The Saviour of St Pancras

Every day, a steady stream of people stop to take a photo of the bronze statue of the former Poet Laureate, the late Sir John Betjeman at St Pancras station. I stopped there for five minutes today before heading back to Luton Airport and I counted 8 people. All of them took a full length picture of him or portrait style shot of his face - nothing wrong with that, it's a cool statue with a great facial expression.

But what makes it cool for me, is the fact that he is looking up to the sky, staring in awe at the architecture and design of the station roof. So today's blip was one I'd had in mind for a while, an over the shoulder point of view style shot. Thought about making it black and white, but decided to keep it colour.

The inscription on the floor at the foot of the statue credits Betjeman as being the saviour of the station. In the 1960s, there were calls to close the station and demolish the buildings and Betjeman led the campaign against closure. As you probably know the station is now the departure point for the Eurostar trains to Paris and Brussels. When the new look station was reopened with a new trainshed roof, the statue of Betjeman was unveiled.

Good to be back after three days in London, there's no place like home right?