It’s now been renovated, refurbished, given a big posh polish and pushed upmarket, but back in 2001, St Pancras railway station was a different place.
When I visited in May 2001, the glorious original wood panelled booking office was still in use. Shame about the modern BR signage though.
Carved into the exterior wall of the station was this seventy year old graffiti, presumably inscribed by a visiting London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS&R) employee who was there in 1932, 1933, 1934 and 1935. I’m guessing the ‘SM’ part could mean signalman.
Looking towards Euston Road.
A diesel train lets off a thick plume of smoke before departing for the north.
The station remains a marvel of Victorian Gothic architecture.
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the place was even grottier in the 80s – along with class 45s and ageing Mk 1 coaching stock, and knackered ‘Bed-Pan’ DMUs. The wooden panelled ticket office was out of use then and just visible through a mucky window in a locked door, and the whole place (along with a lot of the railway network) had an air of impending doom. I must see if I can find any photos…
And think the S.M. is more likely just to be someone’s initials than ‘signalman’
Re: the carvings in the brickwork. I heard that it was a schoolboy on his way to or back from a public school northwards. Rugby maybe.
RHB
just shows what can be done pity so many beautiful buildings have been destroyed
@ Puddy_tat I remember St Pancras in the 1980s.I used to travel regularly back to my home town of Kettering .Grotty to sum up in one word! The rail tracks strewn with rubbish and effluent (for in these days the train toilets flush directly onto the tracks!).Nice in the Summer heat! The roofs and walls black with Diesel fumes! (yes mainly Class 45s 46s and the odd 47).Grimy ,dirty public toilets and down at heel bars/cafes..A recent visit many years later to catch a Eurostar to Brussels I couldn`t believe the transformation! A very well done to all who made it possible. P.S. the bed- pan units (317s)couldn`t have been knackered in the 80s they were nearly new then!
@Chris Green. Puddy_tat was referring to the DMUs which preceded the class 317s (which are EMUs not DMUs).
@drivingiron
Indeed I was – I was thinking early 80s although I’d forgotten it was as early as 1983 that the the 317s entered service.
Class 127 DMUs to be precise, e.g. http://www.flickr.com/photos/60539035@N02/5565633798/ (not my picture, just one I found)
@ Chris Green – Unfortunately the trains on the East Anglia main line still flush onto the tracks!