St. Pancras and Leicester Square

When we arrived in London, we chose St. Pancras Station as the hub of our travel for the duration of our stay in England. Our overnight flight to Heathrow left us a little tired and a circuitous ride through the streets of downtown London to the hotel did not help. Knowing our hotel room would not be ready when we arrived, we checked our bags into the locker room and walked around the streets to stay awake and get acquainted with the local neighbourhood.

The station is an impressive building. It is a hub for rail and underground transportation. A part of the building is apartments. The eye-catching McLaren car belongs to one of the residents and seems to always be parked in the same spot since before COVID. It is always dust free so someone is looking after it.

Inside the station is also impressive. Surface trains run into the upper level on the right and access to the underground trains and shops is through the lower level. If you are not in a hurry to get to where you want to go, there are so many shops, it is like a shopping mall. This is the terminal for the Eurostar trains which travel under the the English Channel to Europe through the Channel Tunnel, also called the “chunnel”.

My trusted tour guide led us to a favourite spot, Leicester Square. It is about a block from Trafalgar Square with the National Gallery separating them. This is the center for film and entertainment. In 2020, to celebrate 100 years of cinema, eight sculptures of character from the movies were installed. Check with Wikipedia to learn more. There are also stores for Lego and M&Ms. The store for Lego was so busy there was a line up down the block to get in. Across the street was the store for M&Ms. It was much, much bigger and all of the customers could fit inside.

Can you find one of the sculptures in the picture below?

– Where do you want to go today? –