ACCORDING to Trip Advisor there are 1060 hotels in London.
While some have been operating for decades, like the Savoy and Dorchester, others have only been welcoming guests for a few months and one of the new kids on the block is the subtly opulent Renaissance St Pancras which has only been operating since the middle of May.
While this hotel is technically a baby, it has a long and colourful history thanks to the building it occupies.
The Renaissance is set inside an almost theatrical structure that first opened in 1837, and it was built by the Midland Railway Company as part of its London station in the suburb of King’s Cross to accommodate those passengers starting and finishing their journeys at St Pancras Station.
Famous British architect Gorge Gilbert Scott – he drew up the plans for 800 of the churches and cathedrals that were built in the UK during the Victorian era – designed the monumental red-brick building and, the story goes, he let his hair down after having to be conservative on another project.
He was commissioned to create a design for the London’s foreign office around the same time the Midland Railway Company put him to work and when his gothic design was rejected by the government, and he was asked to submit something of a more "more classical" appearance, he used all the rejected flourishes to create the magnificent railway hotel.
It was, is, and will continue to be the one of the English capital’s greatest gothic structure.
"It was an extreme example of a railway hotel, it was the Midland Railway Company showing off," explains Caroline Drayton, the head of public relations at the new St Pancras hotel.
"All the materials used in the construction came from the English Midlands, everything was brought to London by train."
The redevelopment of the old railways hotel, which had sat empty since 1935, was even more impressive because it began before the Eurostar service began using St Pancras Station.
First 67 private residences were constructed in the upper floors – one, two, three and four-bedroom apartments that sold off the plan in just a month – and then the handsome five-star hotel was created.
There are now 38 suites in the old building, with the wing known as The Chambers because that was how Victorian guests referred to the property, with another 245 rooms in a new tower called Barlow House that copied Scott’s design down to the finest detail.
"The extension was built at the back of the building," Caroline explains during a tour of the hotel.
"British Heritage would not allow it to be constructed unless it was in keeping with the original St Pancras hotel, which is the external look of the building, because that structure is grade-one listed.
"Now Barlow House is also grade-one listed, and that’s by association because it is an extension of this original part."
Each of the 38 suites in The Cambers is unique – the best use of the existing space had to be made when carving up the floors to accommodate the luxury rooms, so no two are the same – but each dwelling is modern and elegant with a serene colour scheme.
The Grand Staircase is the most famous part of the Gothic building, and it was used in a Spice Girls' video during the years it was abandoned.
The Grand Staircase is the most famous part of the Gothic building, and it was used in a Spice Girls' video during the years it was abandoned.
"The Victorians changed the decoration scheme frequently, so we found layer upon layer of wallpaper when we were renovating the space," the PR director explains.
"British Heritage came in and looked at what was there and advised us on what to bring back and while the tiling is original, the carpet is an exact copy of what was down there before, and the fleur de lis is a copy of the 1901 pattern."
The space the expansive lobby now occupies was once a road, still taking traffic as recently as 2004, and in the 19th century horse-drawn taxis would come through to drop people at the booking office.
The booking office is now a bar, with all the original woodwork decorating the cavernous space, and because the lane was always covered the roof in the lobby is authentic with stone pavers and granite slabs have been used to recreate the "original pavement".
The other space worth mentioning is the Royal Suite – the sizeable apartment that sits on the first level near the Grand Staircase in what was once the original railways hotel’s posh Veranda Ballroom – and it costs now £10,000 to inhabit the four-bedroom dwelling that has a vast open-pan living and dining area.
I was lucky enough to stay in The Chambers and I appreciated every chapter in the building’s history when I relaxed in room or walked the long hallways.
As a Chambers’ guest I had access to The Chambers Club, the hotel’s executive lounge, and it was a quiet and graceful place to have breakfast or afternoon tea, or just sit and check emails while enjoying a drink between meetings.
From my suite on the third floor I had to walk down the Grand Staircase to get to the second level, then along the main corridor, and finally down another set of steps into the Chambers Club.
This second staircase sat inside a big picture window, which looked across the St Pancras platforms and the Eurostar trains arriving and departing, and every time I walked down the sweeping steps that were covered by a plush scarlet carpet the timber creaked and groaned under my feat.
And that's exactly what you want from an historic hotel – handsome elegance, modern comfort, and a few steps that groan with age and experience.
