A passionate campaign to save the station, led by the Victorian Society, Jane Hughes Fawcett, and Poet Laureate John Betjeman,[7] was successful, and St Pancras was awarded Grade I listed status just 10 days before demolition was due to commence.

[8] At the start of the 21st century, the complex underwent an £800 million refurbishment to become the terminal for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link/High-Speed 1/HS1 as part of an urban regeneration plan across East London, and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in November 2007.

A security-sealed terminal area was constructed for Eurostar services to mainland Europe via High Speed 1 and the Channel Tunnel, with platforms for domestic trains to the north and south-east of England.

[11][12] Behind the hotel, the train shed is elevated 5 m (17 ft) above street level and the area below forms the station undercroft which is where most of the shops and restaurants are located, along with the Eurostar departure lounge.

[16] In 1862, traffic for the second International Exhibition suffered extensive delays over the stretch of line into London over the GNR's track; the route into the city via the L&NWR was also at capacity, with coal trains causing the network at Rugby and elsewhere to reach effective gridlock.

[21] A large goods station was constructed between 1862 and 1865, sited to the west of the King's Cross coal depot between the North London Railway and the Regent's Canal.

Initial plans were for a two or three span roof with the void between station and ground level filled with spoil from tunnelling to join the Midland Main Line to the St. Pancras branch.

[46] Many of the demonstrators had witnessed the demolition of the nearby Euston Arch a few years previously and were strongly opposed to the distinctive architecture of St Pancras suffering the same fate.

[47] In the 1970s, the train shed roof was in danger of collapse, and the newly appointed Director of Environment Bernard Kaukas persuaded the company to invest £3m to save it.

[48] In 1978, British Rail attempted to raise funds with the sale of the impressive 18 foot diameter station clock, allegedly to a wealthy American collector for £250,000.

[49] Custom made for St Pancras station by the world renown Dent the unique time-piece was financially valuable, but during removal it was somehow dropped, shattering on the floor below.

[50][51] Also in 1978, a Private Eye piece claimed that British Rail really wanted to demolish St Pancras but were opposed by "a lot of long-haired sentimentalists" and "faceless bureaucrats" and praised the office blocks that replaced the Euston Arch.

[38] Following the privatisation of British Rail, the long-distance services from St Pancras were franchised to Midland Mainline, a train operating company owned by National Express, starting on 28 April 1996.

During the 2000s major rebuild of the West Coast Main Line, St Pancras again temporarily hosted direct and regular inter-city trains to Manchester, this time via the Hope Valley route (via the Dore South curve) under the title of Project Rio.

[58] The design and project management of reconstruction was undertaken on behalf of LCR by Rail Link Engineering (RLE), a consortium of Bechtel, Arup, Systra and Halcrow.

The master plan of the complex was by Foster and Partners, and the lead architect of the reconstruction was Alistair Lansley, a former colleague of Nick Derbyshire recruited by RLE.

By dropping the extension of any of the Midland platforms into the train shed, space was freed up to allow wells to be constructed in the station floor, which provided daylight and access to the undercroft.

Despite lobbying by rail operators who wished to see the station open at the same time as St Pancras International, the Government failed to provide additional funding to allow the fit-out works to be completed immediately following the line blockade.

[64][65][66] The fit-out works were designed by Chapman Taylor[67] and Arup (Eurostar) and completed by ISG Interior Plc Contractors[68] collaborating with Bechtel as Project Managers.

[76] Children's illustrator Quentin Blake was commissioned to provide a huge mural of an "imaginary welcoming committee" as a disguise for one of the remaining ramshackle Stanley Building South immediately opposite the station exit.

[81] During an elaborate opening ceremony, actor Timothy West, as Henry Barlow, addressed the audience, which was also entertained by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the singers Lemar and Katherine Jenkins.

The association was made in the hope that a high-speed service could connect the two stations and was announced at a ceremony headed by Claude Solard, Director General of SNCF.

The international platforms do not occupy the full width of the Barlow train shed, and sections of the floor area have been opened up to provide natural light to the new ground-level concourse below.

Eurostar's arrival and departure lounges lie below these platforms, adjacent to The Arcade, a concourse fashioned from the original station undercroft which runs along the western length of the Barlow train shed.

[111][112] St Pancras International is one of four railway stations in the UK with juxtaposed immigration control facilities set up by the French Border Police to clear passengers for entry into France and the rest of the Schengen Area prior to boarding the trains.

[116] Controversy was caused by Day's 2008 addition of a bronze relief frieze around the plinth,[117] depicting a commuter falling into the path of an Underground train driven by the Grim Reaper.

[44][119] The 2-metre (6 ft 7 in)-high statue stands on a flat disc of Cumbrian slate inscribed with lines from Betjeman's poem Cornish Cliffs: And in the shadowless unclouded glare / Deep blue above us fades to whiteness where / A misty sea-line meets the wash of air.There are a number of upright pianos in the main St Pancras concourse that are available for anyone to play.

George Gilbert Scott was persuaded to enter by his friend, Midland director Joseph Lewis, and completed the winning design at home while attending to his son who had fallen ill.

[126] The St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel occupies parts of the original building, including the main public rooms, together with a new bedroom wing on the western side of the Barlow train shed.

[132] Both Air France-KLM and Deutsche Bahn expressed interest in taking advantage of the new laws to run new services via High Speed 1 to St Pancras.