**The Grand Staircase of the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London.**

In May 1865, the Midland Railway Company (MRC) initiated a competition to build a 150-bed hotel adjacent to St. Pancras Station.

The hotel opened in stages between 1873 and 1876.

The Grand Staircase is perhaps the most famous of the hotel’s features. A dividing staircase was nothing new in Victorian gothic architecture; town halls and museums contained similar staircases. But the size and beauty of the Grand Staircase set it apart from others of the time. By today’s standards the staircase is wide indeed; by contemporary standards it was designed to be wide enough to allow two ladies in bustles to pass each other. Rather than its size, however, what really sets the Grand Staircase apart are its decorative features. To take just one example, nineteenth-century architects usually concealed wrought iron balusters from view. However, Scott hired one of his favourite suppliers, Skidmore of Coventry, to install prominent details into wrought iron balusters so that the railings can be seen from any of the three stories which lead to the celestial vaulted ceiling.