wanted to visit those as a child in the north as they seemed famous enough to be on the Monopoly board.
@@archstanton6102 Then if he ventures beyond trains, Tate Modern for the Electric Company and the Embankment (built at least partially to conceal sewers) for the Water Company? Then the nearest underground station to each street on the board...
I worked in the UK as a timber salesman (from Canada) on long business trips from 1986-90. I loved going to the Midlands on British Rail from St. Pancras. The station was quite shabby and down on its luck back then, but you'd meet a lot of other Midland-bound business people, and the coaches always had a seat in 2nd class. You could smoke and have a can of beer or two, and talk to others about their journeys. Great times!
My daughter lived next to Hitchin, Ickleford tb exact, from 2016-20....after 7 years in England and 2 in Japan she has returned to the relative rail desert of NZ....oh, how the Southern service to SW25 was the bane of her life.....
Excellent stuff as always. I remember taking a train from St Pancras in about 1998 to go to an open day at Leicester university (I didn’t go there in the end and it was really to see a girl in Leicester - I digress…) and the station was a hollow shell of what it once was. The transformation of st Pancras is wonderful in that that magnificent hotel and train shed have been renovated and the extension to kings cross has been successful too!
yeah similar vintage for my trip to St Pancras - difficult to imagine how it was - I've also got some hazy memories of kings x and victoria from late 70s school trips - if you see ww2 films/50s movies am sure there was not huge amount of difference , blackened concrete concourse floors (flattened chewing gum) wh smiths kiosks with an array of sweets and papers - don't recall much in way of fast food tbh = was pleasantly surprised by new food court/beer hall in arcade opposite Vic station last summer - I used to go to same arcade for great sandwich shop in mid 90s - but also recall a video arcade late 70s there the "Golden Goose"
Cannon Street. Hey, that's me!!😆😆 We (myself, wife, and son) were visiting London, riding the tube. When we saw that station, we got off, took a selfie against the wall sign, and resumed our ride on the next train. That pic made it on our Christmas card that year. PS- just wanted to add that as an ignorant foreigner, I've always thought St Pancras was a church.🤔
I read that Gilbert Scott used the plans to build St. Pancras from those he had submitted originally as part of the tender for building the foreign office when he wasn't successful with that particular style. Lord Palmerston asked him to design the Foreign office in an Italianate style instead.
I’d not heard that, but on the railway architecture programmes on Yesterday a couple of years back, they commented that St Pancras was initially to be built from materials bought down from the midlands, mostly Nottingham and Derby I think, but it started getting expensive so London brick was used but where it wouldn’t be seen. To be fair, I pass the Midland Station in Nottingham every morning on my ride in to work, and that is also a pretty stunning piece of architecture and positively glows since the refurbishment. the entrance to Leicester is similar (although was in a very sorry state last time I saw it).. shame about the rest of it.. and god knows what happened in Derby lol
@@johnd6487 The blood red facing bricks were made at Mapperley brickworks in Nottingham and the parabolic iron ribs for the roof were made in Butterley, Derbyshire. The cheaper bricks would have been made near Bedford.
Should have popped into the old St. Pancras Church yard - links to Shelley and emigres from the French Revolution - to look at where Thomas Hardy, as architect, supervised the construction of the railway cuttings out of King's Cross, involving the disinterment of numerous corpses. (And thankfully no reference to that excrescence: Platform 9 and three quarters.)
While making a detour to St Pancras before I caught a train home from King's Cross about 20 years ago, when I knew that the redevelopment of St Pancras was imminent and to have a last look at the 'old' station, an employee walked up to me as he thought I was lost. I mentioned that it was surprising that there was no quick pedestrian route under Pancras Road to King's Cross other than via the underground station. He said that I was wrong and pointed out to me a fairly narrow passageway at the end of the easternmost platform that sloped downwards and under the road. I came out at King's Cross, right enough, but apparently that passageway has now gone with the redevelopment of both stations. The employee told me that the underpass was not used very much back then as few passengers would want to arrive at one of the stations and then catch a train at the other to go back north again.
Nope,,,can't hold out anymore...I MUST take a trip to London soon! If I time it well, I can tie it in with a visit to the monthly Comic-Mart at the Royal National Hotel, near Russel Square, on Sunday 30th Jan....Lovely Jubbly!!
140K subscribers now Jago. Outstanding. And this extremely interesting video is a prime example of why you have gained such a following. Congratulations.
Really interesting with a great commentary. Makes such a refreshing change from some of the stuff I have watched on RUclips where I can't understand half of what is being said.
A station I know well, for an occasional tourist in London. Presumed they were linked because it is an international station and so a major hub in London.
NYC has two mainline and commuter rail stations, Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal. The metro connection between them requires a long walk and a transfer.
A pub in Hitchin, linked to Bedford, close to the Station was once called The Leicester Arms - the, later, Bedpan Line of course went on to Leicester out of St Pancras.
Ooh I didn't know that! Was that the Nightingale? That shut a few years ago. The Molly Malones down the road used to be called the Gloucester Arms, but I doubt that was a railway thing!
I think I heard of some plan for a new Crossrail line plan that would propose a 'Euston St Pancras' station to add to the complexity with long platforms with entrances in both Euston and St Pancreas but not kings cross.
Euston-St Pancras would be the name of the station on Cross Rail 2 should it ever get built. It would be the same size as the current Crossrail/Elizabeth line stations ie huge with entrances at the end of both platforms, which is why Liverpool Street stretches to Moorgate, and Farringdon Station stretches to Barbican.
I'll say it again, that rye humour of yours is wonderful and the knowledge you impart is amazing. Often wondered about good old St Pancras.... now I know. Thanks again fab video.
The Bedford-Hitchin line survived as an anomaly until the 1960s - a rural branch line built to mainline standards. The Old Warden Tunnel nature reserve makes for a nice little amble now (at least in good weather).
Unlike some other old railway lines, the track north from Hitchin towards Bedford doesn't look like a disused line now - just a very straight footpath along a flat bit of countryside.
If crossrail2 gets built there'll also be a Euston St Pancras station - and you would be able to walk between all three stations without going outside.
Should amalgamate all three mainline stations + HS2 Euston platforms and any future remodelling of any of the stations into one big "London Central" railway station, preferably with huge underground connections and a potential link between HS2 and HS1 railway lines. It could act as one mega railway station for most London journeys. Alas it would cost a fortune and such an idea would take 100 years to come to fruition if ever.
@@lordgemini2376 no that is the plan, however I think demand for HS1-HS2 travel is low right now. It's not difficult to join the two anyway. Anyway Farringdon is going to be the central station soon. The Euston-St Pancras station will run underground between the two but it will have to avoid the basements of the British Library.
