Saint Pancras – notes

Queen Elizabeth II, as the head of the United Kingdom, opens every new session of the British parliament and her speech (the Queen’s Speech) announces all the intended legislation that her government intends to introduce in the new parliament. You probably remember that although ‘the’ is not in the text we still always say Queen Elizabeth the Second. We never say Queen Elizabeth Two, despite how it is written!

Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811 – 1878) was an English architect of the Victorian Age, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches, cathedrals and workhouses.
William Henry Barlow (1812 – 1902) was a civil engineer who specialised in the structural problems in cathedral restoration. He designed the main terminal at St Pancras, creating an immense, iron-and-glass vault, that remained the widest span for twenty-five years.

To understand the closing words of the article, you may need to know that Alan Hamilton refers to two battles 1) when the French Emperor Napoleon was defeated in 1815 and 2) one which Napoleon won in 1805.

1) The last decisive battle of Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, was at the battle of Waterloo in 1815, by several countries who fought and defeated the French army.
2) The Duke of Wellington was the English general in charge of the English army. The battle of Austerlitz, against the empires of Russia and Austria in 1805, is regarded as Napoleon Bonaparte’s greatest military victory. There is a fine railway station in Paris named Austerlitz.