Paddington station
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Paddington Station, March 2005 during rush hour |
Paddington station is a major
National Rail and
London Underground station complex in the
Paddington area of
London. The complex is in
Travelcard Zone 1.
The National Rail station is officially named
London Paddington, a name that is commonly used outside London, but rarely by Londoners
. Parts of the station, including the main
train shed, date back to 1854, when it was built as the London terminus for
Brunel's Great Western Railway. Today it is one of seventeen UK railway stations managed by
Network Rail.
Services
Paddington is the London terminus for long distance trains, operated by
First Great Western, to the
West Country,
Bristol,
Bath and
South Wales. It also acts as the terminus for shorter distance commuter services to West London and the
Thames Valley, also operated by First Great Western. Two services from Paddington serve
Heathrow Airport; the
Heathrow Express travels non-stop whilst the
Heathrow Connect service runs along the same route but calling at intermediate stations.
Paddington also serves as an alternative London terminal for
Chiltern Railways' service to
Birmingham, used when
London Marylebone is inaccessible for engineering or other reasons and for one timetabled service per day. It is proposed that proposed
Crossrail line 1 will serve Paddington.
History
The first station to open in the Paddington area was a temporary terminus for the
Great Western Railway on the west side of Bishop's Bridge Road. The first GWR services from London to Taplow, near Maidenhead, ran from here in
1838. After the opening of the main station in
1854, this became the site of the goods yard. After years of dereliction, it is now being redeveloped as a mixed residential and business area called
Paddington Waterside.
[Steven Brindle Paddington Station: Its history and architecture , English Heritage, 2004, ISBN 1-873592-70-1] |
Statue of Isambard Kingdom Brunel |
The main Paddington station between Bishops Bridge Road and Praed Street was opened in
1854. It was designed by
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, later commemorated by a statue on the station concourse, though much of the architectural detailing was by his associate
Matthew Digby Wyatt. The glazed roof is supported by
wrought iron arches in three spans, respectively spanning 20.70 m (68 ft), 31.20 m (102 ft) and 21.30 m (70 ft). The roof is 213 m (699 ft) long. The station was substantially enlarged in
1906–
15 and a fourth span of 33 m (109 ft) was added on the north side, parallel to the others.
[Steven Brindle Paddington Station: Its history and architecture , English Heritage, 2004, ISBN 1-873592-70-1]A very early construction by Brunel was recently discovered immediately to the north of the station; a cast iron bridge carrying the Bishop's Bridge Road over the railway lines was exposed during removal of the more recent brick outer covering in late 2004, in the run-up to the bridge's complete replacement.
[Steven Brindle Paddington Station: Its history and architecture , English Heritage, 2004, ISBN 1-873592-70-1]The
Great Western Hotel was built on
Praed Street in front of the station in
1851–
54 by
architect Philip Charles Hardwick, son of
Philip Hardwick (designer of the
Euston Arch).
[Steven Brindle Paddington Station: Its history and architecture , English Heritage, 2004, ISBN 1-873592-70-1] The
London Underground part of Paddington station involves stops on several lines: the
Hammersmith & City Line at a surface station on the north side of the main line station and parallel with it; the
District Line and
Circle Line in a cutting in front of the main line station and perpendicular to it; and the
Bakerloo Line in deep-level tubes below the main line station. As originally built, these were three separate stations.
Today the District/Circle line platforms and the Bakerloo line platforms are linked by an underground corridor under Praed Street within the fare paid area. They can be regarded as a single station, albeit with a fairly long walk between the two sets of platforms.
The platforms of the Hammermith & City Line station are still quite separate from the other Underground platforms, but are almost indistinguishable from the mainline platforms alongside them. Interchange between the District/Circle/Bakerloo lines and the Hammersmith & City lines involves walking the length of the mainline station outside the London Underground barrier lines.
History
On
10 January 1863 the
Metropolitan Railway opened the first underground railway, running from
Paddington (Bishop's Road) to
Farringdon. The platforms serving this line were on the north side of the mailine station with the tunnel entrance under Praed Street. There was a connection to the GWR mainline which allowed it to run regular services onto the GWR's
Hammersmith branch. The station was renamed "Paddington" on
10 September 1933. From the
1930s until the late
1960s the
Metropolitan Line and GWR suburban services shared a group of four
platforms, but the Underground is now entirely separate and forms Paddington station on the
Hammersmith & City Line.
In
1868 the Metropolitan Railway opened a new branch to
South Kensington, with a station called
Paddington (Praed Street) in a cutting across that street south of the mainline station. This station was renamed to simply "Paddington" on
11 July 1948 and now serves the Circle and District Lines. It is linked to the mainline station and the Bakerloo line by a footway that passes underneath Praed Street and the Great Western Hotel. The
tube map now shows the Circle/District and Bakerloo line stations as one station, but separate from the Hammersmith and City Line station mentioned above, although the ticket barriers are programmed to permit changing between the two stations as part of a single journey.
The deep-level Baker Street and Waterloo Railway — now the
Bakerloo Line — opened on
December 1,
1913, with platforms underneath the mainline station.
|
Statue of Paddington Bear |
The children's book character
Paddington Bear was named after Paddington station. In the books he is found at the station in London, coming from "deepest, darkest
Peru" and with a note attached to his coat reading "please look after this bear, thank you". Because of this he is named after the station.
In real life there is a statue of Paddington Bear in the station concourse, and a small shop full of Paddington Bear
paraphernalia in the main station area. This statue is a representation of the original Paddington drawings by Peggy Fortnum.
The mystery novel
4.50 from Paddington (
1952) by
Agatha Christie begins with a murder witnessed by a passenger on a train from Paddington station on a parallel line.
In the horror film
28 Days Later (
2002), a lengthy
monologue describes a panic-stricken crowd at Paddington Station being overwhelmed by a killer virus.
In the
2005 film adaptation of
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, some of the scenes in the early part of the movie take place at Paddington station (but were in fact shot on a
sound stage in
New Zealand*
A list of all London Underground stations*
A list of all UK railway stations*
Station information on Paddington station from
Network Rail*
Train times and
station information for Paddington railway station from
National Rail (Station code: PAD)
