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The location of St. Pancras could not have been more problematic for its original designers—or richer in history. The station was just south of Regent’s Canal and St. Pancras Church, named after an early Christian martyr who died at age 14.
To pass the canal, engineers had to build a bridge and relocate St. Pancras cemetery. A young architectural assistant named Thomas Hardy, who never forgot the sight of coffins being moved, later wrote about it in his poem “The Levelled Churchyard.”
In the latter part of the 19th century, Midland Railway put the spacious undercroft at St. Pancras to use as a giant beer vault. Midland happened to be the primary London distributor for some 30 breweries in Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire.
Pillars supporting the train platforms were spaced 8.9 meters apart, just enough room to allow three giant beer barrels to sit between them. A hydraulic lift lowered wagons from the rails down to the undercroft, where thousands of barrels could be stored for the thirsty public.
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