Restoration of the former Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras will return a national treasure to use. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s iconic building is being converted to 67 luxury apartments and a 245 room hotel, all perfectly located for regular Eurostar commuters using the adjoining St Pancras International Station. The apartments are sited on the second, third, fourth and fifth floors and were delivered in four phases, moving through the building in vertical sections from east to west. Developer Manhattan Loft Corporation and architects RHWL and Richard Griffiths Architects are carrying out the project. Before planning permission was granted, RHWL had to document every room of the building, surveying it down to the last detail. The building’s grade 1 listing meant English Heritage had to be consulted on the design process and approve interventions. The listed status made installation of plumbing and ventilation some of the most challenging aspects of the project. While ventilation could be provided by a multitude of chimneys and flues, plumbing was more problematic as the plaster on ceilings and walls could not be disturbed. Space was found in the very narrow void under the floors to house sprinkler pipes, cabling and ducts. Space and water heating in the apartments are electric. Apartments on the second and third floors are conversions of the hotel’s original state rooms, and period details retained and refurbished include cornices, mouldings, doors and fireplaces. The fourth and fifth floors contained the tiny rooms of the hotel workers and servants and these have been opened up and combined with roof spaces to create duplex and triplex apartments with double height spaces. While these units have a more contemporary feel, period details are visible, notably rose windows and beams. Probably the most unusual apartment of all is the one created in the building’s clock tower. It is a triplex with a floor to ceiling height of approximately 10 metres. The original iron staircase is retained, as well as the watchmaker’s hut at the top.
|
