Hotel at London landmark set for 2011 opening

Marriott announced September 21 that its landmark hotel at St Pancras station in London will open in May 2011, after two years of delays.

The St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, housed in one of London's most stunning Victorian Gothic buildings, has taken more than ten years to reconstruct, with its doors remaining firmly closed as the renovated St Pancras opened its doors to Eurostar traffic in 2007.

It will finally reopen exactly 138 years after the original hotel on the site, the Midland Grand Hotel, opened its doors in 1873, with Marriott saying that the magnificent interior has been restored to its former glory.

The features of the building include a staircase "revered as the most majestic in England," with 50-foot (15 m) windows and a vaulted ceiling which was used as the setting for Arkham Asylum in the 2005 movie Batman Begins.

Among the 245 guestrooms will be 38 Victorian bedroom suites, which are situated in the historic part of the building, and the newer rooms constructed in a 120,000 square foot (11,148 square meters) extension.

The building is also set to house a 350-capacity ballroom, a private club, barber's shop, luxury spa, a restaurant/bar located in the original ticket office and another restaurant from an as-yet-unnamed celebrity chef which will be located in the original entrance hall.

When reopened, the St Pancras Renaissance is set to join the ranks of the world's great rail station hotels, such as the Grand Hyatt, Roosevelt and Biltmore (now closed) hotels at New York's Grand Central Terminal, the Windsor Hotel in Montreal (now closed) and the Fairmont Banff Springs in Alberta, Canada or the Andaz Liverpool Street, also in London.

http://www.stpancraslondonrenaissance.co.uk/