St Pancras in Spheroview
May 14, 2007
The deteriorated Gothic splendour of George Gilbert Scott’s railway hotel at St Pancras station, London, in a series of 360 degree views. The empty building looks distinctly creepy in many of these panoramas, like unused maps for a computer game.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The panoramas archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Adolph Sutro’s Gingerbread Palace
7 comments or trackbacks
#1 posted by Wiley
May 14th, 2007
Whoa, the full screen option is trippy as hell when looked at in the dark.
#2 posted by John
May 14th, 2007
The big views are cool indeed.
#3 posted by Martin Jones
May 14th, 2007
An Alice In Wonderland playground for London’s jaded commuters. Lost men in bowler hats wander up and down the stairs for eternity. St Pancras always LOOKS like the station you should be alighting from, rather than Kings Cross. The last time I stepped out there was in 2006, to see The Cramps. Fitting. Deranged chambers of the mind. “All I wanna do is join the happy crowd behind the green door…”
#4 posted by Nathalie
May 15th, 2007
It does look more like a theater set than a (discarded?) hotel.
#5 posted by John
May 15th, 2007
Martin: I agree, I’ve had a fondness for Victorian stations since early childhood and the sight of the old North Station at Blackpool. They demolished that (of course!) and replaced it with a horrible concrete barn that makes Euston look classy.
Nathalie: I seem to remember reading about a theatre group putting on a performance there where you had to walk around the place (with guides) and actors would appear and do their bit. I forget the details, I think they were supposed to be ghosts of dead workers or something. And I think it’s been used in TV productions as well.
#6 posted by marly youmans
Mar 5th, 2009
Came back to look at this and the other architecture-in-decay pictures again. They are fascinating–the world’s best parkhour playground, I suppose.
#7 posted by Giacomo Fosscati
Feb 14th, 2011
In the winter of 1987 or 88 I broke into this hotel and spent many hours exploring it. It was completely empty and very spooky. It was one of the most exciting experiences of my entire life – maybe the most exciting because of the clandestine nature of my trespassing.
I preferred it in its derelict state because the presence of its past was palpable. Accessing derelict buildings was much easier in the 70s and 80s and has now become almost impossible due to security and to the absence of decent dereliction.