Encyclopedia
Paddington station is a major
National Rail and
London Underground station complex in the Paddington area of
London,
England. The site is a historic one, having served as the London terminus of the
Great Western Railway and its successors since 1838. Much of the current mainline station dates back to 1854, and was designed by
Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The site was first served by Underground trains in 1863, and was the original western terminus of the
Metropolitan Railway, the worlds first
underground railway.
Despite its historic nature, and the need to preserve many of its features, the complex has recently been modernised, and has added a new role as the terminus of the dedicated
Heathrow Express service to
Heathrow Airport. The complex is in
Travelcard Zone 1.
National Rail
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.
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.
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 , 31.20 m and 21.30 m . The roof is 213 m long, and a particular feature of the original roof spans is the presence of two
transepts connecting the three spans. It is commonly believed that these were provided by Brunel to accommodate
traversers to carry coaches between the tracks within the station. However recent research, using early documents and photographs, does not seem to support this belief, and their actual purpose is unknown.
The Great Western Hotel was built on Praed Street in front of the station in 1851-1854 by
architect Philip Charles Hardwick, son of
Philip Hardwick . The area between the back of the hotel and the end of the station's roof is traditionally called
The Lawn. It was originally occupied by sidings, but was later built up to form a pedestrian concourse. Recently it has been re-roofed and is surrounded by shops and cafes on several levels.
The station was substantially enlarged in 1906-1915 and a fourth span of 33 m was added on the north side, parallel to the others. The new span was built to a similar style to the original three spans, but the detailing is different and it does not possess the transepts of the earlier spans.
In 1961, the decomposing body of a male child was found in a case at the station. Paper stuffed into his mouth was the cause of death. His identity has never been discovered.
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.
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.
All national rail services serving London Paddington are summarised in the following table:
London Underground
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.
History
As originally built, there were three separate stations on lines that became part of the London Underground.
On 10 January 1863 the
Metropolitan Railway opened the first underground railway, running from
Paddington to Farringdon. The platforms serving this line were on the north side of the mainline 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 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 deep-level Baker Street and Waterloo Railway — now the
Bakerloo Line — opened on 1 December 1913, with platforms underneath the mainline station.
The station today
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, and are shown as such on the
tube map.
The platforms of the Hammermith & City Line station are still quite separate from the other Underground platforms, and are shown as a separate station on the tube map. However they 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, although the ticket barriers are programmed to permit changing between the two stations as part of a single journey.
Services
The three pairs of platforms that make up the various sections of Paddington Underground station are served by four different services. Two of the original four platforms of the old Bishop's Road station are used by the
Hammersmith & City Line and served by trains running between Hammersmith and
Barking stations. The platforms of the old Praed Street station are shared between trains of the
Circle Line, and trains of the
District Line running between
Wimbledon and
Edgware Road stations. The platforms of the deep level tube line are served by trains of the
Bakerloo Line running between
Elephant & Castle and Queen's Park stations.
All London Underground services serving Paddington are summarised in the following table:
The station in fiction
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, is a mystery [i], detective novel [i] by Agatha Christie [i]. ...
by
Agatha Christie begins with a murder witnessed by a passenger on a train from Paddington station on a parallel line.
A toilet at Paddington station is where Fat Bastard´s rectal locator is found in the 1999 film
.
In the horror film
28 Days Later is a low-budget post-apocalyptic science fiction [i] ...
, a lengthy
monologue describes a panic-stricken crowd at Paddington Station being overwhelmed by a killer virus.
In the 2005 film adaptation of
, some of the scenes in the early part of the movie take place at Paddington station .
See also
References
External links
