Morning:
13°c
Champagne bar opens at 7am as St Pancras mall does a sparkling trade
Jonathan Prynn, Consumer Business Editor06.11.09
Profits have soared at St Pancras station mall as shoppers and champagne drinkers propel it into a top destination in its own right.
Today, exactly two years after the Queen opened the Eurostar terminal, its operators revealed that profits in the last 12 months from the 55 shops, bars and restaurants are up 20 per cent at £12million.
About nine million of the 45million people who pass through the station each year are non-travelling shoppers or tourists. The figures show that 56 per cent of train passengers deliberately arrive early to admire the architecture.
The £800million makeover of the Grade I listed railway monument has turned it from a run-down station, where the only non-travelling visitors were trainspotters, into one of Europe's most glamorous terminals containing London's largest station mall.
The figures were released by St Pancras International operator High Speed 1. Spokesman Ben Ruse said: "At the turn of the century this was a dark, dirty station smelling of diesel fumes in a really neglected part of London. Now it's about experiencing the romance of travelling."
High Speed 1 is government-owned under the terms of a rescue of the high-speed rail link's original developer, London & Continental Railways.
Mr Ruse said the shopping centre was thriving despite the recession. Rent from the stores and restaurants - and 96-metre champagne bar, said to be Europe's longest - is running at about £2million a week.
Searcy's, the operator of the champagne bar, said it had noticed a boom in champagne breakfasts in recent weeks, particularly on Fridays. It has moved the opening time of its Grand Restaurant and Oyster Bar from 11am to 7am. Sales manager Fiona Parkin said passengers were also trading back up to dearer wines. The bar serves some 220,000 people a month and last week set a record for a champagne sale when a collector bought a £6,950 Jeroboam of Dom Pérignon White Gold 1995, of which only 100 were made.
The transformation of the station, which opened in 1868, will be complete in 2011 with the opening of a hotel in the Victorian Gothic St Pancras Chambers frontage. The building also contains 60 flats which have all been sold, including one to singer Lily Allen. The top triplex apartment fetched £10million.