@@hairyairey With the UK not being in schengen, or even in the EU now, there's little point running through services to Europe. You need to have some kind of passport control so may as well do it at St Pancras, you're holding up passengers either way. Perhaps one day if the UK decides it wants to go all in on the EU for whatever reason. It could certainly provide a good alternative to flights from Birmingham and Manchester to Paris or Brussels.
@@Croz89 Also building a connection would mean demolishing some considerable acreage of Camden. If the Midland Railway found that prospect expensive back in the 1880s just imagine what it would be like now!
@@Croz89 The passport control agreements for Eurostar have never had anything to do with the EU (thank God). This is why incoming passengers are checked on departure in Brussels, Paris and now Amsterdam (although I haven't been there to check in person yet). As for little point, they used to run a train service from Newcastle to Waterloo to join up with Eurostar. Only passengers with a Eurostar ticket could travel on it. I watched it leave with six passengers once. There needs to be the demand first. If sufficient people travel from Birmingham then onward to Eurostar it'll happen.
Ahh, King's Cross Thameslink. I remember King's Cross Thameslink in the pre-2007 era. That's a long time ago now. Incidentally, King's Cross is very close to the Model Railway Club's premises. You should consider joining. We have model trains and everything.
Every time I look at St Pancras, it blows me away with the quality of its construction and its amazing design. I worked in London for a year in 1997 and it was empty and derelict and I was shocked it could end up like that. I'm pleased to see it is being used again.
How amusing… I use Bedford as my local station. Who would have thought that the the original builders of the line would have such forethought as to the service we are now provided with! Great video though Jacob, even if I am only watching it now.
A question that I have pondered as well Jago. I recall in my youth as a Canadian Living in London with my grandmother circa 1972. I was adoring King's Cross for the visible Depot and the amount of diesel activity viewed from the platform. One day I decided I really should check out the activity at St-Pancras Station. I was pleased to walk down the platform on my very first visit and see two Class 45's ... A British Rail model that I had never seen before (Or since) . I was saying oh this should be good. However that positive reaction soon faded as I realized the station was in disrepair and there was only those two trains in the station. :-( Ironic that today, it such an important entry point into London!
That would have been only 4 years after it had been saved by a pubic campaign and made grade 1 listed so demolition effectively became impossible. It was then kept in 'managed disrepair' for ages. It took until the late 1980's for British rail to finally work out what to do with the whole station and the magnificent hotel.
It was basically underused for many years as it only carried the few long distance trains on the Midland main line, and little else, especially after the Bedpan commuter service was electrified and ran through to Moorgate. Rather like Marylebone. In the 1980s I proposed closing the latter and diverting Aylesbury services to St Pancras. Neither Eurostar in North London nor the resurgence of the Chiltern line were anticipated then!
@@Pesmog Only just spotted an interesting typo in your first line which you might want to edit :) Near the start of the Covid pandemic Bristol City Council put up a big ad on a bus shelter about Safeguarding our Public Spaces, only someone photoshopped it on social media and it went viral ...
When we used St. Pancras International for Eurostar, it did not register in my mind that the building across the street was also a railway station. All I saw was the tube entrance and taxi stop. Both are fantastic in terms of architecture: a perfect fit for Eurostar.
And then there is Broad Street and Liverpool Street, which were also right next to one another. The Metropolitan station was located directly in front of the recently opened (this was 1875) Liverpool Street, but a short walk from Broad St. Even though Broad Street had opened in 1865, it was never mentioned in the station name. At its peak, Broad Street trailed only Liverpool Street and Victoria in the number of passengers, so it seems like a strange "oversight".
Re "After the Second World War the old King's Cross Metropolitan platforms were used by mainline commuter trains until 2007" - this is sort of true, but the platforms in use were not the original 1863 Metropolitan platforms (those on the current Circle/Metropolitan/H&C lines), which were abandoned in 1941 after bombing, but the 1868 City Widened Lines which ran alongside them (currently used for Thameslink).
Interesting, to see Willow the Wisp, getting in, on the action at 3.20 on the buffer beam of L&NWR 790 Precedent class.... thanks Jago for an interesting video...
Its more interesting . Kings Cross was an area - reputed as being slightly related (or maybe not) to the crosses of Queen Elenor, at Waltham Cross and Charing Cross. St Pancras was a parish (see St Pancras Church and presumably an older one at some time), which abuted Euston ( may even have covered that area ), and went down as far as Holborn for the next parish. Hence the original St Pancras Town Hall (wherever that may be) and the now (if we were in 1970) new St Pancras Town Hall used for the enlarged London Borough of Camden.
The actual cross at King's Cross was a ceremonial arch thinggy in honour of George iv. Hence the Kings bit. Charing was a queen Eleanor cross, the preceding one is Waltham Cross, also one of the few surviving crosses
Part of the graveyard of St. Pancras old church was needed for the railway line. A young Thomas Hardy was made responsible for overseeing the exhumation of the bodies buried there. The headstones were arranged around a tree, the so-called Hardy tree.
I've always wanted to appear in one of these videos - caught candidly strolling by - or looking stupidly into the camera/phone! A dream maybe... but it's never happened! Imagine my incredulous reaction when on watching this video - I realized I'd not appeared in this one either!
i play this game with my nose and fat lines of cocaine. My nose is the train, the lines of cocaine are the train lines and my birds tooting annie is the station. Choo choo
I do remember the two sets of narrow stairs under the clock in StP and the subway under the road to the tube station. Im guessing it was filled in during the redevelopment
I remember a Thomas story where Gordon wanted to go to King's Cross, but ended up at St. Pancras instead. The fact that both stations are so close together only makes it more ironic, and tragic in a way.
i play this game with my nose and fat lines of cocaine. My nose is the train, the lines of cocaine are the train lines and my birds tooting annie is the station. Choo choo
Pancras was a Roman lad who converted to Christianity and for his pains was beheaded aged just fourteen - Somewhere along the line he was made into a saint hence St Pancras ...... This is by far my favourite station (I use it frequently) due to its Gothic splendour - it just takes my breath away and makes Kings Cross look a little plain (which it is not). Once inside you can meet Tracey Emin, John Betjamin and an awful lot of French people. It is an exotic creature. As normal the shops are a tad expensive but here is a tip - search out Greggs as their prices are not far removed from those you might find on the high street (a rare animal indeed). All this and the pianos too WOW
i thought Pancras was a middle European saint. in Czech Republic (middle-European), there is a roll-call of Springtime Saints which lead up to Easter, if I recall correctly: Pancras, Servas, and Boniface
And may all your bed-pans be warm and cozy ones! I can't get enough of the history of St. Pancras Station. I remember well the awe I felt the first time I saw it, not even knowing about it because the train I was to be on was from next door. To me, the style will always be "Imperial Baroque," although I know there's another official term for it that I can't remember at the moment. Amazing what all those bland bricks can do when they're put together the right way. And to think it was almost lost to the world.
