History of St. Pancras Railway Station

The earliest demand for stations came from Midland Railway Company. Before 1860, the company's main services focused on the route between central and northern London, but there was no route to the central area of the capital. From 1840, Midland trains to and from London all stop at Euston Station, passing through London and Northwest Railway and a crossing in rugby. Soon, due to the expansion of services, traffic jams and train delays in football became commonplace. In the late crazy era of railway speculation, a new London railway line was put on the agenda at 1845. 1846, the planning of great north line was approved by the parliament, and 1847 approved a railway branch line from Leicester to Hitchens. At the same time of the great northern railway construction, the Midland branch line was abandoned on 1850 due to financial problems. Commercial pressure from Leicester, Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire (especially from William Whitbread, who owns 65,438+02% of the land around the line) has put the spur line back on the agenda. This bank was submitted to Parliament for approval on 1853. Construction started soon, but the construction speed was not fast-the line was not put into use until the middle of 1857. The capacity of Midland Railway Company increased greatly, and in the following seven years, it obtained the highest operating amount of 20,000 pounds. Now, the Midland Railway Company owns

The two railway lines in and out of London stop at Euston Station and King's Cross Station respectively. Railway traffic is growing rapidly, especially affected by coal trading-Midland Railway Company ranks fifth among all transportation companies entering London in 1852. 1862, due to the huge traffic pressure brought by the World Expo, Dabei Railway Company and Midland Railway Company have conflicts in capacity distribution. This is thought to have stimulated Midland to start building its own new production line. The construction of this line starts from 1862 to 10, with a total length of 80 kilometers, from Bedford to London. However, before this 186 1 year, Midland Company had started to buy a lot of land in St. Pancras.

St. Pancras was a famous slum at that time and was not liked by people. At that time, the landmarks in this area were Fleet River, Regent Canal, a gas plant, the old church of St. Pancras and a large cemetery. Midland Railway Company will set the new terminal next to "New Road" (later Euston Road), a few hundred meters east of Euston Station and near the west side of King's Cross Station. Although the church and gas plant brought trouble to the line construction, the original plan was to dig a tunnel through the canal like King's Cross Station. This area was a residential area at that time, with real estate in Summers Town and slums in Agal Town. The owner of the real estate sold the land at the price of 19500, and then drove all the residents away for free, so that he could get another 200. The church was demolished, but between 1868 and 1869, a new church was built in Kendish town, which cost 12000 to replace the old church.

Midland Company decided to connect this area with the new city line through a tunnel. The tunnel starts operation at 1863, and the train goes from Paddington to Farrington Street under Euston Road. The rugged ground and irregular plot shape brought great trouble to the design of the station, which inspired the establishment of Midland Railway Company.

They want to impress London with a cleverly designed station. They learned from the gorgeous decoration and famous vault of Euston Station, the successful design of Louis Kubit of King's Cross Station, the innovative iron and glass structure of Paddington Station, and the single-span roof design of Charing Cross Station and Cannon Street Station. Willaim henley Barlow, a consulting engineer from Midland Company, completed the first overall design of the space station. Barlow persuaded the company to change the original plan and raise the station by 6 meters with an iron frame. In this way, the frame can provide a usable basement space for the station, and the inbound train can cross the Regent Canal through a bridge instead of the planned tunnel. The 74-meter-wide vault designed by Barlow and Roland Mei Sen Otis was the largest vault at that time, which enabled the station to make maximum use of the space under the vault without obstacles. A wine is designed in the cross section of the front side of the station.

Shopping. The whole design passed at the beginning of 1865. 1865 In May, Midland Company held a competition to obtain the best concrete design for the station. 1 1 Architects were invited to participate in the competition and submitted their designs in August of the same year. 1866 65438+ 10, George Gilbert Scott's gothic revival design was selected. This design is controversial, because Scott's design cost is as high as 365,438+05,000, which is the highest among all designs. The grand facade of the station conforms to Midland's idea of building the most outstanding station in London, so it won the competition. Although the cost of the station has been reduced bit by bit through several revisions, the grand design of the station as a whole has remained.

Except that the ceiling was built separately, the construction budget of the station was originally 3 1 10,000 pounds, but after some disputes, Huaning brothers paid 320,000 pounds.

Winning the bid. The ceiling is handed over to Bartley, and the budget is 1 17000. /kloc-in the autumn of 0/864, the construction of the station began. The builders built a temporary bridge over the canal, destroying the towns of Summers and Agal. The actual construction of the station building was delayed for a long time due to technical problems, and it was not started until July 1866. In the process of building the ceiling, technical problems are not uncommon. The cemetery has caused the biggest problem-the main railway line passes through the cemetery through a bridge, and a branch line leading to the metropolitan line passes through this area through a tunnel. The construction party anticipated the problem of the remains, but it was not properly handled at first. Due to the disposal of human remains and coffins, the construction of the tunnel was greatly delayed. 1867+ 10 finally completed the construction of the connecting line.

