Magnificent Butterley roof still graces new St Pancras

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With the Queen opening the new St Pancras International Station, it is worth recalling that one of its most impressive features, the magnificent single-span roof was built by Derbyshire's own Butterley engineering company.

The tender, back in 1865, was a mere £117,000. The roof took three years to build, from 1865-68, to the design of Midland Railway consulting engineer William Henry Barlow and was erected with the aid of a giant, moveable timber scaffold.

St Pancras Station in 1884

For many years, the remarkable lattice-ribbed roof was the widest single-span structure in the world, 100ft high and stretching 240ft across seven platforms.

Butterley engineering company girders being erected in 1868 to form the arched roof of the station

It was supported by 688 iron columns, spaced the exact width of a Burton beer barrel - as the basement of the station was used as a massive cellar for the town's sought-after ales.

When St Pancras opened, on October 1, 1876, the first train, an express to Manchester, ran non-stop from Kentish Town to Leicester -- the longest non-stop route in the world at 97 miles at the time.

The new international terminal will give passengers from the East Midlands easy access to direct high speed trains to Paris, Brussels, Cologne and Amsterdam.

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