A sad decline

We set off at 5 am this morning and caught a flight to Stansted. We had a lot of waiting around before taking the train to Peterborough and then another wait for a lift back on to the fens. We arrived around 6pm so it was a long day. While waiting at Peterborough, I sat on a bench opposite the Great Northern Hotel, no longer a hotel and even the restaurant that replaced it has closed. It was one of five hotels on the GNR and was built in 1852. The king of Prussia stayed there and it hab its own bakery, laundry and stables.