The company hopes to complete the necessary construction before 1868 1. The freight station in Agal Town welcomed the first train in September, 1867, but the passenger service through the metropolitan line did not start until July, 1868. However, June 1 is not over yet. The last support of the ceiling was just installed in mid-September, and there are a large number of temporary buildings in the whole station. The first train is an express train to Manchester. During the journey of 156 km from Kent Town Station to Leicester, it never stopped, which set a world record at that time.

The basement of the station is used to store Burton-on-Trent beer barrels.

The construction of Midland Hotel didn't start until the middle of 1868. The hotel was designed by George Gilbert Scott and was not opened to the public until May 5th. 1873. The work of accessories became controversial because Midland cut Scott's extravagant expenses. At the end of 1876, Scott was paid and dismissed. The total cost of this building is 438,000 pounds. At first glance, the hotel building is a colorful Italian Gothic building-this is a response to john ruskin's Stone from Venice-but look closely, it absorbs the architectural styles of many countries in different periods. From this inclusive style, Scott saw that a new genre was about to be born.

Midland Railway Company carried out the next construction work. After opening lines to Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Carlisle, the company made some expansion. Generally speaking, the 20th century did not treat St. Pancras Station well. 192 1 The Railway Nationalization Act forced the Midland Railway Company to merge with the London and Northwest Railway (LNWR) to form the London, Midland and Scotland Railway (LMS). LMS uses Euston station of LNWR as its working point.

I'm at the terminal in London. Midland Hotel 1935 was closed, and the hotel building was used as an office building. In World War II, the ceiling of the station was destroyed by German bombing, and it was not restored until after the war. 1948, after British Railways was merged from major railway companies, the original LMS operation was not affected. Among the trains originating in London, the trains near London arrive in North Wolwich, St. Albans and Bedford; Long-distance trains go to Glasgow, Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester.

In the1960s, St. Pancras Station became redundant, and some people tried to close the station and demolish the hotel (now called St. Pancras Pavilion). This attempt attracted strong opposition from people headed by John Bategermain, the poet laureate at that time, and finally failed.

During the gradual departmentalization of 1986 British Railway, the trunk service to East Midlands was assigned to the Intercity Train Department (part of the former Midland Company), while the services to St. Albens, Luton and Bedford were assigned to the Southeast Railway Network. At the same time 1988, due to the completion of Thameslink, Snow Mountain Tunnel (English: en:Snow Hill tunnel) was reopened, so most suburban railway trains were diverted to this line. However, St. Pancras Station still only stops at Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield on the original Midland trunk line, and only a few trains stop at Bedford and Luton. As a result, the traffic at the station is so low that the station is almost no longer used.

1On April 28th, 996, after British Railways was privatized again, the long-distance train operation right of St. Pancras Station was awarded to Midland Main, a railway operator controlled by National Express Group. Some suburban railway trains still stop at St. Pancras station. Since March 2 1997, the operator is the Thames chain (English: Train Operating Company).

Midland Trunk Company once had an operation plan from St. Pancras Station to Newcastle and Manchester, but it was quickly shelved. Later, some trains traveled to and from Leeds. In 2000' s, the reorganization of the west coast trunk line gave St. Pancras another train to Manchester-this time through the Valley of Hope. Initially, the plan of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) was to connect the tunnel to the southeast of London, and then set up an underground station near King's Cross Station as the terminal. But later, this plan changed-thanks to the re-urbanization of East London promoted by then British Deputy Prime Minister Michael heseltine-and the route to London was changed to enter from the east. This makes the redundant St. Pancras Station a terminal-the North London Line at the throat of the station.

However, the idea of using the North London Line is considered unrealistic, which was rejected by John McGregor, then Minister of Transport, in 1994 on the grounds that it was "difficult to build and destroyed the environment". However, the core of the idea-using the idle San Pancras station as the terminal-remained. The new plan is to build a tunnel 20 kilometers long.

London and Continental Railway Company (LCR), which was established during the privatization of British railways, was selected to restart St. Pancras Station, build railway connections and operate Eurostar trains in Britain. LCR has always owned the operation right of St. Pancras Station since the privatization of British railways resumed its use. Although the financial difficulties of 1998 and the closure of Railtrack in 2000198 made some changes to the plan, LCR still reserved the right to operate St. Pancras Station.

