To mark the opening of St Pancras International as the terminus for the High-Speed rail link, between London and Europe, a statue of Sir John Betjeman was unveiled.
John Betjeman had been an advocate of Victorian architecture and, in the 1960s, had campaigned to have St Pancras station, and the adjacent hotel, saved from demolition.
Sir John Betjeman CBE (1906-1984).
Born in London he lived in Gospel Oak until the family moved to Highgate, in 1909. T.S. Eliot was one of John's early tutors, at Highgate School. Following this he was sent to boarding school at Dragon School preparatory school, Oxford, and then Marlborough College, Wiltshire. He left Marlborough College in 1925.
His next education came when he entered Magdalen College at the University of Oxford, where one of his tutors was C.S. Lewis. Neither men seemed to get on, with C.S. Lewis stating that "Betjeman would not achieve honours in any class." Betjeman was expelled from Oxford, in 1928, after failing the Pass school and only achieving a satisfactory result in one of three required papers, Shakespeare and other English authors.
Between 1930-1935 Betjeman worked for the Architectural Review as an assistant editor.
