Paddington station
Encyclopedia : P : PA : PAD : Paddington station
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.
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.
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
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
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0.5em auto; text-align: center;" |- ! Preceding station ! colspan="3" | National Rail ! Following station
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. 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.
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0.5em auto; text-align: center; clear: both;" |- ! Preceding station ! colspan="3" | Underground Lines ! Following station
|-
|- style="background:#F0F0F0;"
| style="border-right: none;" |
| colspan="3" style="border-left: none; border-right: none;" | Praed Street
| style="border-left: none;" |
|- style="text-align: center;"
| Warwick Avenue
| style="background:#ab6612;" |
| Bakerloo Line
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 by Agatha Christie begins with a murder witnessed by a passenger on a train from Paddington station on a parallel line.
In the 2005 film adaptation of [[The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe|The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]], some of the scenes in the early part of the movie took place at Paddington station. In fact, they were shot on a sound stage in New Zealand
See also
References
External links
- [Station information] on Paddington station from Network Rail
- [Train times] and [station information] for Paddington railway station from National Rail (Station code: PAD)
- * Satellite image from [WikiMapia] or [Google Local]
- * Street map from [Multimap] or [GlobalGuide]
- * Aerial image from [TerraServer]
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