Some interesting facts about St Pancras...

• St Pancras was a 14-year-old Christian orphan who was martyred in Rome having been taken there by his uncle in AD 303. Pope St Vitalian sent his relics to England in the 7th century. The first St Pancras church was built close to Canterbury with St Pancras church in Camden following soon afterwards.

• The original St Pancras station - designed by William Henry Barlow- took 6000 men armed with 1000 horses and 100 steam cranes four years to complete and opened in 1868.

• St Pancras will become one of the largest transport hubs in Europe - 25 million people per year are expected to use the station.

• St Pancras will have six international platforms for use by Eurostar services - each platform will be 455 metres long.

• The stunning Victorian gothic St Pancras chambers - frequently cited as one of the nations favourite buildings - will be restored to its former glory and transformed into a 245 bedroom five star hotel and 68 city centre apartments. These are due to open in 2009.

• The old St Pancras Undercroft - purpose built to house barrels of Burton Beer brought to London by rail - will become Eurostar's main departures concourse with the roof opened up to provide direct access to the new international platforms.

• A 67-acre area to the north of St Pancras International will be transformed with a major regeneration project delivering a new business and leisure district.

• Construction work on the second section of the UK high-speed line has unearthed a wealth of archaeological remains, including an Anglo-Saxon waterwheel and the skeleton of a straight-tusked Palaeoloxodon antiquus - a Stone Age elephant found in north Kent!

• Preservation of archaeological relics exposed by the construction of the new line has also included the exhumation and reburial of the remains of two French Bishops who had sought refuge in London during the French revolution.

• The second section of the UK high-speed line will extend for 24 miles (39km). This will bring the total length of the new line to 68 miles (109km).

• Section two of the high-speed line boasts an array of engineering features: London Tunnel overall length (Islington to Dagenham) 19km. Longest single tunnel (Stratford to Dagenham) 10.5km. Internal diameter (single track) 7.15m. Thurrock Viaduct (close to M25, junction 30) 1.3km. Thames Tunnel (under River Thames between Swanscombe and Thurrock) 3km.