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Train journeys are set to be one of the travel trends of 2022. And we don’t mean just a day return to Walton-on-the-Naze. All across Europe there are new services starting up that will bring back the romance of the golden age of steam. You can now get a sleeper train from Paris all the way to Romania; it’s like being in an episode of ‘Poirot’.
International rail travel means you get less of that pesky airport security, you can have a wee in (relative) comfort and there’s something to look at out of the window. Plus, your journey starts and ends in a space of some architectural merit that isn’t 450km outside town. Big stations can be magical places and, best of all, they have bars on them. The bar at Gare de l’Est in Paris, for instance, is a classy art deco beauty. But maybe no station bar in the world can compete with the one at St Pancras International. Booking Office 1869, which opened at the end of last year, is – obviously – in the Grade I-listed former ticket hall of the fabulously gothic station (which – obviously – opened in 1869).
Booking Office 1869 naturally has food and drink on a lavish scale, with a 1am licence on Fridays and Saturdays. But it’s the decor that really should get you down there, whether or not you actually have a train to catch. Inspired by original appointments of the St Pancras hotel upstairs, French architect and designer Hugo Toro has gone full fin de siècle, creating a ‘Victorian-style Winter Garden’, although one that the Victorians might struggle to recognise.
Features of the new space include eight eight-metre-tall palm trees and three giant pendant lights each made up of 267 brass leaves, all looming over a 22-metre-long bar. On top of all of that is an ‘eccentric’ range of wallpapers, fabrics and furnishings. You might want to go easy on the absinthe before you go and catch the 15.45 to Corby.
Okay, so it’s not the Wetherspoon’s on Cannon Street station, but give it a chance. If you do decide to make a long train trip part of your 2022, why not set off in style (and a bit tipsy)? Next up: the return of giant ocean liners!
Booking Office 1869, St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, Euston Rd, NW1. Bookings (dining only) here.