It's Victorian mock-Gothic. Completely over the top and once reviled, but now very much on point. I'm an old git, so I've lived long enough to see buildings like St P once so hated as 'so Victorian' and torn down (to be replaced with genuinely ugly buildings), to now, where such buildings are cleaned and renovated to protect our glorious heritage. The odd thing is, I agreed with getting rid of them in the 60s but am now very glad we didn't. Everything has to be seen in the context of its time, I supose..
Bank/Monument/Cannon St. - I just want to point out that the district line station for Bank is Mansion House The resoning for the names of Bank/Monument is that Monument over a platform (1,000 feet) away from Bank Where as for Trafalgar and Strand Station they are closer and they decided to mess with us
Impressive gothic building , perfect for the train station to Paris. I like King's Cross, had many night out at the Scala nearby for music acts in 200s and 2010s ;-)
i live in doncaster. big train town. my gf lives on the south coast. i know some of these routes and almost all of these stations as if they were my 2nd homes. brilliant stuff again.
I didn't know about the original Midland line from Bedford to Hitchin and hence King's Cross, probably because it's no longer there, thanks to BB (Bloody Beeching). What was the route that Midland trains had previously used into Euston?
It is my favourite building in London. If I try hard enough I can still remember that wonderful smell of steam and smoke, back in the days when taxis could actually pick up and drop down next to the platforms.
Use to get the fast link into St P every day and then get my daily exercise walking to the Kings X Victoria Line. Happy when my office relocated and i could get the somewhat closer Piccadilly Line. My ex had the marathon to get to the circle line
Oh well done Mister H for avoiding any mention of a certain fictional wizard when talking about Kings Cross Station, though you did let yourself down a bit with that ‘Hitchin a ride’ pun.
After reading this comment, I went back and clicked a pretty much random part of the video, trying to find what you were talking about, and hey presto, it was that exact moment. What are the chances!? 2:53
@Richard Harrold is this a joke? Firstly both are functional all it is, is extra detailing and secondly you are the first human being I have ever met and possibly on the planet who said they find King Cross more esthetically pleasing and said St Pancras aged poorly which is one of the most baffling statements on architecture I have ever heard
@Richard HarroldYou are complaining that they made the building look nice. "Unnessary ornaments" are you blind, have you not seen the banding the clock tower the roof all the decoration on Kings cross, you are quite hilarious I'll give you that. Sorry did you just call a station a "trainshed" this is getting better every second. The neuschwanstein, you think the red building is meant to look like a white German immitation castle that wasn't completed until after George Gilbert Scott died 🤦♂️ Oh and now "vertiginous" I know you are making very poor arguments but getting out a thesaurus to make a poor replacement for more floors, is fascinating levels of insecurity you hold in yourself. Also Scott did not deisgn the station, William Henry Barlow did. Your next paragraph is just a Wikipedia page, that doesn't even talk about the station, with made up opinions, Neo-queen annes is not a thing, it's called Queen Annes revival. It was never considered better, it was never considered the only type of architecture you could make at the time, in fact it's a very rare style of architecture, that was the fashion for a lot shorter time than gothic revival, in fact Gothic revival not just lasted longer, It came about before and stop being a popular style to build (due to costs) after the entire Queen Annes Revival architecture... Again just copying a Wikipedia page because you have zero clue about the UK's railways. Yeah King Cross famous for it's easabiltiy and trains not running late, oh wait sorry it's the opposite as with every station in the country, especially ones that are the end of a line. Your final paragraph sayings nothing, but because of poor funding it looked shaby, there was another station just like that it started with King something. Then both these stations were refurbished and oh yeah they aren't half empty, unless you pretend it's the 1980s. You talk about imitation and then you say they should have had two identical looking stations. I can do nothing but laugh at a foo l like you. Also I'd like you to tell other people in your life you think St Pancras should have been demolished and replaced with a brutalist box and a photocopy of King's Cross go on, people will think you are unwell.
@Richard Harrold this is fascinating I watched your video and you are actually British this is amazing you talk and act like an ignorant old age American pensioner.
St Pancras is absolutely incredible,it's an engineering masterpiece to boot! Yes we forget once it was terribly run down and almost derelict. It's neo gothic style is stunning
I am a random American truck driver who has spent a grand total of four days in London. Why the f*** am I so obsessed with this channel?
True story - my mum once arrived at Kings Cross from Scotland, went to the taxi rank and tried to get a taxi to St. Pancras! The driver took pity on her and pointed her to the building just in front of her.
Reminds me of a tale of a 19th Century Chess player who was at an American city for a tournament. He did not like his hotel room and wandered around until he found a hotel room he liked. He then went to get a porter to transfer his luggage, only to find that the room he liked was downstairs from the room he disliked in the same hotel.
I met a taxi driver in Warrington who said he'd taken Alex Hurricane Higgins from Warrington Bank Quay to the Patton Arms hotel just over the road (a duration just enough for the passenger to light a cigarette).
I directed an American (after dark) to the Victoria Coach Station by telling him "See on the opposite corner of this crossroads there's a building with a whit e light?" "Yes" "That's it."
@@PMA65537 Sometimes that's all you need! 👍
A similar thing happened to me, but it was in Mumbai, but didn't involve a taxi, or a train station.
As a dyslexic diabetic, St Pancreas is my favourite London terminus.
I quite enjoyed this! I used to live right by King's Cross, on Keystone Crescent. So close that I could be on my train to Cambridge (where I worked) within 5 minutes.
When taking the tube and when using St. Pancras, I could easily spend more time waking *within* the station than I did from my house *to* the station. Now I know why!
I think that's the fastest a comment of mine has received a "heart" from a creator. Jago is on top of things, as usual. Keep up the good work! 👍
I've watched loads of your videos and didn't realise you ever lived in "real" London!
@@adamkimber5853and did the exact opposite commute to most people
What I like about Kings Cross is that it looks quite timeless, quite modern in fact. It's good to see that newer stuff attached to the front has been removed, although the view from the road is still obscured by what looks like the Underground entrance.
The view from the road is not obscured, although personally I am surprised that entrance wasn't removed as it's ugly. There are 3 entrances but one of them was built one-way for some bizarre reason.
One of things in front of it is a Pret coffee outlet
@@molybdomancer195 nothing like the scale of the "temporary" structure that was there before. It is in fact the largest public square in Central London. (Don't get me started on nearly all of these squares not being square. Soho Square is square I think)
The first time that I saw King's Cross, I thought it was a fairly recent structure so I was surprised when I found out how old it was. As you said, quite timeless, modern. And to me, an attractive station.
@@hairyairey Russell Square is pretty square. As for the others: maybe rectangle just doesn’t sound that great
St Pancras must be in anyone's list of most attractive station buildings.
Not just stations. One of the most attractive buildings in the UK if not Europe.
Ironically, and famously, one almost demolished in the 60s!
