But at St Pancras the engineer Barlow began by asking what he wanted and what problems he had to solve - and the design came from that, a very different approach to that of architects. The station had to be raised 6 metres above the streets around (because the trains had to cross the Regent's Canal just to the north). He had to supply a sheltered enclosure covering the full width of the site, and leave space for the hotel at the southern end. He contemplated two arches, as at King's Cross, but saw the advantages (much to the thrill of the recent redevelopers) of having a flexible single space, but no one had ever built such a wide span before.
The answer as to how to achieve it came oddly from the foundations, not the roof structure - and from a commercial possibility:
"There was growing demand in London for the fine ales of Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire... The soft water and improved brewing techniques there allowed the production of a clear and stable brew very different from the capital's darker and cloudier stouts and porters, a change in taste that also contributed to the slow disappearance of pewter tankards from pubs in favour of drinking glasses...the huge void beneath the new station platforms, with its deep plan and stable temperature, was ideal for the purpose... to exploit the basement space to the maximum, Barlow therefore dispensed with the normal mid-Victorian structural system of brick piers and arches in favour of even ranks of some 800 uniform cast-iron columns... the spacing of just over 14 feet apart was calculated to match the plans of the beer warehouses of Burton -upon-Trent, where the same figure derived from a multiple of the standard local cask."This passage is Bradley at his best - and most interesting (and most relevant - when you're leaving or joining the Eurostar now you'll walk through that forest of columns). When he gets into the detail of the subject, the story really comes alive.
He's also very good on the hotel - a structure spectacular if sad (it lasted in its originally form only until 1935 and was then tricked out inadequately and rather pointlessly as offices, until fire regulations finally closed it down). There's a smattering of social history - the way the best rooms had furniture of oak or walnut, the second best oak or teak, the third mahogany, the fourth ash (with prices graded accordingly).
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