St. Pancras Hotel to Reopen as Renaissance

The original St. Pancras train station and the Midland Grand Hotel were designed and built by Victorian Architect Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1873. By 1935, the hotel was considered outdated and became offices for the railway company.

In 2007 at a cost of £800 million (US$1.3 billion), the railway station reopened as St. Pancras International station, the terminus for Eurostar trains. Once scheduled for demolition, the station is a central part of the city’s modern life and its architectural heritage. It is regarded as one of the most important buildings in the capital, itself a tourist attraction in the King’s Cross area.

Marriott International’s upscale Renaissance Hotels arm, will manage the hotel under contract with owner Manhattan Loft Corporation. The brand now has more than 140 properties in 28 countries.

Ed White, director of sales and marketing, Renaissance St. Pancras Hotel London

Ed White, director of sales and marketing for the St. Pancras hotel, said the historic nature of the station has made for an interesting renovation: “The challenge is that it is a Grade I (English Heritage) listed status building, which is a fantastic positive, but also how you look after a building of that nature is something you need to be aware of because you can’t treat it like a new building. We do have a new section at the back of the building that will have all the (modern conveniences) in terms of flat-screen televisions and audiovisual connectivity and that’s where the modern twist comes ... It’s fusing that old history with new technologies”. 

The £150-million (US$237.9 million) restoration by Manhattan Loft Corporation in conjunction with London & Continental Railways, occupies the first two floors of the building. The floors above already open to private apartments. With the addition of Barlow House, a new 120,000-square-foot extension, there will be 245 guestrooms.

As well as modern facilities, such as a swimming pool, unique aspects of the old hotel have been kept, such as the Ladies Smoking 

The restoration will preserve original elements of the building, such as the booking office featured here.

 Room—the first room in Europe that women were allowed to smoke in which, with high ceilings, ornate decoration and huge arched windows leading out onto a terrace, will now be an event space. The Chambers Suites will overlook the Eurostar concourse and all materials have been matched as closely as possible to the originals. A celebrity-chef restaurant, a destination bar and entrance to the hotel both from the station and from the street aim to attract passers-by as well as London-based trade.

It is the historic character of the building that will help bolster sales in a rapidly expanding competitor market.

“The London hotel market in the last six months particularly is in a situation of recovery”, White said. “In St. Pancras we are building a destination hotel in a phenomenally historic public space, with historic suites that are unlike anything in London. People use the Eurostar for once-in-a-lifetime trips across Europe. There will be people who want to experience the whole romance of train travel, the history … and that will want to buy these suites. When you look at hotels like the Savoy, Claridge’s (Mayfair) … they have suites that they sell all year round”.

Sales in the first two weeks of opening the books are indeed being made, with reservations for individuals as well as groups, corporate bookings and banqueting events, according to White.

Rates will start at £300 (US$476) a night. The 38 suites culminate in a 362-square-metre presidential suite, which is the old Venetian ballroom for the hotel, with three bedrooms and rates of up to £8,000 (US$12,691) a night.

White maintained performance is not going to be an issue. 

“The Renaissance brand is directed at the ‘discoverer’ so the traveller that wants to appreciate the city that they’re visiting”, he said. “They have a passion for fine wines, good food … everything of this nature. And with St. Pancras there’s so much history—where do you begin? People want that quintessentially English experience, from the history of the building, to how the staff are dressed and the style of service and delivery … the quintessentially British experience is going to appeal to a lot of people, particularly those from overseas, the North Americas, India, China, those from emerging economies and of course from Europe”.

White sees the openings and reopening of several competitors (the Savoy, Four Seasons Park Lane and W Leicester square to name but a few) as a positive.

• Read “London’s luxury hotel boom.”

“If anything, the boom is actually a good thing”, he said. “If it had been two years ago, with the economy and cost cutting within many corporate markets, things might be different. But as we are launching in 2011 the recovery in the hotel industry is well underway and all the PR and marketing are pulling for London as a destination for luxury and lifestyle travel, I think that only adds to what we’re trying to do’.

Indeed, when the project was first announced in 2006, St. Pancras was scheduled to open in 2009.

“It is not a huge hotel comparatively in the market and obviously from the performance side of things that will have an impact – it’s easier to achieve occupancy”, White said. “But it also means that the service level isn’t being lost. It’s quite intimate, it’s well staffed, there’s a lot of attention to detail. It makes it easier to become more luxury and lifestyle focused, and then promote intent to return and intent to recommend”.