@@cockneyse Saved largely due to the efforts of the poet Sir John Betjeman. A nice statue of him is in the station. He was unable to save the Euston Arch, but he was able to prevent the "criminal folly" of tearing down St. Pancras. That effort could make a good video...
The beautiful statue of poet and railfan John Betjeman who campaigned to stop the place being bulldozed in the 60s by barbarian planners is well worthy of the traveller's attention. God knows what would be there now. A brutalist concrete office block perhaps?
It's one of the most beautiful buildings in London, was there today and as you come down the hill from Angel It's stunning.
One of the grandest termini ever built. Glad the LMR decided to put their mark on London, and fortunately, it was incorporated into the underground much better than other late additions e.g. Marylebone
A wonderful example of Tartarian building and craftsmanship - you got to hand it to those Giants.
Absolutely love St. Pancras, the most beautiful station in London (for me at least). I always wondered why it was so close to King's Cross, till I knew the different companies stories, duh!
What station even comes close?
remember the old Great Western Hotel
@@Genevasplaytime
The Lloyd’s Building, of course
(joking)
@@Genevasplaytime I would say, That looks at least equal as beautiful and grand is Paddington. At least in terms of the train shed. Victoria doesn’t look as beautiful anymore.
Nice mention of the vast beer stores at St Pancras, but I would love to see a Jago video just on this fascinating topic.
Thought of you when he mentioned them, Rod!
@@jlscoyserney Yay - how you doing Jack?
@@jlscoyserney yay - how you doing Jack?
Yes, it was a consequence of crossing over the canal by a bridge instead of tunnelling under it as the Great Northern had done next door. The advantage was that trains leaving St Pancras didn't have the steep climb just as they were getting going that trains leaving King's Cross faced. The disadvantage was that the platforms at St Pancras ended up several feet above ground level. So what to use the space underneath for?
@@johnm2012 Using the space underneath as beer stores involving massive, almost biblical quantities of Burton Ale, and related activities such as bottling, was the ingenious solution. The undercroft had a relatively stable temperature, and was ideally situated - the stores were divided in two by railway lines and a turntable, and a trainful of beer came down from Burton every day.
"The Midland Railway As It's Name Implies, Originated In The Midlands" - As we have seen in past Jago vignettes, this can never safely be assumed. Names and the actual location of stations and infrastructure, is purely conincidental.
Exactly. Just as in The Duke of Norfolk’s ancestral home is in Sussex, and Leeds Castle is in Kent.
@@AtheistOrphan But Leeds Castle is next to Leeds village.
@@craigmarriott6759 - True. About 5 miles west of Maidstone.
I was disappointed with both Bushey and Sandy stations for exactly that reason!
Worth mentioning the St Pancras frontage was and is a hotel. It was empty for many decades and there were numerous attempts to demolish this wonderful building, which has only in recent years been restored to its former glory.
Thank god it was saved
Some of it has been turned into expensive flats
Great it was saved. Such a shame that Euston was not.
St Pancreas is my favourite london building. I remember standing on the platforms as a child with my nan, the noise of the diesel HSTs rumbling around the station. The smell of the fumes from the exhaust plume as they sparked into life, all in BR blue with what seemed to me at the time yellow smiley faces. Pulling into the Thames link seems such an anticlimax compared to the old days of arriving at your journeys end in a proper terminus station. I have a vague memory of looking into the undercroft and it being full of mail bags, instead of Pret A Manger.
'St Pancreas' is my favourite organ of the digestive system... ;)
I remember before the HSTs when the place was full of Class 45s, and Class 127 Diesel-Hydraulic DMUs.
@@ajbonmg lol. Don’t you just love predictive text. 😃
Well change at Luton or Bedford and you can go into st pancras on the East Midland railway platforms, next to Eurostar
As someone who visits the UK annually, I often arrive and/or depart London via Kings Cross, which is my route to Edinburgh. As a result, even decades on, I am still thrilled to being within its often crowded space as well as nipping next door to have a look at the shops in St. Pancras. Of course there is also now the rejuvinated area out back of Kings Cross, which is a nice distraction from the station if one has time to kill.
True, everyday users might not hold the romantic view of an occasional one, but it is well worth savouring the delights of both buildings and appreciating the works of art they are...as well as the efforts by individuals and groups over the years to preserve and improve them. In both instances those efforts have defintiely paid off. So, let us take the time and appreciate them.
St Pancras is a funny kind of station these days. Three stations in one really, separated by fair bit of confusing walking through shopping malls and futuristic spaces. The poor old Midland lines get the worst deal, displaced to the north end of the shed, almost as an afterthought. The International platforms are the glamorous ones slap in the middle, and the Kent lines platforms to the east side of the station on another level, somewhat more utilitarian despite having the fastest domestic trains in Britain (the trains may be impressively fast, but the interiors are unprepossessing 'commuter' designs, crammed seats and dull greyish blue in colour as I recall) And oh, from a personal p.o.v., that b. trek from Euston to St.P with luggage, whether by tube, by bus or on foot! (can't afford taxis...) I wonder if a travelator will ever connect the two?
The east Midland railway doesn't have it so bad, at least they are not down in the basement with thameslink, and they are generally much faster than thameslink to bedford, despite using the same route
Crossrail 2 - if it ever happens - is slated to get a Euston St Pancras station. Platforms would run from Eversholt Street (the eastern boundary of Euston Station) to Ossulston Street, the western boundary of the British Library site, which is just the other side of Midland Road from St Pancras. There would be an entrance within St Pancras station.
Once completed, you could walk from Euston Square - being integrated into Euston Station as part of HS2 - to Kings Cross without ever going above ground.
I don't think they're planning any travelators though.
I made a similar comment about getting from St. Pancras/ HS1 to Euston/ HS2 to someone who thought the sun shone out of the HS2 designers' rear ends. He seemed to think that there was no point in having easy connectivity between the two when I could take a taxi.
By the way, I also am not impressed by the St. Pancras Shopping Centre with trains on top! It has gone the way of airports which want me to have a shopping experience, rather than catch a plane. How I miss the old British Rail station buffets and newspaper kiosks.
Kind of like 4 stations in one in a way.
Thameslink, eurostar, southeastern and east midland
When I was a lad (early 70's) St Pancras was known as the "Black Hole" and it was indeed a horrible grimy place that seemed to make the loco's and rolling stock look even dirtier than they were, I'm not surprised that there was talk demolition. Still it scrubbed up quite well !
On my first trip to the UK, I took the Eurostar from Paris and arrived at St. Pancras. And on my 2nd trip to the UK, I started in Edinburgh, then York, then to London by train, arriving at Kings Cross. Both are great buildings, very visually appealing, but I'm partial to St. Pancras. I love the old hotel and took several photos.
I think it was on my 2nd trip, I wanted to look around some, and came across a random gentleman playing the piano they have sitting out on the lower level. I took a video for about a minute. If I ever get around to it, I'll upload it to here one day.
