In 1865 the Midland Railway Company held a competition for the design of a 150-bed hotel to be constructed next to its railway station, St Pancras, still under construction at the time. Eleven designs were submitted, including one by George Gilbert Scott, which at 300 rooms was much bigger and costlier than the original specifications. The company liked it and decided its construction

The Midland Grand Hotel opened gradually, the east wing first in 1873 and the rest followed in Spring 1876. The hotel was upscale and expensive with costly fixtures including a grand staircase, rooms with gold leaf walls and a fireplace in every room. The building had many innovative features such as hydraulic lifts, concrete floors, revolving doors and a fireproof floor construction, though as was the convention of the time none of the guest rooms had bathrooms. The hotel was taken over by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1922, before closing in 1935, by which time its utilities were outdated and too costly to maintain, such as the armies of servants needed to carry chamber pots, tubs, bowls and spittoons.

After closing as a hotel, the building was renamed St Pancras Chambers and used as railway offices, latterly for British Rail. In the 1980s it failed fire safety regulations and was shut down. The exterior was restored and made structurally sound at a cost of around £10 million in the 1990s. In 1996, the music video for the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe” was filmed in the entrance and main staircase of the building. Planning permission was granted in 2004 for the building to be redeveloped into a new hotel. The main public rooms of the old Midland Grand were restored, along with some of the bedrooms. In order to cater for the more modern expectations of guests, a new bedroom wing was constructed on the western side of the Barlow train-shed. The redeveloped hotel contains 244 bedrooms, 2 restaurants, 2 bars, a health and leisure centre, a ballroom, and 20 meeting and function rooms.

At the same time, the upper floors of the original building were redeveloped as 68 apartments. The St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel opened on 21 March 2011 to guests; however, the formal Grand Opening was on 5 May – exactly 138 years after its original opening in 1873.

It took a dedicated team of specialist and years of hard work, patience and immense skill at a cost of over £200 million to bring this iconic building back to life, delivered by the Manhattan Loft Corporation lead by Harry Handelsmann.

Sweeping awards across the board including the RIBA award for Best Building in a Historic Context, the World Travel Awards Nominee for World’s Leading New Hotel and both Overall Winner and Best Refurbishment of the Year at the European Hospitality Awards 2011 were earned.