From the German Gymnasium it is but a few strides across Battle Bridge Place to enter King’s Cross station via the new concourse.
The roof rises like a multi-stemmed tree – or grove of the most silver of birches – that spreads into a canopy of intersecting branches, creating space and light on the departures side with little need for supporting columns.
We take the opportunity to appreciate the statue of Sir Nigel Gresley on the west wall of the station (Matt Brown). Nigel Gresley was Chief Mechanical Engineer for the LNER from 1911–41 and the foremost locomotive designer. The pinnacle of his career from 1934 has been recognised as the greatest years of LNER locomotive history. He took up the challenge for long distance high speed laid down in 1933 by the German streamlined diesel-electric Flying Hamburger, believing that steam power and British coal could improve on the diesel performance and proved this with some convincing trial runs. Further development led to breaking the British speed record more than once, culminating in a test run on 3 July 1938 when A4 No. 4468 Mallard attained a top speed of 126mph (203km/h), a world steam locomotive record that has never been broken.