I also like the neon sign they have hanging above the Eurostar platforms to greet you when you arrive, but it doesn't photograph too well, at least not during the day.
Thanks for another great video. Perhaps do a video on Kings Cross and St. Pancras individually, if you haven't already (you have so many videos that I can't remember if you've talked about them already without browsing through all of your uploads)
Hurrah! A whole flock of anecdotes flew up while watching this. Ah, my past around London railways. Many thanks.
When going on honeymoon (to Switzerland) by Train, we splurged out for a night in the St Pancras Hotel. Totally worth it :-)
NB: Not everyone will have the same experience in the bedrooms there as he did in the precursor to his honeymoon.
@@fiddley I trust that Mr and Mrs Main enjoyed their honeymoon very much, particularly if it was a month long as it should be.
i play this game with my nose and fat lines of cocaine. My nose is the train, the lines of cocaine are the train lines and my birds tooting annie is the station. Choo choo
Given the hike from Euston Road to catch the East Midlands Trains to the Midlands (alas not Manchester via the Peak District anymore), I presume the four platforms for them must be about on the Agar Town goods location
Special thanks for the route _maps!_
These are especially helpful when you #1. describe the _proximity_ of lines and stations _&_ #2. describe route _extensions_ over time.
- - - -
This extra effort is appreciated, since London is so large, complex, & UNknown.
- - - -
BTW: This is _truly_ the case here, coming from NYC's simplistic street _grid_ & spagetti-free train _routes_ ... Mike
Another thank you for the maps. As a foreigner (meaning I live outside of London though still in the U.K.), I don’t know where many of these places are. Maps greatly improve my understanding of the routes. Your work is much appreciated.
0:18 - See that curtained window on the far left? That very flat was featured on ‘Britain’s Most Expensive Homes’ on Channel 4 last Wednesday. 2 bedrooms, 4.6 million pounds.
The transition at 1:36 ? Slick. Super slick!
Excellent as always! Always had a soft spot for St Pancras. I was brought up in Leicester and my dad was an engineer on the railways. St Pancras was always the gateway to London for us.
One of the main reasons for the Midland building its own line from Bedford was that the Great Northern signalmen used to give priority to their own company's trains at Hitchin. It is recorded that sometimes, the Midland had many of their southbound trains queued up on the approach to the junction for several hours. Wouldn't happen today, would it?
With the line coming in from Cambridge as well it must have been pretty hectic in Hitchin!
@@bentilbury2002 The line between Hitchin and Bedford didn't close until the early 1960s. I think the villages that lost their stations are still all within about 5 miles or so of a mainline station.
Nah, still happens (see: Lumo). Network Rail still publishes regulation policies than can be quite punitive towards trains that are not "priority" (class 1/9 - though they are supposed to take performance considerations into this, but this generally only happens after much fussing has happened).
I've only ever heard Bedford - St Pancras referred to as 'Bedpan' after the electric trains started running in about 1983? The whole history of the way the Thameslink station has moved and the ghost station of Kings Cross Thameslink (one of the most cramped and poky major city termini ever) is a subject worthy in itself, I'd say
That it became known as the Bedpan line made me laugh out loud. We used to take a train to Hitchin and spend a semi-idle Saturday afternoon there now and again when I was at boarding school in Letchworth in the late 70s.
@@rjjcms1 And class 317 units were called Bedpan units on introduction, well after their teething problems were sorted out.
Kings Cross Thameslink was never a terminus. It was for through trains and the entrance is still used to reduce peak time passenger congestion.
@@hairyairey No, but if you were coming into London from Bedford, Luton or St Albans, unless you got one of the Midland Mainline expresses it was your London terminus, and people from Luton would often have rather a lot of luggage, and it got HORRENDOUSLY crowded in peak hours
BedPan ! say it like 'Handbaaaag'
I have been told that some - well, quite a lot of the buildings that were destroyed in order to build St Pancras it's sidings etc. were not run down hovels but were rather nice. The Midland Railway just said that they were hovels to help justify their destruction.
I treasure the memory I once saw written on a blackboard in the 1960's on the underground platform at Kings + St Pancras “There will be long delays due to an absence of trains.” Well that's me told.
tend to agree with you - im sure everyone had their own tales of St Pancras, pre-crossrail. i quite liked the quiet around the disused station
What's the oldest stock you travelled in?
Ride the then brand new Victoria Line?
Lots of wooden escalators - the list goes on.
Always give jago a thumbs up👍🏻🇬🇧
It is an interesting question for sure, to me at least. Always seemed very well-planned - too well-planned for our system, lol - that both shared a major interchange like that. And so it turns out, it was never 'meant to' be that way, it more panned out after the fact.
I also never knew that the old King's Cross Thameslink station was once the even older King's Cross Met station, or that it was separate from the other tube stations for a time. The more you know!
Also, how wonderful that we still *have* a St. Pancras, as it is a magnificent building. It did not go the way of Broad Street or Holborn Viaduct. Long may it live!
Great video!
Apparently, the columns in the former beer cellar are spaced for a specific number of beer barrels to fit between them (3?)
That's a beautiful building, I would love to explore all those nooks and crannies.
Perhaps you could do a whole video on all the towers and whatever of this building.
It’s on my list! I want to look at the big termini in general, they all have interesting stories.
@@JagoHazzard You could start with the Monopoly stations first? I always wanted to visit those as a child in the north as they seemed famous enough to be on the Monopoly board.
@@archstanton6102 Then if he ventures beyond trains, Tate Modern for the Electric Company and the Embankment (built at least partially to conceal sewers) for the Water Company?
Then the nearest underground station to each street on the board...
@@mittfh I sense a series coming on.
@@JagoHazzard - See last weeks episode of Britain’s Most Expensive Homes (Channel 4).
I worked in the UK as a timber salesman (from Canada) on long business trips from 1986-90. I loved going to the Midlands on British Rail from St. Pancras. The station was quite shabby and down on its luck back then, but you'd meet a lot of other Midland-bound business people, and the coaches always had a seat in 2nd class. You could smoke and have a can of beer or two, and talk to others about their journeys. Great times!
did you catch RUSH over here back then?
My daughter lived next to Hitchin, Ickleford tb exact, from 2016-20....after 7 years in England and 2 in Japan she has returned to the relative rail desert of NZ....oh, how the Southern service to SW25 was the bane of her life.....