The design and management of the reconstruction are carried out by RLE, a joint venture of several companies, on behalf of LCR. The earliest design was completed by Nick Derbyshire, head of the interior architectural design team of British Railway Company. The main detailed plan was completed by alastair Lansley of Foster Partners, a former colleague of Nick Derbyshire.

In order to accommodate the extra-long Eurostar train and provide a platform for domestic lines and commuter trains, the ceiling of the station will extend northward in the form of a flat roof. It is planned to build a 13 platform under the expanded roof. The train for East Midlands will stop at the platform on the west side, the Eurostar train will stop at the center, and the high-speed train for Kent will occupy several platforms on the east side. The platform of Eurostar and Midland train will extend to the original Barlow ceiling. Passengers who want to take the Eurostar train will pass through the departure hall on the west side of the station and then reach the platform through a bridge across the railway tracks. Passengers arriving through Eurostar will leave the station from the new hall in the north of the station.

This original plan was later modified, and passengers entered the Eurostar platform from below, which can maximize the function of the station basement. The overpass that blocked the view was cancelled. The Midland platform that entered the original ceiling was also cancelled, so that a light well could be opened on the platform floor to let natural light enter the basement. Before the expansion, in order to facilitate the transformation of the station, the catenary wire used in the suburban railway of the station electric power was removed. Therefore, all trains from Bedford and Luton are diverted to King's Cross Thames Railway Station.

In 2004, the eastern part of the expanded ceiling was completed, so the original ceiling was closed and rebuilt. From April 12, 2004, the Midland main train stopped at some temporary stations.

Since then, a "box" station has been expanded above the underground of the Thames connecting line on the west side of the expansion part, providing a platform for trains to stop at this line in the future. As part of the Thames Link passes under the expanded station, the tunnel from Kentish Town Station to King's Cross Thames Link Station was closed from 2004 1 October1to May 20051. In order to avoid this tunnel, the Thames line train from the north stops at the same temporary station as the Midland main line, while the train from the south stops at King's Cross Thames line station.

After the closed renovation, the new station is still just a concrete shell, which can't receive passengers. The train on the Thames chain resumed its original route and passed the newly-built station, but it didn't stop. The transformation of the "box" station is not included in the budget of CTRL, but another task of the Thameslink project. Operators wanted to see the "box" station and the new international part open at the same time, so they lobbied the government, but the government did not provide them with additional funds. As a result, after the line was closed, the station failed to start renovation immediately. Finally, on February 8, 2006, Alistair darin, then the British Minister of Transport, announced a reconstruction budget of 50 million pounds and construction funds of 6,543,800 to 6,543,805 million railway signals.

In 2005, the plan to transform and expand the original Midland Hotel into a hotel and apartment was approved.

In mid-2006, the western part of the station expansion project was completed. On July 14 of the same year, the main train in Midland was moved from the temporary station in the east to the official station in the west.

According to the broadcast of BBC Radio 2 on June 5438+065438+ 10, 2007, the total investment in the expansion of the station is about 800 million pounds, while the original estimate is 3 10 million pounds. From June 30, 2007 to June 30, 2007, Eurostar conducted a test: * * 6000 people took part in the test, which involved ticket checking, passenger flow control and train departure. These testers all left the station three times by train, walked to the tunnel outside the station and returned. On June 4th, 2007, 165438+ The first Eurostar test train departed from Paris North Station and arrived at Saint Pancras Station. Quentin Blake, a children's illustrator, was commissioned to paint an "imaginary welcoming procession" on a huge mural to cover the crumbling old building opposite the station exit.

After the reopening of St. Pancras Station, it was officially renamed as "St. Pancras International Railway Station". On June 6th, 2007, accompanied by Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II opened the first high-speed railway.

I am very happy to officially open the first high-speed railway-the first high-speed railway in Britain, and reopen the magnificent St. Pancras International Railway Station.

At the elaborate launching ceremony, Timothy West gave a speech as Henry Barlow. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, singers Ma Le and katherine jenkins also performed. In the elaborate railway theater, the first British Railway EMU 395 and two Eurostar trains pulled into the station in the smoke made by dry ice.

The Eurostar train service opened to the public began in June 2007165438+1October 14. In a small ceremony, the staff cut the ribbon for the Eurostar platform.

Although the trains to Kent were empty before 2009, the layout of the station has not changed. In the same month that Eurostar opened, the station

The domestic line in China has been opened-still in the traditional direction of East Midlands, but the operator has become the East Midlands train with the same name. On February 9, 2007, 65438, the low-level Times online service was launched. This also means the closure of King's Cross Thames Station. With the final use of San Pancras Station on these lines, the operators of these lines changed hands to connect to the first capital on April 1 2006.