St Pancras

What was I thinking? Why can't all major railway stations in the be like St Pancras? And when I say railway stations, I mean RAILWAY STATIONS, not train stations.

A sense of place. A sense of arrival and departure. An operational precision that is long forgotten (if, indeed, it ever existed). St Pancras is a brand that defines UK railway travel. A home for that dream.

Steam! I recall duplicated notes handed out on school trips to London or Bristol on Great Werstern warning us not to hold our heads out of the carriage windows (and you could do) because 'a smut [in the eye] on the way can spoil the day'. A smut on the way can spoil the day.

Reminded of that smoky danger, I crossed the road to Kings Cross, which tells a different story, and returned via National Express to Leeds, walking past Starbucks, Wetherspoons and the like, housed in what was, and should still be, a great concourse and I was reminded that Mick Jagger once told me that you can't always get what you want!