Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

St Pancras was a young Roman executed aged 14 because he would not renounce his Christian faith.  This imposing St Pancras building is a landmark for all the right reasons – it is rather grand and gothic in style.  The red bricks were brought from the Midlands as part of a competition win to design the hotel.
 
The hotel puts me in mind of a well-to-do and well-fed lady of the day dressed very fussily, in layers of pet-ticoats, each layer showing a hint of ruffle, on top of which she wears a stunning red dress with panels cut out to reveal hints of that ruffle.  On her head she wears a bejewelled tiara; she cocks a snook, she answers to no one and is mistress of all she surveys for the past two centuries.
 
Inside, where traffic and a road once ran, has now become a lobby with fresh cream teas on stands and easy seating, which is an invitation to linger. However, I cannot help feel-ing the lobby was not over-indulged or opulent enough, not cosy, leaning too far towards contemporary for such a refined lady of great age!
 
This lady however will not give up her secrets willingly because on the ground floor are the largest and most splendid rooms with the entire luxuries one could need, costing £800 for the cheapest room.  Privately owned apartments at the top of the hotel, which once were servants quarters, cost £7-10 million.
 
Taking you to the upper floors is the most sensuous, extraordinarily ro-mantic double staircase you can imagine.  It is fit for queens; the to climb the stairs and then make a slow walk down is great. While extending one leg slowly in front of the other, suck in the air and head straight, all wearing a full dress
gown which appears to be hovering – and make an "entrance".

The most interesting function room I found was the ladies' smoking room, the first in Europe in which ladies could smoke in public.

The walls and ceilings are richly decorated with bold but pleasing-to-the-eye patterns and wallpaper. Wherever you view it, it looks equally splendid.

The only thing I found out of place were the works of art dotted around the hotel: they were too contemporary. It did not add to the space, neither did it show these works of art in a good light - besides they were swallowed up by ornate surroundings!

At the rear of the hotel is a sculpture of an embracing couple greeting or saying farewell in view of the railway.