The romance of the railway will be rekindled on Monday when the former Midland Grand Hotel in London reopens its doors as the five-star St Pancras Renaissance Hotel after a £150 million restoration.
Seventy-six years after its last guest checked out, the Victorian Gothic edifice, which in recent years has provided a suitably eerie backdrop for films such as the Harry Potter series, Batman and Richard III, will once again start welcoming paying customers.
In contrast with the over-the-top extravagance of Sir George Gilbert Scott’s design, Monday’s opening will be an understated affair — a “soft opening”, in hotel parlance — with only 50 of its 245 rooms available and one of its two restaurants dishing up food.
As a Renaissance hotel, an upmarket member of America’s utilitarian Marriott International hotel group, the interior has not been quite as opulently appointed as recently reopened rivals such as the Savoy and the Four Seasons on Park Lane, or the Corinthia Hotel, which is soon to open on Whitehall. But the interior, most notably the grand staircase, is nevertheless striking, making full use of the high ceilings and huge windows and its location overlooking the spectacular St Pancras International Eurostar terminal.
The Grade I listing — imposed in the 1960s to save the building from demolition — meant that there was plenty of scope for extravagantly over-budget expenditure, as Harry Handelsman, the property entrepreneur behind the project, knows all too well. The £150 million cost of restoring the hotel compares with an original budget of about £60 million. The total cost, including the development of 67 luxury apartments, is about £200 million.
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He cites the example of the Gilbert Scott Suite, where fragments of the original, rare wallpaper were found behind a mirror. “We told English Heritage and before we knew it had cost us another £47,000. But how much better is it to see the room with the original wallpaper rather than simply painted?”
Mr Handelsman, who owns the Manhattan Loft Corporation, became involved in the project in 1997, alongside Whitbread. But when the leisure operator — then a Marriott franchisee — withdrew from the project, the German-born entrepreneur opted to acquire the 250-year lease himself with Lord Fink, the hedge fund manager, as his financial partner.
Guests checking in after Monday’s opening will be able to eat and drink in the Booking Office Bar & Restaurants, located in the original station booking office. But it will not be until the grand opening on May 5 — 138 years to the day since the Midland Grand first opened for business — that they will have access to the full range of facilities, including the spa and the Gilbert Scott Restaurant, run under the auspices of Marcus Wareing, the two-Michelin-starred chef.
Despite the cost overruns, Mr Handelsman believes that the St Pancras Renaissance will still make him money, although he insists that it has long since become more than just about money. “For decades the building has been hidden behind this glorious façade. It needs to be seen in all its glory. It has turned into a massive financial commitment, but I feel an emotional attachment.”
Who said the romance of the railway was dead?
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Grandeur restored
1873 year of the original opening
10 years to complete the refurbishment
60m bricks in the building
173 diamonds carved into the wood panelling in the booking office
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6 treatment rooms in the spa
£300 a night for a standard room
£10,000 a night for Royal Suite
Source: Times research