A Statue Of A Lady In Stilettos
I’ve noticed the statue called The Meeting Place by Paul Day in St. Pancras station many times.
But I think it must be the only statue I know, where a lady is wearing stiletto-heeled shoes.
The Beach Comes To St. Pancras
I took this picture at St. Pancras station yesterday on my way to Broadstairs.
The Beach Comes To St. Pancras
There didn’t appear to be a spare deck-chair.
Off To Broadstairs Today
In a moment, I leave for St. Pancras to get the fast train to Broadstairs, ostensibly to have lunch and a few sherbets with an old mate.
I have memories of the town, where we used to go to visit my father’s brother. I always thought that he never fathered any children, until I met one of his grandsons, who traced back to a wartime bigamous marriage. Every family has skeletons and mine has more than most.
The strangest thing now, is that when I go on a trip like this, I now make sure the house is tidy before I leave.
A Chocolate Brownie At Pattiserie Valerie
Patisserie Valerie was one of C’s favourite places for coffee, although she didn’t usually have one of their cakes.
A couple of weeks ago, I had a cup of tea in their cafe at Kings Cross station with a friend.
Pattiserie Valerie At Kings Cross Station
As it is in a generous-sized china cup and I was in the station again getting tickets for a trip tomorrow, I decided to have another tea today. On asked if I’d like anything else, I said that I was gluten-free and that I didn’t think they had anything, But I was wrong, as the picture shows.
A Chocolate Brownie At Pattiserie Valerie
Although it was plastic wrapped, it was one of the best brownies I’ve ever tasted. Plastic wrapping is acceptable to preserve gluten-free status, when the cake is of this level of quality.
The large cup of tea and the brownie was reasonably priced at £4.60.
Kings Cross station and its neighbour St. Pancras are getting to be very far removed from the tired memories of British Rail’s curled sandwiches and dreadful coffee of the past.
i know it is the policy of Network Rail to take this good food route and they are to be congratulated on their approach.
I Missed The Match
I didn’t get to the match at Ipswich on Saturday, as although the Eurostar was on time in London, by the time I got home, it was too late to get a train to the start of the match.
The delays hadn’t been serious, but I wasted ten or fifteen minutes because of a broken Cashpoint, queues at WH Smith for my paper and then no taxis at Kings Cross. I then had to take the Victoria line to Highbury and Islington station and I waited another ten minutes for a bus to get home.
Of course, if they had left luggage lockers, at any of the stations, like St. Pancras, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street or Ipswich, I could have quickly dumped my case and got to the match on time.
But as Ipswich Town lost, I wasn’t too bothered by the evening.
Blankets At Carluccio’s In St. Pancras Station
Carluccio’s in St. Pancras Station has started issuing customers with blankets.
Blankets At Carluccio’s In St. Pancras Station
I’m not sure, but I’ve used that restaurant for some years now and I’ve never seen the blankets before. A few customers outside had the blankets wrapped snuggly over their laps and around their legs.
Has this winter been that bad? Or are we all getting soft and feel the cold more?
I did find the blankets mentioned in Trip Advisor for March 20th this year.
I Brought My Piano To A Station And Someone Asked Me To Play
I took this photograph at St. Pancras station this morning.
Piano And Pianist At St. Pancras Station
It would appear it’s a street piano and that the music and the musicians are well liked.
Meeting A Friend At Kings Cross
On Monday, I met a friend, who was travelling from Edinburgh to her daughter’s in Buckinghamshire. A few years ago, this would have been difficult, but now we met and walked into St. Pancras for supper before taking a taxi to Marylebone.
The pictures show the new ticket hall.
We could have ate in any number of places in King’s Cross, including the excellent Leon, whereas a few years ago, it would have just been sandwiches.
The one problem with meeting someone is that as the arrivals area is not finished yet, there is no obvious place to wait. But that will hopefully be sorted when the 1960s extension has been consigned to the dustbin.
London has two of the finest stations in the world sitting side-by-side on Euston Road. It all makes Euston, which is just up the road even more of a dump.
One of the ironies of all of this rebuilding, is that in ten years time, I suspect I’ll think that King’s Cross will be the better station, as it is growing into a superb fusion of the old and the modern. But then I always have a soft spot for Kings Cross as I can remember the A4 Gresley Pacifics in the station. These must be the most iconic steam engines ever produced in the UK.
Does St. Pancras Station Need A Second Clock?
As I sat in Carluccio’s having my coffee yesterday, I could only see the clock behind me, with a bit of difficulty.
So I got to thinking, that St. Pancras station might need a clock at the other end.
Treating The Buried With Respect
In the September 2012 edition of Modern Railways, there is a small article about the reburying of 300 people from old burial grounds discovered during the building of a new rail flyover that carries the trains for Charing Cross over the top of Borough Market.
Apparently, the novelist Thomas Hardy was involved in the removal of bodies, when St. Pancras station was built in the 19th Century.
I think in this day and age, it was good to see that Network Rail ensured that the new burials in a special plot at the new Kemnal Park cemetery were respectful and echoed how funerals were conducted at the time of the original burials. There is a series of photos here.
The Anonymous Widower 