During World War I the station suffered very little damage from Zeppelin air raid attacks, but the more powerful explosives of the Second World War were to prove more testing. The trainshed was taken to task in October 1940 when a night raid on 15th of that month obliterated a significant area of the roof, the glazing of the northern façade succumbing at this time. Much of the glass within the roof itself was also shattered at this time and was subsequently replaced with slate. Whilst the Butterley Company of Derbyshire had tested the strength of the station’s vaulted basement in 1867, when erecting the trainshed roof, it would be a Luftwaffe bomb which would conduct a second and final experiment. In May 1941, one of these managed to reach the basement by passing through both the trainshed and wrought-iron floor, exploding on impact. The former hotel, tightly packed with layers of brick, wrought-iron and concrete, stood firm, and the trainshed remained similarly unaltered.
It was left to British Railways to modernise the station and repair the majority of the damage sustained during the war years. In the late 1950s, an effort was made to restore the booking office and bomb-damaged roof. With reference to the latter, ironwork was repaired and replaced, then repainted, and sections of slate were removed in favour of glass, to brighten the platforms up. This would have been especially welcoming, smoke from locomotives making the trainshed a somewhat dark environment. However, it was the combination of the steam locomotive and the spectacular architecture which made St Pancras somewhat magical and evocative. The sleepy nature of such a large terminus was also unique within the capital. Furthermore, compared to other London termini, St Pancras had managed to keep hold of its semaphore signals for a long period of time, its counterparts having been subject to colour lights since the Grouping era. Despite these classic bygone characteristics, further modernisation was on the horizon: semaphores went out of use when a new ‘’power box’’ was installed to replaced all mechanical cabins in 1957, this and colour lights coming into use on 7th October of that year. Next, a departure indicator screen was erected across the thresholds of the platforms in 1963, and four years earlier, food and drink trading outlets had been opened. The booking office received a long overdue sprucing of its oak panelling, combined with a new, lower ceiling.
Some very significant proposals began coming to light in the mid-1960s, in the face of rationalisation and severe cost cutting. In 1967, British Rail envisaged that St Pancras’ comparatively relaxed operating schedule could be accommodated within the then new Euston and a rebuilt Kings Cross station. This was not before threatening, in the previous year, to demolish Scott’s magnificent hotel and replace it with a soulless office block, just like it had done so at Cannon Street in 1963. The organisation knew, with land values in mind, that the scheme could generate considerable income. The old Euston had not long been obliterated (despite BR having only restored the station's Great Hall in 1953), and another historic railway demolition on such a large scale would be even more tragic. Thankfully, the whole of St Pancras station, trainshed and hotel, acquired listed status in November 1967 (a process out of BR’s control), but closure as a railway hub was still on BR’s agenda. Whilst various schemes were being put forward concerning the station’s future use (a railway museum being one of them), BR continued to look at the feasibility of a Kings Cross redevelopment and Euston accommodating Midland services. The whole scheme had been totally abandoned by Christmas 1968, it having been considered by many parties as far too costly and unnecessary. St Pancras remained in the capacity of serving Midland trains – for now.
In 1980, a project began to modernise those suburban services out of the station which were formed of DMUs. Work began in this year to electrify the line to as far as Bedford with 25 kW overhead wires, and in connection with this, new builds of EMU were to be deployed. Electric working began in 1982, BR having procured what are now known as Class 317 units, for the route. As part of this scheme, the 1957-opened St Pancras power box was closed and superseded by a much larger example at West Hampstead, which controlled the whole line from the terminus to Bedford.
British Transport Hotels had occupied the former hotel since 1948. This organisation was established concurrent with British Railways and was a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Transport Commission. Functioning as its main offices, in this role the hotel remained until 1980, when a safety checked deemed that the structure was unable to fulfil specific criteria required for a new fire certificate; it was subsequently abandoned. Indeed, British Transport Hotels as an organisation lasted little longer, being sold off during 1982 to the private sector. By this time, Gilbert Scott’s masterpiece was below a layer of black grime, the result of years of pollution, but there was light at the end of the tunnel. In about 1992, British Rail and English Heritage entered a jointly-funded venture to clean the whole of the hotel, which included weatherproofing the structure and replacing the clock faces on the tower. The undertaking, priced at £10 million, took until March 1995 to complete, but the results were stunning, parachuting the station back to the spring of 1876, when it was completed.
Meanwhile, since 4th October 1982, the services on the Midland main line out of St Pancras had seen a revival. The 1976-introduced HSTs were deployed on the route by the then newly-formed InterCity Business Sector. The Eastern and Western Regions already had this motive power in service, but for a number of years the London Midland Region opposed the type’s deployment on their rails, deeming that the existing locomotive-hauled services were more suitable for the route. A top and tailing Class 47 arrangement was considered instead (much like today’s ‘’Blue Pullman’’ formation), but this fell on stony ground and was not persevered. The HST diagrams on the Midland were not as intensive as those on the Eastern and Western Regions, and St Pancras remained a terminus which was anything but busy. The relaxed working at the station allowed a couple of platform lines to be used throughout the day as storage sidings for freight locomotives.
This southward view from 4th July 2001 shows the 25-foot-wide Hackney Carriage approach and illustrates the graceful lines of the trainshed. The glazed arrangement here dates from 1959, when work was completed in the hope of brightening the area up. . © David Glasspool
A northward view on 4th July 2001 reveals the overhead catenary, which was due to be removed that October, and departing and arriving services passing each other. The gap where a third track once laid is obvious. © David Glasspool
Looking up to dizzy heights, the 55-foot wide western tower is seen on 4th July 2001. Its clean appearance is the result of a restoration effort completed in March 1995 at a cost of £10 million, but when the station was closed in April 2004, this part of the hotel was again covered up with scaffolding and plastic sheeting. © David Glasspool
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