When a British version of the board game Monopoly appeared in 1935, its choice of London streets reflected the disparities of the pre-war city; north London was cheap and undesirable while Mayfair and Park Lane were the ultimate in upper-class aspirations.
If you think the city’s West End still rules the roost, however, you’re wrong. London is changing and the Monopoly board has been turned on its head. If you want a vibrant fusion of stunning 21st-century style with lofty Victorian splendour, King’s Cross is the place to be.
That’s worth repeating for any doubters. Yes, King’s Cross/St Pancras, once home to grotty streets and crumbling railway terminals, is being transformed. Rebuilding King’s Cross station cost a cool £500million; the redevelopment of St Pancras International cost about £800million. Work in the surrounding area is costing billions. The results are spectacular.
Typical of the transformation is the recently re-opened Great Northern Hotel (GNH), beautifully restored and modernised over the past four years from a derelict hulk that had lain empty for more than a decade.
The GNH was the first of the grand railway hotels, opened in 1854. Today, it’s even more attractive, not least because it’s barely 100 metres from the arrival platform of trains from Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness, and the underground to all parts of London.
We travelled to the capital by East Coast train from Aberdeen. The fast, comfortable and direct journey took a little over seven hours which, city to city, is pretty uncompetitive with flying but, in contrast, almost hassle-free.
King’s Cross station is inextricably linked with Harry Potter and our arrival was akin to stepping into magical world. The station restoration is impressive but even after pausing to admire the modern architecture, we were in our hotel room within 10 minutes of alighting from the train.
The GNH is one of the capital’s finest luxury boutique hotels. No sign here of the disinterested sameness of many big hotel chains. Everything is intimate and polished down to the finest detail.
Its 91 rooms come in three styles, furnished with Lefroy-Brooks bathrooms with dark slate floor tiles, and bespoke furnishings. The Couchette is the GNH’s smallest room size and is an evocation of the classic continental railway sleeper carriage. Even so, it boasts a Queen-sized bed and beautifully appointed en suite and is ideal for an overnight stay.
Fifth-floor Wainscot rooms are sumptuously panelled in American walnut and decorated in deep, restful hues while our Cubitt room, named after the hotel and station architect, Lewis Cubitt, offered a King-sized Hypnos bed, stylish bespoke furnishings and spacious bathroom.
All rooms have free Wi-Fi, 96 TV and movie channels, espresso coffee maker and drinks cooler. Every floor also has its own pantry with complimentary home-cooked cakes, teas, Nespresso coffees, newspapers and magazines, jars of candies and, in true British style, iconic biscuits such as wagon wheels and caramel wafers.
The elegantly curved corridors are reassuringly peaceful. Excellent soundproofing means the bustling traffic outside is largely inaudible and, glory of glories, the rooms have an air-conditioning and temperature control system that works.
After a quick freshen-up, our first port of call was also barely 100 yards from our room. Strange though it may seem to visit a railway terminus on an evening out, the spectacular St Pancras International is no ordinary station. From here, Eurostar services zoom to and from Paris, Brussels and Lille creating a heady continental atmosphere.
The station’s mall boasts shops from top-quality jewellers to designer clothes and from a Hamleys toyshop to a Foyles bookshop. On the upper level, under the magnificent single-span roof which was the world’s largest when it opened in 1868, is Searcy’s champagne bar, the longest in Europe, with heated booths for dining and drinking. I can confirm that a glass of chilled Laurent Perrier champagne is an excellent starter for any evening out.
A short stroll away, just north of the station, is Granary Square, London’s newest square and one of the largest of its kind in Europe. It lies beside the revitalised Regent’s Canal and this aquatic history has been worked into the new design, which is animated with more than 1,000 choreographed fountains, each individually and beautifully lit.
Back at our hotel, we enjoyed an aperitif at the classic continental GNH bar on the ground floor, where Art Deco meets Belle Epoque. Its pewter-topped bar and bespoke Italian furniture exude class.
We had booked dinner at the hotel’s first-floor Plum and Spilt Milk, created by top chef Mark Sargeant who previously headed Gordon Ramsay’s Michelin-starred Claridge’s restaurant. Mark, from Kent, also runs restaurants in Folkestone so his GNH offering focuses on British classic dishes and top-class seafood.
Plum and Spilt Milk basks in a warm glow from its 126 hand-blown pendant lights. Its windows frame the restored 1852 Italianate facade of King’s Cross to one side and the remarkable 1868 cathedral-like Gothic lines of St Pancras from the other. These, like Mark’s menu, are definitely British classics.
The menu is a joy for those of us who despair of new eateries basing themselves on French or Italian or exotic overseas cuisine. Here, it’s Rule Britannia in spectacular style. Eat your heart out, Johnny Foreigner. When we do it well, we’re unbeatable.
Diners can mix and match their way through appetisers, first courses, salads or items on toast towards main courses from the fishmonger or the butcher, via special classics such as Kent cured smoked salmon on soda bread, salt marsh lamb shank hot pot or a roast whole Goosnargh chicken from Lancashire.
It is hard to convey here the appetising variety of the menu but choosing the perfect meal took longer than usual due to the range of tastes and flavours available.
Eventually, I chose potted King’s Lynn shrimps to start, served with toasted artisan bread and lemon, which were simple perfection, while my wife opted for pigeon with elderberries, where the berries offered an ideal counterpoint to the flavour of properly prepared game.
She followed with loin of venison with cabbage and bacon and sloe gin, served with buttered mash and carrots with coriander. Venison can be a lottery but this was beautifully moist and tender with perfectly complementary accompaniments.
As a seafood lover I had to try the whole grilled native lobster served simply with watercress, lemon and paprika fries. I’ve seen larger lobsters but I’ve rarely tasted better. The body meat was dressed with exquisitely piquant flavours while the tail meat was succulent and unadulterated. It was a delight.
To finish, my wife ordered perry-poached pear and perry jelly served with gingerbread ice-cream while I chose a selection of British artisan cheeses served with damson jam and oatcakes. Neither choice could be faulted.
Oh, and in case you were wondering why the restaurant has such an unusual name, Plum and Spilt Milk refers to the nickname of the original London and North-Western Railway dining car, no. 5159, the oldest in the world, which was painted in the railway’s livery colours, evocatively called plum and spilt milk.
After a luxurious sleep, we breakfasted next morning in the restaurant on fruit platters, kippers and full English fare served with coffee, toast and freshly-squeezed orange juice.
Afterwards, we did a number of typically touristy things that day, including visiting Westminster, Trafalgar Square, St Paul’s Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Covent Garden and we also squeezed in a trip on the London Eye.
Strangely, however, we were constantly drawn back from the London of old to the new one of King’s Cross. The GNH already felt like home, albeit a luxury one.
Next morning, walking the 100 yards to our train for the journey back north, I thought again of the Monopoly board. Next time I play I’ll buy King’s Cross station and put my hotels there, not in Mayfair or Park Lane. It’s the way forward, I reckon.
The Great Northern Hotel is a London game-changer. If I were you, though, I’d go there soon before everyone else wants to come and play, too.
Great Northern Hotel, King’s Cross, London. Phone 020 3388 0800 or visit GNHLondon.com