BBC NEWS | UK | How St Pancras was chosen 

The reborn St Pancras has a soaring blue roof and champagne bar - and now hosts record-breaking continental rail services. But in the 1980s, the station was looking forlorn. It was "grossly underused", ... says John Prideaux, the rail executive whom many credit with pushing through its choice as Britain's continental rail hub. Railway competition made St Pancras magnificent, as the Midland Railway's directors strove to build a finer terminus than its rivals had already established at Euston and King's Cross. But competition also made it redundant when rationalisation set in. Merged first into the London Midland and Scottish (LMS) company based at Euston, then into British Railways, it went into decline. Empty and dark St Pancras plodded on through bombing in both world wars, the removal of its services to other stations, a merger plan that could have seen it turned into a sports hall, and rows over its fantasy gothic hotel. Its huge roof, only partially reglazed after wartime damage, made   [More...] [Less...]