Hotel Review: St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London

A glamorous train station hotel with a split-personality, where rooms start at £180, or $275 at $1.53 to the pound. BASICS The St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel brings some majesty and style to the fustiest category of accommodations, the train station hotel. The original Midland Grand Hotel opened in 1873 and was shuttered in 1935; today, the vast Gothic facade of rebuilt spires and cleaned-up brickwork towers over the London terminus for the Eurostar high-speed trains. The hotel is really two hotels that share a lobby. In front you’ll find the Chambers, an imposing edifice with arched windows and cast-iron columns; it feels like a castle, with a sweeping staircase that leads up to 38 rooms with high ceilings and sumptuous architectural details. In the back there is Barlow House, a modern wing with 207 characterless rooms. The prices tell the story. Rooms in the Chambers run from £325 to £10,000, while in Barlow House they are £199 to £285, plus tax. The division is as stark as that of a plane: First Class up front, Economy Plus behind. Understandably, the photogenic hallways and rooms in the Chambers get all the attention. (It’s a favorite for fashion shoots.) But it’s jarring to be led from the buzzing lobby with a Victorian-era glass roof into a wing that has the studiously bland feel of a high-end corporate hotel. After all, it is a Marriott property. LOCATION The hotel and train station are on the northern edge of Central London — the British Library is across the street, and Bloomsbury is within walking distance — but it’s a somewhat remote location in this sprawling city. If you plan to see the sights, shop or eat, you’ll need to take public transport or hop in a cab. THE ROOM My £235 room (plus a £45 tax) was in the monotonous new wing (beige walls, whisper-quiet air circulation) that runs along the side of the train station. In fact, my room looked directly onto the steeply sloped roof of the train shed, so that the only thing visible was a wall of gray tiles so repetitive and mesmerizing it felt like an art installation. (Later, I was told that for another £50 I could have a view of the British Library — and a heavily trafficked street.) The room itself was comfortable if boxy, with a king-size bed facing a big flat-screen TV. THE BATHROOM Small and streamlined. Radiant heat warmed the stone floor; the water pressure in the shower stall (no tub) was good. AMENITIES There’s tea in the lobby; drinks and smartened-up pub fare at the Booking Office (named for the ticket office it once was); fine dining at Gilbert Scott, named after the renowned architect of the hotel; and free cocktails at the Chambers Club, the private club accessible to all guests in the Chambers and in the pricier rooms in Barlow House. A spa and gym with a tiled pool are in the grotto-like basement of the historic wing. Wi-Fi is £20 a day (the train station offers it free). ROOM SERVICE The Booking Office provides room service. But who wants to eat in a sterile room? Especially if you can hop down to the magnificent restaurant itself, which feels as if a nightclub took over a dining hall at Cambridge. BOTTOM LINE Rarely is a hotel so fashionable and so characterless at the same time: spring for a room in the Chambers and you could only be in glamorous London, but stay in Barlow House and you could be in any newly built hotel in the world. St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, Euston Road, London NW1; (44-20) 7841- 3540; marriott.com/london.