Signature Books
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9780413776129 £7.99
Methuen Small HB- Publ 01 Aug 2006
Standing on the platform on the re-opened St. Pancras station is a larger-than-lifesize statue of poet John Betjeman by Martin Jennings. Betjeman had been the driving force behind efforts to save the site when it was threatened by development plans during the 1960's and the sculpture stands as a tribute from London and Continental Railways to the man who made their redevelopment of the station possible. Around the station are dotted quotations from his poetry set in roundels of Cumbrian slate.
As if all this wasn't enough to cement the relationship between Betjeman and trains, the new gastro pub that will open on the station in April is to be be called The Betjeman Arms - a fiiting tribute to the poet's love of the St. Pancras building and of locomotive transport.
The Betjeman on Trains title is the book to complete your St Pancras/Betjeman experience: a wonderfully gossipy book that looks back with unmediated affection to the times of Bradshaws, steam, station teashops and windows on trains that opened.