Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: 64 iso

St. Pancras station, and the Midland Hotel which is incorporated into the front of the building, was arguably the most beautiful, spectacular commercial failure in the history of London when it was constructed in 1867. Overwhelmingly the most grandiose and beautiful of London's stations, it was redundant when (over)built, and a product of the rivalry between the various private companies vying for the London market during the mid-19th Century. The Midland Railway, the original owners, spent 2,000,000 pounds on its construction, enough so that the company never recoupped the loss, especially since someone made the blunder of building the hotel without modern plumbing!!! Although the station was built as a combination passenger and freight station, with the underground freight handling facilities specialising in overnight beer shipments, little of the station has ever been put into full use. This may have a happy ending, though, as since I took these photos the building has been undergoing a massive renovation to serve as a successor to Waterloo International once the Channel Tunnel Rail Link is built, with the old beer cellars being reused for dedicated international platforms and a car park.

Here's the fatter of St. Pancras's two towers. I love the arches on it!! :-)

Designed by Sir Christopher Wren to replace the original St. Paul's Cathedral destroyed in the Great London Fire of 1666, although that earlier St. Paul's, built in 1087-1314, had actually been the fourth cathedral to sit on this site and some historians believe that the site has Roman Pagan origins. There was a church built here at least as early as 604 AD, supposedly on an ancient Roman See. In any case, as a photo, this is one of my all-time favorites, and I hope you like it too. This illustrates what a good camera and even better film can do, giving the lie to the claim that the quality of camera doesn't matter. Of course, I like to think there was some skill involved too.... :-) That fuzz in the background is because, regrettably, Ritz ripped me off on the scanning. They even damaged the slide.

I like this shot of St. Paul's, too, and it was shot on the same night as Picture 1, right after I more or less stumbled upon it while wandering London at night.