London Paddington station Totally Explained

Everything about London Paddington totally explained

London Paddington station, also known as London Paddington, or just simply Paddington, is a major National Rail and London Underground station complex in the Paddington area near central London, England. It is the seventh busiest rail terminal in London.
The site is an 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 world's 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.

Location

The station complex is located in, alongside and under a long thin city block bounded across the front by Praed Street and to the rear by Bishop's Bridge Road, which crosses the throat of the main line station on the recently replaced Bishop's Bridge. The west side of the station is paralleled by Eastbourne Terrace, whilst the east side is constrained by the Paddington arm of the Grand Union Canal. The main line station is located in a shallow cutting, a fact that's obscured from the front by the frontal hotel building, but which can be clearly seen from the other three sides.
The station's location is something of a back street one, with none of the bounding streets being major traffic thoroughfares. The surrounding area is largely residential, and contains many of London's hotels. Until recently there has been little in the way of office accommodation in the area, meaning that most of Paddington's commuter traffic interchanges between National Rail and the London Underground to reach its eventual destination in the West End or the City. However, recent redevelopment of nearby derelict railway and canal land, marketed as Paddington Waterside, has resulted in a number of new office complexes in the area.

National Rail station

The National Rail station is officially named London Paddington, a name that's 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's 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 service from London to Taplow, near Maidenhead, began at Paddington in 1838. After the opening of the main station in 1854, this became the site of the goods depot. After years of dereliction, it's now being redeveloped as part of a mixed residential and business area called Paddington Waterside. The main Paddington station between Bishops Bridge Road and Praed Street was opened in 1854 and was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel who was later commemorated by a statue (right) on the station concourse (known as "The Lawn"), despite the fact that 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, 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, doesn't 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 (designer of the Euston Arch). The station was substantially enlarged in 1906-1915 and a fourth span of 33 m (109 ft) 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 doesn't possess the transepts of the earlier spans. On Armistice Day 1922, a memorial to the employees of the GWR who died during the First World War was unveiled by Viscount Churchill . The bronze memorial depicts a soldier reading a letter which was sculpted by Charles Sargeant Jagger and stands on platform 1.
   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 Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal was uncovered after removal of more recent brick cladding during the complete replacement of the adjacent bridge over the railway lines at the mouth of the station.

The station today

Today Paddington has 14 terminal platforms, numbered 1 to 14 from west to east. Platforms 1 to 8 are located below the original three spans of Brunel's 1854 train shed, whilst platforms 9 to 12 are located beneath the later fourth span. Platforms 13 and 14 are within the Metropolitan Railway's old Bishops Bridge station, immediately alongside the two through platforms, numbered 15 and 16, used by the Hammersmith & City Line of the London Underground (see below).
   Platforms 6 and 7 are dedicated to the Heathrow Express, and platforms 13 and 14 can only be used by the 2 or 3 car Turbo trains used on local services. All the other platforms can be used by any of the station's train services. However in normal usage the tendency is for long distance trains to use the western platforms, and local trains (including Heathrow Connect) the eastern ones.
   The station concourse stretches across the head of platforms 1 to 12, underneath the London end of the four main train sheds. Platforms 13 and 14 can be reached directly from the country end of platform 12, or from the footbridge which crosses the country end of the station and gives access to all platforms.
   The area between the back of the Great Western Hotel and the station concourse is traditionally called The Lawn. It was originally unroofed and occupied by sidings, but was later built up to form part of the station's first pedestrian concourse. The Lawn has recently been reroofed and separated from the concourse by a glass screen wall. It is now surrounded by shops and cafes on several levels.

Services

Paddington is the London terminus for long distance trains, operated by First Great Western, to Bristol, Bath, Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford in the West Country, and Newport, Cardiff and Swansea in 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 most 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 daily service.
Paddington was formerly served by the Cross-Country Route, with services serving the North West of England and Scotland, but these were withdrawn by Virgin Trains in 2002. It is expected that proposed Crossrail line 1 will serve Paddington.

London Underground stations

The London Underground station is the eighth busiest on the network with 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. On the London Underground map, the Hammersmith & City line platforms are listed as a separate station, due to their distance from the other lines.

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 (Bishop's Road) 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 (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 deep-level Baker Street and Waterloo Railway — now the Bakerloo Line — opened on 1 December 1913, with platforms underneath the mainline station.

The stations 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're almost indistinguishable from the mainline platforms alongside them, and are numbered (15 and 16) in the same sequence as the mainline platforms. 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 Harrow & Wealdstone stations. Paddington station has the unique feature that it's possible to take a train to Baker Street from any one of three platforms (i.e using the Hammersmith & City line, Circle line or Bakerloo line), however, none of these platforms is visible from the other two.
All London Underground services serving Paddington are summarised in the following table:

Crossrail station

Between 2008 and 2015, a new Crossrail station will be built under London Paddington, serving as both a connection to National Rail services, as well as London Underground. Services are due to start in 2017. Future Development

Paddington station in fiction

The children's book character Paddington Bear was named after Paddington station. In the books he's 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". In real life there's 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.
   There is an underground Paddington Station, separate from the real one, on the North London System in the novel The Horn of Mortal Danger (1980).
   A toilet at Paddington station is found in the 1999 film . It also makes an appearance in the film The Long Good Friday.
   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, 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).
   In the 2008 film based upon the true story of a bank robbery in Baker Street, London, The Bank Job, the protagonist arranges a meeting between all the parties involved in the conflict at the same time and place.
   In the story "Gordon Goes Foreign" from the Railway Series book The Eight Famous Engines, Gordon, Duck, and a 'foreign' engine argued over which station led to London. Duck believed that London Station was Paddington, as he used to work there as a station pilot.
   Paddington Station appears briefly in Chapter 5 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone after Harry has visited Diagon Alley with Hagrid for the first time, and Harry is struck by the divergence of the magical and Muggle worlds.
   Paddington Station appears in 1984 by George Orwell.

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