A hotel I'd like to stay in

[Feltwell]

Alas I fear it will be out of reach of a pauper such as myself....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9407000/9407385.stm

 

[Flyfisher]

Isn't it remarkable how such a fantastic building could have remained unused and almost derelict for so many year?

Interesting point about people being killed by falling into the lift-shafts because the designers didn't think of including trivial details such as doors. I know we often moan about 'elf 'n' safety these days but there are limits. :shock:

 

[Feltwell]

Isn't it remarkable how such a fantastic building could have remained unused and almost derelict for so many year?

Indeed. And a big Thank You to Sir John Betjeman, else it could have gone the way of the Euston Arch.

 

[Matt Green]

I've been up and down that staircase a few times. Looked out of the windows in the ladies smoking room and climbed through the rafters amid the guano on level six, now the penthouse suite. Seen a pigeon nest made from wire and broken florescent tube glass, watched water pour through a hole in the gutter made by scaffolding. I've got a photo, somewhere, of salts blooming through every white tile in a red/white diamond pattern where they weren't fired the same way before being laid in the basement mezzanine. Walked miles down the corridors pulling dowels out of walls and slotting them back in again. Saw a contractor lifting floorboards with a pickaxe. I remember the hole in the floor at the back of the basement and the sound it made when you dropped a stone in it made you wonder just how much water was down there. It's a great building.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

What a fantastic building - and from those pictures it appears to have been sumptuously and faithfully restored. I'd love to stay there.

Interesting point about people being killed by falling into the lift-shafts because the designers didn't think of including trivial details such as doors. I know we often moan about 'elf 'n' safety these days but there are limits. :shock:

Even doors can't help some people (NB: not for the feint-hearted since this chap removed himself from the gene pool):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwOy_V7TXKI&feature=player_embedded

 

[Feltwell]

I'm very jealous Matt - I would have love to have seen the building inside before it was renovated. I guess unsympathetic contractors are a problem with any large project on an old building such as this - they can't always be watched.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh, that's amazing - I can't wait to go inside. Chris is now very excited as it looks like a preferable place to wait when he's fallen into the train hole ( The train hole happens when you aim for the 9.30, miss it, and have to get the 10.45)
Typically he goes to The Flying Scotsman, round the corner, which I can't even describe on a family friendly forum, so I'm very pleased they're opening this, which will surely improve the area as well as my husband's morals.

 

[Matt Green]

Typically he goes to The Flying Scotsman, round the corner....

:shock:

And you let him touch you? I hope you de-louse him with a sand blaster first!

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: :lol: :lol:
But having seen the inside of The Flying Scotsman I fear that may be insufficient.

 

[Nigel Watts]

It's one tube stop from where I have lived for nearly two decades but I have yet to see inside. However I can easily understand why it has not been renovated until now.

That part of London was extremely seedy until very recently. Having got hopelessly drunk on Martini cocktails at an office party near Oxford Street c. 1982 I tried to find my way to Liverpool Street in the small hours, on foot. I got lost in the St Pancras area and went in a circle, like one does in the jungle. I can't tell you how many times I was accosted by prostitutes. I eventually got to Liverpool Street where I slept on a bench before catching an early train.

Since I have lived in Islington the place has very slowly smartened up. The kerb crawlers moved first from Goodsway (the first road to cross the tracks north of St Pancras where I was once nearly accosted walking home until the driver realized that I wasnt what he was expecting) to Market Road about half a mile north, near Pentonville prison and very close to where I now live. They seem to have moved on again, to where I dont know. Drug dealers likewise are said to have moved away from Kings's Cross, but it has never been quite so obvious to me who these characters are. Drug related burglaries seem to have reduced here so I suppose this is connected.

With any luck there will be public spaces we can visit and restaurants we can eat in when it opens. I can't wait.

I've long wanted a good book on George Gilbert Scott. Any recommendations?

 

[JoceAndChris]

I've never really understood quite why it's so seedy. Architecturally, I love the bit outside St P. It's moments from Bloomsbury. There's always a strong police presence. And it's Zone 1, isn't it? And yet before the amazing Euro Wotsit was built and all that section was opened up with M&S etc there weren't nice restaurants or bars at all really. I suppose there are a couple of OK places on York Way.
Let's hope there are public areas in this hotel, as you say.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I've long wanted a good book on George Gilbert Scott. Any recommendations?

There (rather amazingly) isn't one. Gavin Stamp has written a biography of his son, George "Mad" Gilbert Scott, but for Great Scott it's still waiting to be written.
There is a good (short) book on St Pancras by Simon Bradley.

 

[Nigel Watts]

I've never really understood quite why it's so seedy.

There's something about railway terminii and seediness. The one in Rome is infested with pickpockets, Naples station's environs are terrifying...

I suppose there are a couple of OK places on York Way.

York Way is much improved since the opening of King's Place, the Grauniad's new home, which also houses a concert venue, art gallery etc.

The tracks behind the two stations have been earmarked for development for years and the wonderful listed, classically columned gasometers have long been rusting away in their semi dismantled state. I do rather dread what will emerge eventually.

 

[Penners]

I really love that building and I've been eagerly anticipating its re-opening. We certainly won't be able to afford to stay there, but perhaps Mrs P and I will take tea one day, just for the experience.

 

[Flyfisher]

I'd never heard of The Flying Scotsman pub, even though Kings Cross station was my gateway to London for many decades.

Curious, I found a promising review that starts "This pub is featured in a new book, “London Heritage Pubs” (published by CAMRA), which gives details of all the pubs in the capital which are of historical importance because they have retained some of their original interior features".
The full review is rather amusing: http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/47/4710/Flying_Scotsman/Caledonian_Road

 

[thornlea]

Great to see a lovely old building being used again. In Glasgow there is another old building recently coverted into a hotel in an area that used to be frequented by ladies of dusbious moral character - the Royal Scottish Automobile Club building in Blytheswood Square:
http://www.townhousecompany.com/blythswoodsquare/about_us/history.aspx

Kinross House is also due to be coverted as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinross_House

I hope that they convert Kinross House in a way that retains the charm of the old house- I don't think swish 'Russian mafia' marble conversion would be appropriate.

Jon

 

[Moo]

The Ladies' Smoking room.

If only .........

 

[Feltwell]

More on BBC website today:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/

 

[Penners]

That's great! I can't wait for an excuse to go and gawp at the interior. The exterior has long been one of my favourite buildings.

 

[philpjuk100]

Wonderful! just cast our vote in another George Gilbert Scott pile kelham hall.phil.