At 2.57 I recall the chap dropping his litter in such a flamboyant way in front of King's Cross in a previous Jago video
And now he’s immortalised on my B-roll.
looks like he was doing a scratchcard... probably lost :p
Excellent stuff as always. I remember taking a train from St Pancras in about 1998 to go to an open day at Leicester university (I didn’t go there in the end and it was really to see a girl in Leicester - I digress…) and the station was a hollow shell of what it once was. The transformation of st Pancras is wonderful in that that magnificent hotel and train shed have been renovated and the extension to kings cross has been successful too!
yeah similar vintage for my trip to St Pancras - difficult to imagine how it was - I've also got some hazy memories of kings x and victoria from late 70s school trips - if you see ww2 films/50s movies am sure there was not huge amount of difference , blackened concrete concourse floors (flattened chewing gum) wh smiths kiosks with an array of sweets and papers - don't recall much in way of fast food tbh = was pleasantly surprised by new food court/beer hall in arcade opposite Vic station last summer - I used to go to same arcade for great sandwich shop in mid 90s - but also recall a video arcade late 70s there the "Golden Goose"
The MR had to build a direct line. There was not enough capacity on the GN for Midland freight alone and everything backed up north of Hitchin.
Shame the Bedford-Hitchin line isn't there any more. From memory that's a very flat part of the country as well.
Cannon Street. Hey, that's me!!😆😆
We (myself, wife, and son) were visiting London, riding the tube. When we saw that station, we got off, took a selfie against the wall sign, and resumed our ride on the next train. That pic made it on our Christmas card that year.
PS- just wanted to add that as an ignorant foreigner, I've always thought St Pancras was a church.🤔
Good one Jago 👍
St P is a magnificent station.
I read that Gilbert Scott used the plans to build St. Pancras from those he had submitted originally as part of the tender for building the foreign office when he wasn't successful with that particular style. Lord Palmerston asked him to design the Foreign office in an Italianate style instead.
I’d not heard that, but on the railway architecture programmes on Yesterday a couple of years back, they commented that St Pancras was initially to be built from materials bought down from the midlands, mostly Nottingham and Derby I think, but it started getting expensive so London brick was used but where it wouldn’t be seen. To be fair, I pass the Midland Station in Nottingham every morning on my ride in to work, and that is also a pretty stunning piece of architecture and positively glows since the refurbishment. the entrance to Leicester is similar (although was in a very sorry state last time I saw it).. shame about the rest of it.. and god knows what happened in Derby lol
@@johnd6487 The blood red facing bricks were made at Mapperley brickworks in Nottingham and the parabolic iron ribs for the roof were made in Butterley, Derbyshire. The cheaper bricks would have been made near Bedford.
Urban myth. But no doubt Scott's experience building churches stood him in good stead.
Should have popped into the old St. Pancras Church yard - links to Shelley and emigres from the French Revolution - to look at where Thomas Hardy, as architect, supervised the construction of the railway cuttings out of King's Cross, involving the disinterment of numerous corpses. (And thankfully no reference to that excrescence: Platform 9 and three quarters.)
indeed. it's a fascinating part of the city
"railway history do be like that sometimes" i find this irrationally hilarious
While making a detour to St Pancras before I caught a train home from King's Cross about 20 years ago, when I knew that the redevelopment of St Pancras was imminent and to have a last look at the 'old' station, an employee walked up to me as he thought I was lost. I mentioned that it was surprising that there was no quick pedestrian route under Pancras Road to King's Cross other than via the underground station.
He said that I was wrong and pointed out to me a fairly narrow passageway at the end of the easternmost platform that sloped downwards and under the road. I came out at King's Cross, right enough, but apparently that passageway has now gone with the redevelopment of both stations. The employee told me that the underpass was not used very much back then as few passengers would want to arrive at one of the stations and then catch a train at the other to go back north again.
Nope,,,can't hold out anymore...I MUST take a trip to London soon!
If I time it well, I can tie it in with a visit to the monthly Comic-Mart at the Royal National Hotel, near Russel Square, on Sunday 30th Jan....Lovely Jubbly!!
140K subscribers now Jago. Outstanding. And this extremely interesting video is a prime example of why you have gained such a following. Congratulations.
Really interesting with a great commentary. Makes such a refreshing change from some of the stuff I have watched on RUclips where I can't understand half of what is being said.
A station I know well, for an occasional tourist in London. Presumed they were linked because it is an international station and so a major hub in London.
No, the International link is very recent.
NYC has two mainline and commuter rail stations, Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal. The metro connection between them requires a long walk and a transfer.
A pub in Hitchin, linked to Bedford, close to the Station was once called The Leicester Arms - the, later, Bedpan Line of course went on to Leicester out of St Pancras.
Ooh I didn't know that! Was that the Nightingale? That shut a few years ago. The Molly Malones down the road used to be called the Gloucester Arms, but I doubt that was a railway thing!
Was given this info by a local historian but when quickly searching previously named pubs it can't be qualified. Better let Jago know.
I think I heard of some plan for a new Crossrail line plan that would propose a 'Euston St Pancras' station to add to the complexity with long platforms with entrances in both Euston and St Pancreas but not kings cross.
Euston-St Pancras would be the name of the station on Cross Rail 2 should it ever get built.
It would be the same size as the current Crossrail/Elizabeth line stations ie huge with entrances at the end of both platforms, which is why Liverpool Street stretches to Moorgate, and Farringdon Station stretches to Barbican.
It's St PANCRAS, not Pancreas (part of the human body). I've lost count of the number of misspellings and mispronunciations I've heard over the years
@@Gary-hj2lc Sorry, I think it was an autocorrect thing.
Thanks!
Now I know how to get to Hitchin. Something I needed to do but always forgot about.
Well as long as you don't try to get there by train from Bedford! That line has long since disappeared, unfortunately.
At least I have an idea where it is. Didn’t have a clue before
Fascinating history of the stations. Thanks for sharing. Roy.
Bedpan..... it has to be up there as one of the best names for a rail line .... ever. Thanks jago, for unravelling the complicated history of KXStP.
I'll say it again, that rye humour of yours is wonderful and the knowledge you impart is amazing. Often wondered about good old St Pancras.... now I know. Thanks again fab video.
Aaaaaaaah..... there's nothing like your velvety tones to revive me from my paperwork induced stupor on a post Christmas afternoon in Blighty!
“A proper subway to the tube…”
Love it!
The Bedford-Hitchin line survived as an anomaly until the 1960s - a rural branch line built to mainline standards. The Old Warden Tunnel nature reserve makes for a nice little amble now (at least in good weather).
Unlike some other old railway lines, the track north from Hitchin towards Bedford doesn't look like a disused line now - just a very straight footpath along a flat bit of countryside.
If crossrail2 gets built there'll also be a Euston St Pancras station - and you would be able to walk between all three stations without going outside.
Should amalgamate all three mainline stations + HS2 Euston platforms and any future remodelling of any of the stations into one big "London Central" railway station, preferably with huge underground connections and a potential link between HS2 and HS1 railway lines. It could act as one mega railway station for most London journeys. Alas it would cost a fortune and such an idea would take 100 years to come to fruition if ever.
