Last week, the Queen reopened St Pancras station and the new Channel Tunnel rail terminal for Eurostar and said she hoped that people would consider it as a destination and not just as a station.

And, when the public gets its first glimpse of the transformed station tomorrow, the Queen will probably be proven right.

St Pancras is not just Eurostar’s new home, the place to catch high-speed services to Kent or travel by Midland Mainline, Thameslink and six Tube lines. It also offers travellers a range of food options from grab-and-go sarnies to fine dining, as well as bars, pubs and shops.

Building restaurants, pubs and shops in railway stations, or, indeed, any other transport hub such as airports, is not a new concept. Yet developer London & Continental Railways (LCR) has managed to revolutionise the experience.

Food and drink is the first big difference. There’s no sign of the McDonald’s or KFCs that usually grace railway stations. There’s also no beer-stained pubs, with sports programmes blaring out from TVs.

Instead, there are upmarket sandwich shops such as Paul, fine dining and a gastropub.

The St Pancras Brasserie and 1868 Champagne Bar are operated by Searcy, which is known for catering at locations such as the Royal Opera House and Swiss Re building.

These sit alongside a Betjeman gastropub operated by Geronimo Inns and a Carluccio’s.

And then there are the shops. Of course travellers need stores such as WHSmith and Boots, but there are also a range of shops on offer for travellers with a longer dwell time, or for shoppers coming into the station solely for the stores.

Marks & Spencer gave its backing to the development some months ago with a full-line store, containing clothing, as well as the retailer’s Simply Food offer. This led to a glut of lettings including Hamleys, book shop Foyles, Isle of Flowers, chocolatier Wilton and Noble, patisserie Peyton and Byrne, cosmetics retailer Rituals, Fossil and Neal’s Yard Remedies.

These retailers are among those you would find in a high-end market town – not a traditional railway station. And, coupled with the ambience that LCR has created in the stunning Victorian building, it will surely be a shopping destination in its own right.

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