Paddington

Location

• An area of the City of Westminster which prior to the Local Government Act, 1965, was a metropolitan borough in its own right.
• Paddington has a hub of transport facilities, with Paddington Station (serving Heathrow Airport and the west country), Grand Union Canal (to the Midlands), and road networks to north, east & west parts of the United Kingdom.
• Children know Paddington as it was where a little bear was found with his Marmalade.
• Has become extremely popular, largely due to the magnificent Paddington Waterside development which has transformed the area known as the Paddington Basin.
• Paddington Basin, which is the terminus for a part of the Grand Union Canal Paddington Branch, has built over 1,000 new homes and commercial developments in excess of a million square feet.

Historical Facts

• From the 10th Century most of the land around Paddington belonged to Westminster Abbey. After the Reformation it was seized by the Crown and during the 16th century King Edward VI granted Paddington, by charter to the Bishop of London, who leased it as farmland. By 1981 the Church Commissioners sold their most of their land in Maida vale, but still remain major landlords in the Bayswater area.
• After the Civil War in 1679, a new church was built which became the predecessor of St Marys, Paddington Green.
• Paddington remained a country village, with meadows and farmland, up until the 19th Century. The area was so isolated that French Huguenots, escaping from religious persecution, settled here in the 18th Century. Several members of both the English and French nobility were attracted to the area and the neighbourhood went on to become famous for its gardens.
• 18th century building developments were delayed because of a tree located the south western boundary (close to the River Tyburn, where Edgware & Bayswater Roads meet, near Marble Arch). This was the notorious Tyburn tree which became famous as a place of execution – until 1783 prisoners were dragged on the back of a cart from Newgate Prison (today the site of the Old Bailey) where they were publicly hanged, usually watched by large crowds.
• An orbital canal was opened in 1881, circumnavigating around the north of London to allow cargo boats access to the River Thames up-stream at Kew in the west, and to the London Docks at Limehouse in the east. There was a junction just north of Camden Town that connected the canal (the ‘motorway’ of its day) built to bring manufactured goods down from the Midlands.
• After the Napoleonic Wars the landowning and enterprising Bishops of London built prestigious houses to mirror those on the south side of Hyde Park, namely Belgravia, and as London grew westwards, it had reached the village of Paddington in the early part of the 19th Century.
• In 1838 Isambard Kingdom Brunel with architectural assistance from Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt, built Paddington Station as his terminus for the Great Western Railway. His vision was for passengers to deposit their luggage at Paddington, board a train, and then collect it in New York – by way of train to Bristol and steamer to New York. Ironically passengers can do exactly the same today from Paddington Station, via express train to Heathrow and plane to New York.
• In 1829, George Shillibeer set up the world’s first (horse drawn) bus service, from the village green at Paddington to the City.

Attractions & Theatres

• Three important landmarks of the district are Paddington station, St Mary’s hospital and Paddington Green police station (the highest security police station in the United Kingdom)

Shopping

• Edgware Road
• Queensway
• Whitley’s Shopping Centre

Famous Residents

• Ainsley Harriott
• Anthony Blunt
• Brian Jones
• Crosby, Stills & Nash
• Donald Maclean (spy)
• Emma Thompson
• Guglielmo Marconi
• J M Barrie
• Jimi Hendrix
• Kinks (first professional engagement was at the Lotus House, 61 Edgware Road)
• Margaret Jay (former Labour leader in the House of Lords and daughter of James Callaghan)
• Marvin Gaye
• Michael Bond (author of children’s and adult fiction, most famously Paddington Bear )
• Robert Browning
• Robert Stevenson
• Sir Alec Guinness
• Sir Alexander Fleming
• Sir Winston Churchill
• The royal princes (William on 21 June 1982) and Henry (Harry on 15 September 1984) were both born at St Mary’s Hospital