@@lordgemini2376 no that is the plan, however I think demand for HS1-HS2 travel is low right now. It's not difficult to join the two anyway. Anyway Farringdon is going to be the central station soon. The Euston-St Pancras station will run underground between the two but it will have to avoid the basements of the British Library.
@@hairyairey With the UK not being in schengen, or even in the EU now, there's little point running through services to Europe. You need to have some kind of passport control so may as well do it at St Pancras, you're holding up passengers either way. Perhaps one day if the UK decides it wants to go all in on the EU for whatever reason. It could certainly provide a good alternative to flights from Birmingham and Manchester to Paris or Brussels.
@@Croz89 Also building a connection would mean demolishing some considerable acreage of Camden. If the Midland Railway found that prospect expensive back in the 1880s just imagine what it would be like now!
@@Croz89 The passport control agreements for Eurostar have never had anything to do with the EU (thank God). This is why incoming passengers are checked on departure in Brussels, Paris and now Amsterdam (although I haven't been there to check in person yet). As for little point, they used to run a train service from Newcastle to Waterloo to join up with Eurostar. Only passengers with a Eurostar ticket could travel on it. I watched it leave with six passengers once. There needs to be the demand first. If sufficient people travel from Birmingham then onward to Eurostar it'll happen.
Ahh, King's Cross Thameslink. I remember King's Cross Thameslink in the pre-2007 era. That's a long time ago now.
Incidentally, King's Cross is very close to the Model Railway Club's premises. You should consider joining. We have model trains and everything.
Every time I look at St Pancras, it blows me away with the quality of its construction and its amazing design. I worked in London for a year in 1997 and it was empty and derelict and I was shocked it could end up like that. I'm pleased to see it is being used again.
How amusing… I use Bedford as my local station. Who would have thought that the the original builders of the line would have such forethought as to the service we are now provided with! Great video though Jacob, even if I am only watching it now.
A question that I have pondered as well Jago. I recall in my youth as a Canadian Living in London with my grandmother circa 1972. I was adoring King's Cross for the visible Depot and the amount of diesel activity viewed from the platform. One day I decided I really should check out the activity at St-Pancras Station. I was pleased to walk down the platform on my very first visit and see two Class 45's ... A British Rail model that I had never seen before (Or since) . I was saying oh this should be good. However that positive reaction soon faded as I realized the station was in disrepair and there was only those two trains in the station. :-( Ironic that today, it such an important entry point into London!
That would have been only 4 years after it had been saved by a pubic campaign and made grade 1 listed so demolition effectively became impossible. It was then kept in 'managed disrepair' for ages. It took until the late 1980's for British rail to finally work out what to do with the whole station and the magnificent hotel.
A good impression of St Pancras at its lowest can be seen in the opening scenes of episodes of 'Porridge' - departure point for Slade Prison!
It was basically underused for many years as it only carried the few long distance trains on the Midland main line, and little else, especially after the Bedpan commuter service was electrified and ran through to Moorgate. Rather like Marylebone. In the 1980s I proposed closing the latter and diverting Aylesbury services to St Pancras. Neither Eurostar in North London nor the resurgence of the Chiltern line were anticipated then!
@@iankemp1131 Cheers!
@@Pesmog Only just spotted an interesting typo in your first line which you might want to edit :) Near the start of the Covid pandemic Bristol City Council put up a big ad on a bus shelter about Safeguarding our Public Spaces, only someone photoshopped it on social media and it went viral ...
When we used St. Pancras International for Eurostar, it did not register in my mind that the building across the street was also a railway station. All I saw was the tube entrance and taxi stop. Both are fantastic in terms of architecture: a perfect fit for Eurostar.
And then there is Broad Street and Liverpool Street, which were also right next to one another. The Metropolitan station was located directly in front of the recently opened (this was 1875) Liverpool Street, but a short walk from Broad St. Even though Broad Street had opened in 1865, it was never mentioned in the station name. At its peak, Broad Street trailed only Liverpool Street and Victoria in the number of passengers, so it seems like a strange "oversight".
Re "After the Second World War the old King's Cross Metropolitan platforms were used by mainline commuter trains until 2007" - this is sort of true, but the platforms in use were not the original 1863 Metropolitan platforms (those on the current Circle/Metropolitan/H&C lines), which were abandoned in 1941 after bombing, but the 1868 City Widened Lines which ran alongside them (currently used for Thameslink).
The CWL were built by the Metropolitan and were originally known as the Metropolitan Widened Lines as far as I recall.
Interesting, to see Willow the Wisp, getting in, on the action at 3.20 on the buffer beam of L&NWR 790 Precedent class.... thanks Jago for an interesting video...
Its more interesting . Kings Cross was an area - reputed as being slightly related (or maybe not) to the crosses of Queen Elenor, at Waltham Cross and Charing Cross. St Pancras was a parish (see St Pancras Church and presumably an older one at some time), which abuted Euston ( may even have covered that area ), and went down as far as Holborn for the next parish. Hence the original St Pancras Town Hall (wherever that may be) and the now (if we were in 1970) new St Pancras Town Hall used for the enlarged London Borough of Camden.
The actual cross at King's Cross was a ceremonial arch thinggy in honour of George iv. Hence the Kings bit. Charing was a queen Eleanor cross, the preceding one is Waltham Cross, also one of the few surviving crosses
Part of the graveyard of St. Pancras old church was needed for the railway line. A young Thomas Hardy was made responsible for overseeing the exhumation of the bodies buried there. The headstones were arranged around a tree, the so-called Hardy tree.
I've always wanted to appear in one of these videos - caught candidly strolling by - or looking stupidly into the camera/phone! A dream maybe... but it's never happened! Imagine my incredulous reaction when on watching this video - I realized I'd not appeared in this one either!
It wasn’t you at 2:58 littering then?
@@dalejenner5751 No, but that's some damn fine littering tho!
Never getting the recognition one is due
i play this game with my nose and fat lines of cocaine. My nose is the train, the lines of cocaine are the train lines and my birds tooting annie is the station. Choo choo
I do remember the two sets of narrow stairs under the clock in StP and the subway under the road to the tube station. Im guessing it was filled in during the redevelopment
Very interestong and enjoyable video, 2 of Londons finest terminals, love arriving into St Pancras each morning.
Leaving a positive comment to help with the algorithm. Keep up the good work!
Great idea - totally agree! Keep it up!
I remember a Thomas story where Gordon wanted to go to King's Cross, but ended up at St. Pancras instead.
The fact that both stations are so close together only makes it more ironic, and tragic in a way.
i play this game with my nose and fat lines of cocaine. My nose is the train, the lines of cocaine are the train lines and my birds tooting annie is the station. Choo choo
What a great name - Agar Town. Makes me think of biology classes at school
There. That all makes perfect sense now. Er... I think it did. Another excellent video.
Pancras was a Roman lad who converted to Christianity and for his pains was beheaded aged just fourteen - Somewhere along the line he was made into a saint hence St Pancras ......
