St Pancras Renaissance Hotel: The 'Real' King's Cross

The St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London is a Gothic Revival architectural masterpiece designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott that served as the exterior for King's Cross Station in the Harry Potter movies. Originally opened in 1873 as the Midland Grand Hotel, it was constructed using 60 million bricks and 9,000 tonnes of ironwork. Poet Sir John Betjeman saved the historic building from planned demolition in the 1960s.

London Β· from the walk β€œMuggle London, Wizarding Secrets” Β· audio ~4 min Β· Generated

St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, Euston Road, London NW1 2AR

Why was the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel used as King's Cross Station in the Harry Potter films?

Look up at this building. Those soaring towers, those wild Gothic spires clawing at the sky... This is the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, and it's the Real King's Cross. At least... it is in the world of Harry Potter.......... You see, here's the irony. The filmmakers felt this building looked More like King's Cross than King's Cross itself! So when they needed an exterior shot of the famous station, they pointed the cameras right here instead.......... In Chamber of Secrets, they used the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel as the entrance to King's Cross Station, with Arthur Weasley's car parked just outside. Ron then has the idea of using the Ford Anglia to catch up with the Hogwarts Express, and they fly off over this clock tower — which, once again, was standing in for King's Cross. And then, years later, in the "nineteen years later" sequence at the end of Deathly Hallows Part Two, the scene begins with a view of this very façade, which once More stood in for King's Cross.......... But the Real magic of this place goes much deeper than the movies.......... Originally opened in eighteen seventy-three as the Midland Grand Hotel, it was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic Revival style... and was heralded as a grand destination for the thrilling age of steam — the last and most extravagant of the great railway hotels.......... Now here's a story most people don't know. This building has been described as "the gorgeous fruit of his great disappointment." Scott had fought to build the Foreign Office in Whitehall in his beloved Gothic style, but was forced to give way and deliver a neo-classical building instead. The new Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, feared that — left to himself — Scott would "gothicise" the whole of London. So when Scott got the St Pancras commission... he poured Every ounce of his Gothic ambition into This building. His revenge in brick and stone.......... Constructed with sixty million bricks and nine thousand tonnes of ironwork, the hotel stood as a marvel of Victorian engineering. It featured innovations like revolving doors, hydraulic lifts, and fireplaces in every room. And yet... it only had eight bathrooms for three hundred rooms — which eventually helped seal its fate. By the nineteen thirties, the hotel had closed its doors, and the building fell into disrepair.......... Then came the darkest chapter. By the nineteen sixties, there were plans to demolish the station and hotel to make way for modern developments. The wrecking balls were reportedly just Ten days away. But poet Sir John Betjeman and his colleague Jane Hughes Fawcett at the Victorian Society led a ferocious campaign to save the building. And he was successful — in nineteen sixty-seven, the building was awarded Grade One listed status, which meant it was protected.......... Today, there is a bronze statue of Betjeman inside the station. It shows him clad in suit and mackintosh, holding his hat as he gazes up at the roof — forever admiring the beauty he fought to save. The inscription at its base reads simply: "John Betjeman... poet, who saved this glorious station."

...... So next time you watch Harry and Ron flying that blue Ford Anglia over the clock tower... remember. This building survived something far more dramatic than anything in the wizarding world. It survived being Forgotten.

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