In our July issue, Bernard Porter reflected on the building of London's government offices in Whitehall during the mid-late 19th century, calling it the 'twilight of the goths', and described one in particular, now the headquarters of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as:

One of the least distinguished and most unattractive of all London's great public buildings

That the architect responsible was George Gilbert Scott makes this not unfair assessment all the more remarkable. For Scott was one of the finest, and most prolific, architects of his era, with a swathe of Gothic revival projects to his name. As the full article points out, his work for on this particular building fell victim to a battle between the competing styles of Gothic and Classical.

Fortunately, his London masterpiece of 1865, the Midland Grand Hotel, which stands at the front of St Pancras station, suffered from no such competing interests. After many years of neglect, the building recently re-opened as the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, and as the pictures above show, the restoration work has wonderfully brought out the building's Victorian beauty.