New St Pancras takes shape

It requires a leap of the imagination, but in just a few years a cavernous and gloomy construction site will be a smart, modern railway station, where travellers catch the Eurostar to Paris and Brussels.

Today all is grime and noise, with just a few shafts of light penetrating the still-shrouded roof and illuminating piles of steel and timber. But if all goes to plan, by 2007 there will be a gleaming new concourse, spanned by a graceful steel and glass arch "floating" on slender columns - a fitting sight to welcome foreign visitors.

This huge space is the train shed of St Pancras station, a marvel of Victorian engineering. Designed by William Barlow, it was completed in 1868, with George Gilbert Scott's magnificent 1876 Midland Grand Hotel - now known as St Pancras Chambers - as its facade.

The Grade I-listed Barlow shed is being extended and refurbished. But as these photographs show, much work remains to be done.

Looking north to the end of the arch, where trains will pull in, two workmen are dwarfed by the structure. In time, cladding on the roof will be removed, and light will pour in.

Barlow's shed stands more than 100ft above ground level at its apex, and at 243ft across and 689ft long, it is the size of three football pitches. But it is too small for the quarter-of-a-mile-long Eurostar trains.

The extension work, which will cover all 13 platforms, is more difficult because Midland Mainline trains still use the station. Ailie MacAdam, project manager at St Pancras, said the task was "challenging" but added: "When it opens, St Pancras international will be a superb gateway to London for Eurostar."