The Great Northern Hotel merits a visit in its own right: travel back in time to the days when every trip was an exciting voyage  complete with comfortable, stylish  luxurious surroundings. But  who could imagine that just  a few years  ago this area was   a maze of  scruffy  streets and  cheap hotels  often occupied by prostitutes? 

In the 1850s, when Lewis Cubitt built the Great Northern Hotel, the new station at King’s Cross and the imposing Granary Building to the north of Pancras Road;  the surrounding  area was a glamorous and  vibrant one. Today after almost a century  of continuous decline  the area   has resurfaced -almost gleaming - from the ashes.  Central St Martins College has made its home inside Cubitt’s Granary Building, and St Pancras  has been transformed into the new  Eurostar terminal  with  a whopping  £700m  splashed out on its  redesign.

The ground floor of The Great Northern Hotel, which you can reach directly from the station,  has an incredibly stylish swirling zinc bar,  but you need to go to  Plum and Spilt Milk on the   first floor to get away from the atmosphere of the station and  to really appreciate the style and comfort of the place.

This  monumental space with its  high ceilings and giant windows must have made it a mouthwatering project for the architect who has certainly made the most of these elements with a very contemporary but at the same time,  comfortable feeing both in the dining room and in  the smaller and thus cozier bar next door. 

Mark Sargeant's menu is everything that both the French and The English hanker for: the very best of old fashioned cuisine using the freshest ingredients.

Plum and Spilt Milk

Great Northern Hotel, Kings Cross St Pancras Station, Pancras Rd, Kings Cross, London N1C 4TB, UK

Opening times:

Monday - Friday 7am - 11pm
Saturday - 8am - 11pm
Sunday - 8am - 10pm

Photos

Cover picture and photo n°1 - From http://plumandspiltmilk.com