Geograph - photograph every grid square

Built in 1868-74 to the designs of George Gilbert Scott. A highlight of British architecture, a dazzling display of Victorian self-confidence, to produce which Scott plundered all manner of sources (including Lombardic Gothic, Venetian Gothic, Milan, Winchester Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Amiens) and quarries (materials include Ancaster, Mansfield and Ketton stone, Gripper's patent Nottingham bricks, grey and red granite). However it has divided architectural opinion and not until 1977 did British Rail rule out demolition. Ian Nairn refers almost in passing to Scott's "clever ... and incredibly heartless [concoction]" and refers to it as a "competent reckoning up of fees-per-crocket". Had this been the case Scott surely would have bankrupted the Midland Railway Company. One of the issues for critics such as Nairn is the contrast between the ostentation of Scott's front and the functional splendour of William Barlow's shed hiding behind, and the contrast between this discord and the harmony of King's Cross station next door. Grade I listed.
After years as railway offices, it languished for much of the 1980s before being restored as a hotel and flats from the 1990s.
View from the other end: TQ3082 : St Pancras Station and Midland Grand Hotel, Euston Road (2).
Close-ups: TQ3082 : Detail of St Pancras Station and Midland Grand Hotel, Euston Road (1), TQ3082 : Detail of St Pancras Station and Midland Grand Hotel, Euston Road (2), TQ3082 : Detail of St Pancras Station and Midland Grand Hotel, Euston Road (3), and TQ3082 : Detail of St Pancras Station and Midland Grand Hotel, Euston Road (4).