In 2005, I undertook a project to document the then-abandoned Midland Grand Hotel, before its extensive transformation into what is now the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel.
This image captures the cantilevered Grand Staircase—an architectural marvel designed wide enough for two ladies in bustles to pass each other with ease. It has served as a dramatic backdrop in pop culture, most notably in the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe” video and the film Batman Begins. At the time, the building had no internal lighting, and its windows and interiors were coated in decades of grime and soot from old oil lamps. Armed only with a small flash and a sense of adventure, I navigated the cold, dark, and reputedly haunted space.
This photograph was exhibited widely, but I was especially proud when it was featured in a 2011 exhibition at the London Jewish Cultural Centre at Ivy House in Golders Green—the former residence of Anna Pavlova, who famously kept pet swans there.
