St Pancras Hotel & British Library

On June 6th, the day of the London Salon of Photography Exhibition opening, Sue McGilveray and I headed into London to do a bit of photography before the event.  While walking past the St Pancras Hotel, a very kind security guard invited us in to take some pictures of the interior.  Brilliant!  After about 30 minutes, however, a different security guard asked me to leave as I was taking too many pictures.  Not quite so brilliant.

I should confess that I have a bit of a "thing" about high Victorian gothic architecture, and I've always wanted to get inside George Gilbert Scott's amazing edifice.  I wasn't disappointed - other than being restricted to the ground floor.

Having been evicted from the hotel, Sue and I walked round the corner to have a look at the British Library.  Quite a place, but sadly we didn't have very long there.

St Pancras and King's Cross

Because of my innate aversion to London, I hadn't been to the capital for quite some time.  The last occasion I went there was no Shard, for example, and the twin stations of St Pancras and King's Cross had yet to be renovated.  Time to do a bit of catching up.

Astonishingly there was a wedding taking place in St Pancras station.  I wonder if Sir John Betjeman was on the guest list, or whether he gate-crashed the party?

The new concourse at King's Cross is truly amazing, and a huge improvement on what was there before.

Maybe it will be another five years before I brave going to London again?  I'm just not a "city person" at heart...