This is by far my favourite station (I use it frequently) due to its Gothic splendour - it just takes my breath away and makes Kings Cross look a little plain (which it is not).
Once inside you can meet Tracey Emin, John Betjamin and an awful lot of French people.
It is an exotic creature.
As normal the shops are a tad expensive but here is a tip - search out Greggs as their prices are not far removed from those you might find on the high street (a rare animal indeed).
All this and the pianos too WOW
i thought Pancras was a middle European saint. in Czech Republic (middle-European), there is a roll-call of Springtime Saints which lead up to Easter, if I recall correctly: Pancras, Servas, and Boniface
Loving the video and the bedpan humour Jago thanks
All makes perfect sense as recounted - but wouldn’t want to be tested on all that I’d heard at the end!
And may all your bed-pans be warm and cozy ones!
I can't get enough of the history of St. Pancras Station. I remember well the awe I felt the first time I saw it, not even knowing about it because the train I was to be on was from next door. To me, the style will always be "Imperial Baroque," although I know there's another official term for it that I can't remember at the moment. Amazing what all those bland bricks can do when they're put together the right way. And to think it was almost lost to the world.
It's Victorian mock-Gothic. Completely over the top and once reviled, but now very much on point. I'm an old git, so I've lived long enough to see buildings like St P once so hated as 'so Victorian' and torn down (to be replaced with genuinely ugly buildings), to now, where such buildings are cleaned and renovated to protect our glorious heritage. The odd thing is, I agreed with getting rid of them in the 60s but am now very glad we didn't. Everything has to be seen in the context of its time, I supose..
Hitchin a lift! Epic pun Jago!
I rode the BMT and the IRT in NYC on a visit once but otherwise travel by automobile. Thanks for the entertaining and informative video.
Bank/Monument/Cannon St. - I just want to point out that the district line station for Bank is Mansion House
The resoning for the names of Bank/Monument is that Monument over a platform (1,000 feet) away from Bank
Where as for Trafalgar and Strand Station they are closer and they decided to mess with us
Impressive gothic building , perfect for the train station to Paris. I like King's Cross, had many night out at the Scala nearby for music acts in 200s and 2010s ;-)
St. Pancras may well have been a little late to the party, but boy, did it make the grandest entrance....
Thanks for yet another inspiring story, Jago!
Great stuff.
Lovely dry humour and puns that let me keep my lunch down. 😁
Euston is just up the road from Kings Cross and St Pancras. My uncle worked at all three stations in the 1970s.
i live in doncaster. big train town. my gf lives on the south coast. i know some of these routes and almost all of these stations as if they were my 2nd homes. brilliant stuff again.
As always: informative and welcome! Thank you!
St Pancras is the greatest Railway Station in the UK, possibly the world. Its magnificent.
Interesting again. I doubt whether you will ever run out of material. Agar town was popular because of it's many cultures I hear. Thankyou again.
Nice, very nice.
This was an informative lunch break, thank you 😎
Well done, Jago.
Jago's back on track.
I didn't know about the original Midland line from Bedford to Hitchin and hence King's Cross, probably because it's no longer there, thanks to BB (Bloody Beeching).
What was the route that Midland trains had previously used into Euston?
Wonderful stuff, thanks so much.
It is my favourite building in London. If I try hard enough I can still remember that wonderful smell of steam and smoke, back in the days when taxis could actually pick up and drop down next to the platforms.
Use to get the fast link into St P every day and then get my daily exercise walking to the Kings X Victoria Line. Happy when my office relocated and i could get the somewhat closer Piccadilly Line. My ex had the marathon to get to the circle line
Thank you very much for a most interesting history lesson. Best wishes !
Oh well done Mister H for avoiding any mention of a certain fictional wizard when talking about Kings Cross Station, though you did let yourself down a bit with that ‘Hitchin a ride’ pun.
The fact it has a real platform zero...
Is more cool than the fictional 9 3/4
Ah, the return of Scratch Card Littering Man, a classic. Is Perpetually Pregnant Lady waiting in the wings for an encore?
They’re like the Where’s Wally of the channel.
After reading this comment, I went back and clicked a pretty much random part of the video, trying to find what you were talking about, and hey presto, it was that exact moment. What are the chances!? 2:53
@@PiousMoltar Better than Scratch Card Littering Man's, apparently
2:12 Imagine critiquing Kings Cross for being extravagant and then you see the St Pancras building!
@Richard Harrold is this a joke? Firstly both are functional all it is, is extra detailing and secondly you are the first human being I have ever met and possibly on the planet who said they find King Cross more esthetically pleasing and said St Pancras aged poorly which is one of the most baffling statements on architecture I have ever heard
@Richard HarroldYou are complaining that they made the building look nice. "Unnessary ornaments" are you blind, have you not seen the banding the clock tower the roof all the decoration on Kings cross, you are quite hilarious I'll give you that. Sorry did you just call a station a "trainshed" this is getting better every second. The neuschwanstein, you think the red building is meant to look like a white German immitation castle that wasn't completed until after George Gilbert Scott died 🤦♂️ Oh and now "vertiginous" I know you are making very poor arguments but getting out a thesaurus to make a poor replacement for more floors, is fascinating levels of insecurity you hold in yourself. Also Scott did not deisgn the station, William Henry Barlow did.
Your next paragraph is just a Wikipedia page, that doesn't even talk about the station, with made up opinions, Neo-queen annes is not a thing, it's called Queen Annes revival. It was never considered better, it was never considered the only type of architecture you could make at the time, in fact it's a very rare style of architecture, that was the fashion for a lot shorter time than gothic revival, in fact Gothic revival not just lasted longer, It came about before and stop being a popular style to build (due to costs) after the entire Queen Annes Revival architecture...
Again just copying a Wikipedia page because you have zero clue about the UK's railways. Yeah King Cross famous for it's easabiltiy and trains not running late, oh wait sorry it's the opposite as with every station in the country, especially ones that are the end of a line.
Your final paragraph sayings nothing, but because of poor funding it looked shaby, there was another station just like that it started with King something. Then both these stations were refurbished and oh yeah they aren't half empty, unless you pretend it's the 1980s. You talk about imitation and then you say they should have had two identical looking stations. I can do nothing but laugh at a foo l like you. Also I'd like you to tell other people in your life you think St Pancras should have been demolished and replaced with a brutalist box and a photocopy of King's Cross go on, people will think you are unwell.
@Richard Harrold this is fascinating I watched your video and you are actually British this is amazing you talk and act like an ignorant old age American pensioner.
To see the architectural prototype of the St Pancras's Midland Hotel one must visit Kelham Hall just outside Newark.
St Pancras is absolutely incredible,it's an engineering masterpiece to boot!
Yes we forget once it was terribly run down and almost derelict.
It's neo gothic style is stunning