PLATFORM SOUL

There was a time when the great railway companies owned and built vast hotels as part of the new and exciting experience of taking a journey by train. Not only were the hotels a big brandbuilding exercise for the railway companies, they were also vital in a time before sleeping cars and high-speed trains. Very few of those hotels survive today. One that does is the Great Northern Hotel, one of the first to be built. The hotel stands right next to King’s Cross and St Pancras International stations in London. Following the recent £700-million refurbishment of the area, it has become the sort of luxury hotel that everybody dreams of staying in.