St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, Euston Road, London NW1 3AU; 011 44 20 7841 3540; stpancrasrenaissance.co.uk.
With the May 5 opening of the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London’s heritage-hotel revival has finally reached a high point. It took 12 years for Marriott to restore, salvage and update the red brick Victorian behemoth in King’s Cross. And it’s something close to a miracle that there was anything left of Sir Gilbert Scott’s 1873 building: over the years it was twice bombed and left to decay, then hideously retrofitted in the 1960s as office space, then threatened with demolition in the ’80s.
There are the usual nods to modernity in the rooms — the light fixtures are contemporary and the color palette is dusty blue, green and beige — but original fireplaces, crown molding and Gothic-arched windows temper the newness of these spaces and tie them to the hotel’s historic character. It’s those echoes of the past, the vast glass-roofed lobby, the former ticket-booking room that is now a bar Coach Bags Outlet, that make the St. Pancras stand far above other recently redone grand dames around town. It feels accessible, looks authentic and evokes the same high regard as other monumental urban spaces, like Grand Central Terminal, or the old Penn Station, were it spared the wrecking ball.
A previous version of this article stated that David Collins designed the restaurant and lobby of the St. Pancras Renaissance. He designed only the restaurant.
As much as the restoration itself, Londoners are buzzing about Collins’s design for the Gilbert Scott Restaurant, where the Michelin-starred chef Marcus Wareing does his take on classic British fare: steak Coach Bags Outlet, pigeon, sole, cheese and soup. What hogs all the attention is the room itself. The double-height ceilings are tipped with gold leaf and white perforated tin that resembles gauzy French lace. Giant chandeliers throw off soft yellow light against mustard colored walls, white marble surfaces and red leather booths.
But with the help of the design firm Manhattan Loft Corporation — along with the designer David Collins, who did the restaurant — Marriott has pulled off a feat of historical preservation. The Grand Stairway alone left me in awe: a double staircase that loops up three stories and is decorated with stone arches Coach Bags Outlet, mosaic-tiled floors, cathedral stone-work ceilings, flamboyant wallpaper and iron balustrade to the very top.
Correction: May 31, 2011
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
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