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By long-established custom, the completion of a major building project is always celebrated with a plaque unveiling and a grand dinner. The building press, especially of the Victorian era, is packed with descriptions of such events. It is astonishing therefore that the original opening of St Pancras Station in 1868 was marked by no such celebrations, despite the fact that what had been completed was the boldest engineering structure of its time.

No such diffidence accompanied the reopening of St Pancras in its reincarnated state as an international terminus. In November 2007 there was a royal opening with a full...