Abstract
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">St Pancras Railway Station, London (UK), has recently undergone alterations that have variously been described as conservation, restoration, refurbishment and rejuvenation, to become the new terminal for Eurostar. This article aims to evaluate the recent changes and relate them to current conservation ethics. Observations were made on site, derived from research in published literature and were assessed according to principles of conservation. The article concludes that, in the recent developments, conservation ethics have been drawn upon in an inconsistent fashion, and that the best description for the rebirth of the station is ‘recycling’. Investigation of the ‘conservation’ of significant items of national heritage, like St Pancras, is essential for formulating future standards and evaluating our own perceptions and the diversity of possible interpretations of conservation terminology.</span></span>
Highlights
St Pancras is a Grade I1 listed 19th century mainline railway station situated on Euston Road (London, UK)
This study briefly examines the history of the station, current conservation ethics and the principles of building conservation
St Pancras has been transformed into a major transportation hub, but can be seen as a monument to how we currently treat our built heritage
Summary
St Pancras is a Grade I1 listed 19th century mainline railway station situated on Euston Road (London, UK) (figure 1). St Pancras was built at the dawn of railway expansion and industrial revolution but subsequently became architecturally unfashionable, disfigured by pollution and deterioration, disused and almost demolished. Its recent transformation into St Pancras International has created an impression of perfection that belies its age to the uninitiated. The role of conservation and restoration, and the station’s historical significance is concealed. St Pancras epitomises the struggle between preservation and use. Its extensive alterations to become the High Speed and Eurostar terminal display examples of both following and contradicting conservation principles
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