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London: St. Pancras is City’s grand new destination

By John Keyes and Anne Garber Meridian Writers' Group LONDON - When the Eurostar began zipping between continental Europe and England through the tunnel beneath the English Channel in 1994, it irked those French who care about such matters that the P
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By John Keyes and Anne Garber

Meridian Writers' Group

 

LONDON - When the Eurostar began zipping between continental Europe and England through the tunnel beneath the English Channel in 1994, it irked those French who care about such matters that the Paris terminus for the train was the Gare du Nord, a politically neutral appellation, while the London terminus, south of the River Thames, was at Waterloo Station, named after the final defeat of Napoleon by the English at Waterloo in 1815.

Half-hearted entreaties by French bureaucrats that the station might be renamed were rebuffed by the Brits, while the London tabloids gleefully mocked such Gallic sensitivity. On Nov. 14, 2007, the issue was finally rendered moot when the London terminus for the Eurostar was switched from Waterloo to St. Pancras, in the north end of the city. If they wish, the French can now think of it as London's very own gare du nord .

Linked to new high-speed rail lines that shave 20 minutes off the old London-Paris run (the trip now takes a mere two hours and 15 minutes) and capable of handling as many as eight Eurostar departures and arrivals per hour, St. Pancras now spans the 19th and 21st centuries. With its restored 1867 train shed and capacious 2007 extension, it is a state-of-the-art iron-and-glass facility, sunlit by day, gloriously illuminated by night, a far cry from the original neo-Gothic pile of bricks that nearly succumbed to the wrecking ball in the 1960s and was largely derelict in recent years.

The landlord, London & Continental Railways, spent £800 million restoring St. Pancras, hoping in part to make it a place that makes travellers happy, even eager, to be routed through it because there are so many amenities to enjoy. Better still, the new station has also become a shopping and dining destination for King's Cross and Islington, nearby districts of London sorely in need of pizzazz.

Several prestigious retailers have been persuaded to set up shop under this grand roof: Foyle's, the world-famous, multi-storey independent bookstore on Charing Cross Road, has a branch in the retail concourse, as does Hamley's, the legendary Regent Street toy store. So does Neal's Yard, the artisanal cheese maker whose fine fare would otherwise require slogging through the crowds in Covent Garden or Borough Market. For something to put that cheese on, there's an outlet of Paul, the French boulangerie. Other shops include a brasserie, a gastropub, a sushi bar, fashion boutiques and a pharmacy. The local press has made much of London & Continental's decision not to allow a fast-food vendor like McDonald's onto the property.

Instead it has establishments like the Champagne Bar, whose counter, at over 90 metres, is the longest in Europe. With its glass-walled view of the Eurostar platform it is a meeting point for anyone who craves an instant taste of France-and even for many locals who have no plans to leave town at all. For those who have to wash away the ignominious taste of Waterloo, the 70-some bubblies on its wine list offer no end of consolation.

 

ACCESS

For more information on St. Pancras International visit its website at www.stpancras.com . For information on Eurostar visit its website at www.eurostar.com .

 

England: Where the trade-union movement was born

By Mitchell Smyth

Meridian Writers' Group

TOLPUDDLE, England - This Dorsetshire village is the very essence of a peaceful, sleepy community, all the more so since a bypass was built a few years ago to carry the A35 highway traffic away from its main street.

It comes as a surprise, then, to find here, among thatched cottages and leafy lanes, the echoes of an event that changed the face of industry and business around the world.

That event was the birth of the trade-union movement. You'd expect, somehow, to find organized labour's birthplace in some sweatshop or an assembly line in an industrial city - Manchester, perhaps, or Sheffield, or Detroit or Pittsburgh.

But, no, it was here that labour was first organized, by six men who tried to get a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. Their efforts cost them dearly. That's why they're called the Tolpuddle Martyrs.

Their  story is told all over the village, in a cottage, a church, the local pub, even in a tree on Main Street.

That tree is a huge sycamore. It was already full-grown in 1834 when six farmhands met in its shade to talk about wages. The local squires had decided to cut a workman's pay from nine shillings a week to six. The men who met under the tree swore to stand together and fight the pay cut.

That oath was their undoing. The squires dug out an old law, the Mutiny Act, which banned "unlawful oaths" and, duly convicted, the men were sentenced to seven years in the Australian penal colonies.

The sentences galvanized workers around the country and, in the wake of mass protests and petitions to Parliament, organized labour became a reality.

On the 100th anniversary in 1934 the British Trades Union Congress recognized the Martyrs' groundbreaking efforts by building seven cottages here. Six - each with the name of a Martyr above the door - are rented to retired farm workers.

The seventh is a museum, which tells the whole story, in pictures, handbills, notices of protest marches and fund-raisers, and newspaper clippings.

The village pub, the Martyrs' Inn, also has framed exhibits. There's a memorial arch at the Methodist church and information on the local heroes inside.

And what happened to the Tolpuddle Six? Brief biographies in the museum show that, following the mass protests at their sentencing, the government relented and they returned from Australia after a couple of years. Five of them later immigrated to Canada and settled in the London, Ont., area and in Perth County, Ont.

One of them, John Standfield, became reeve (mayor) of East London (now part of London, Ont.). It seems the sentences cooled the Martyrs' ardour, for in Canada they led low-key lives as far as labour relations were concerned.

There's a visitors' book in the museum. The comment box contains such entries as, "You did it all for us, brothers. We are grateful," "The injustices go on; we must fight on to end them," "So many owe so much to so few," and "History is still repeating itself."

 

ACCESS

Tolpuddle (pop. 330) is 12 kilometres west of Dorchester in west Dorset.

For more information visit www.tolpuddlemartyrs.com . For information travel in Britain go to the Visit Britain website at www.visitbritain.ca .