St Pancras International - home of the Eurostar

The Eurostars at St Pancras - sketched from Carluccios
8" x 11.5", pencil and coloured pencils in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Continuing the visit by the RWS Friends Sketching Group to St Pancras Station, this is the sketch I made of the Eurostar trains from the end of their very long platforms. Only one of them pulled out of the station before I'd finished!

St Pancras

The station has a very long history and is associated with some celebrated architecture.

St Pancras is often termed the ‘cathedral of the railways’, and includes two of the most celebrated structures built in Britain in the Victorian era. The main train shed, completed in 1868 by the engineer William Henry Barlow, was the largest single-span structure built up to that time. The frontage of the station is formed by St Pancras Chambers, formerly the Midland Grand Hotel (1868–1877), an impressive example of Victorian gothic architecture.
Wikipedia - St Pancras

Its main purpose, until recently, was to act as the southern terminus of trains arriving from the cities of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield, and smaller towns in between.

However, in recent years it has had a major makeover and was re-opened in November 2007 with a new identity as St Pancras International - the London station which is now home to the Eurostar trains which travel to Europe via the Channel Tunnel.

The Eurostar

The Eurostar enables people to take a train direct from London to Paris, Brussels or Lille - and at certain times of the year direct to Avignon and Disneyland Resort Paris. I hadn't realised they did a direct train to Avignon - I shall have to go and study the prices!

At this time of year there is also a ski train direct to the French Alps. You can check out more details of how to travel at the Eurostar website and also see all the other places it's possible to travel to using connections.