Metropolitan Borough of Paddington

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The Metropolitan Borough of Paddington was a metropolitan borough of the County of London between 1900 and 1965.

History

Its area covered that part of the current City of Westminster west of Edgware Road and Maida Vale, and north of Bayswater Road. Places in the borough included Paddington, Westbourne Green, Bayswater, Maida Hill, West Kilburn, Maida Vale. To the south it bordered the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster, to the east, the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone.

Paddington Town Hall, designed by James Lockyer in the Classical style, dated from 1853.Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London except the Cities of London and Westminster Harmondsworth 1952 The building, originally the Vestry Hall, was situated on Paddington Green. It was enlarged in 1900 and 1920. Following its closure in 1965, it was demolished to make way for the Westway urban motorway. The chair used by the Mayors of Paddington at council meetings was preserved, and is currently placed in the hallway at the Council House in Marylebone Road, the current meeting place for Westminster City Council. The war memorial, unveiled in 1924, was moved to the adjacent parish church of St. Mary.[Victoria County History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9: Hampstead, Paddington (1989)]

It was abolished in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963 and its former area merged with that of the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster and the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone to form the present-day City of Westminster.

Statistics

Area: 1,357 acres

Population:

• 1901: 143,976
• 1911: 142,551
• 1921: 144,261
• 1931: 144,923
• 1951: 125,463
• 1961: 116,923

Notable places

• Kensal Green Cemetery
• Paddington Station
• St. Mary's Hospital - Dr. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin here
• City Of Westminster College (formerly Paddington College)

References