Paddington Railway Station

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Paddington Station Main Hall (2004)

The Paddington Station is one of the main stations of London . It is located in the west of the central borough of City of Westminster , on Praed Street in Paddington . The railway terminus in the tariff zone 1 serves as the eastern terminus since 1838 Great Western Main Line . A large part of the system that exists today dates back to 1854 and is based on a design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel . Paddington is the departure point for trains to Bristol , South West England and South Wales and the western suburbs of London. Heathrow Express and TfL Rail also operate from here to London Heathrow Airport . The station is served by four London Underground lines , which stop at two different stations. In 2016, 35.836 million rail passengers used the station, plus 49.48 million on the subway.

location

Location map

The station complex is bordered by Praed Street at the front and Bishop's Bridge Road at the rear. Eastbourne Terrace runs along the west facade, while a side canal of the Grand Union Canal lies on the east facade . To the east is St Mary's Hospital . The main part of the station lies in a shallow incision, which cannot be seen on the front through a hotel building, but is clearly visible on the other three sides.

Unlike the other main London stations, Paddington is not in a particularly busy area. None of the adjacent streets is a major traffic axis and the surrounding area consists of residential areas with numerous hotels. Until recently, there was little office space, so the vast majority of commuters switched from suburban trains to the underground to get to their destinations in the West End or the City of London . This changed, however, with the re-use of fallow railroad and canal land known as Paddington Waterside and the construction of high-rise office buildings.

Plant and operation

The main hall during rush hour

The above-ground terminus , which is also known as London Paddington , has 13 tracks that are arranged from south-west to north-east (No. 1 to 12 and 14). Tracks 1 to 8 are located below the three original arches from 1854, while tracks 9 to 12 are located under the fourth arch from 1915. Platform 14 is in the old Metropolitan Railway station on Bishop's Bridge Road in the northwest. This is immediately adjacent to platforms 15 and 16, which are used by the Circle Line and the Hammersmith & City Line of London Underground . The cross platform extends over the southern end of tracks 1 to 12, while track 14 can be reached indirectly via the northwest end of track 12. A footbridge spans the northwest end of the station.

Paddington is one of 18 train stations in the UK managed by the rail infrastructure company Network Rail . From here, trains of the Great Western Railway, newly established in 2015, run to south-west England , Bristol , Bath and south Wales, as well as suburban trains from the same company to the western suburbs of London and the Thames Valley . The Heathrow Express runs non-stop to London Heathrow Airport . Heathrow Connect's destination is also the airport, but the trains make a few stops. In addition, a “ parliamentary train ” runs once a day from Chiltern Railways to West Ruislip , which only exists to avoid the costs of the line closure between Paddington and the only intermediate station South Ruislip .

history

Construction of the station

Track plan (1888)

After several failed attempts, Isambard Kingdom Brunel announced the construction of a railway line from London to Bristol on July 30, 1833 , later known as the Great Western Main Line . Then the Great Western Railway (GWR) was founded, with Brunel as chief engineer. The GWR originally planned to let their trains run to Euston station. This would have allowed her to use the existing route of the London and Birmingham Railway , which would have been cheaper. The government gave their approval, but Brunel rejected the idea from a long-term perspective, as it would have allowed Liverpool to compete with Bristol as a port if the route was extended beyond Birmingham.

The Railway Station - painting by William Frith (1862)

The GWR's first station was a temporary facility on the west side of Bishop's Bridge Road (a freight yard was built on the site two decades later). The first trains ran from London to Taplow near Maidenhead on June 4, 1838 . Brunel was always of the opinion that only the best was good enough for the GWR and after the completion of the main line he strove to build an even larger terminal station. The management approved his ambitious plans in February 1853.

The new terminus between Bishop's Bridge Road and Praed Street was built according to plans by Brunel, who was thrilled to finally be able to design such a striking building. However, most of the architectural detail work was done by his partner Matthew Digby Wyatt . This was inspired by Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace and the Munich Central Station designed by Friedrich Bürklein . The glazed roof is supported by three rows of wrought iron supports. The intervening arches are 20.73 m (68 ft ), 31.09 m (102 ft) and 21.33 m (70 ft) wide, the length of the roof is 213.06 m (699 ft). Originally the station had four platforms. At the end of the platforms there were 19 turntables in total, on which horse and carts that drove directly into the station hall could turn.

Extensions

Departure platform (1904)

On January 16, 1854, the GWR put the new station into operation, although the roof was not yet completed at that time. The official opening took place on May 29th and the older temporary station was demolished the following year. In front of the station, on Praed Street, Philip Charles Hardwick built the Great Western Hotel (now Hilton London Paddington) from 1851. The five-story Second Empire style building opened on January 9, 1854. It has a tower at each corner, which towers over the main building by two stories. At the beginning, a consortium of shareholders and employees of the GWR ran the hotel until the company took over the operation itself in 1896.

In 1880 the GWR began experimenting with electric lights, which led to the station being decorated with Christmas lights that year. Although the facility was unreliable, it spurred GWR to implement a more ambitious lighting project in 1886. A 145 volt alternator illuminated Paddington train station, the GWR offices, the freight yard and the nearby Royal Oak and Westbourne Park train stations . The project proved that electricity could compete with gas lighting on a large scale . From 1906 to 1915 the station was significantly expanded when a fourth arch, 33 meters (109 ft) wide, was added on the north side, similar to the three older arches.

World War Memorial

Paddington became a major destination for milk deliveries to the city. In 1881 a milk transfer point was built, which at the beginning of the 20th century handled over 3000 jugs a day. Other perishable goods such as meat, fish and flowers were also brought in via Paddington. In order to create more space for passenger trains, the GWR relocated the freight yard in March 1906 to Old Oak Common in the west. In 1908 she extended the main departure platform in order to be able to handle more milk and parcel deliveries. Between 1913 and 1916, the station received three additional tracks. The roof was completely rebuilt between 1922 and 1924, replacing Brunel's original wrought iron supports with steel replicas.

Further development

On November 11, 1922, Viscount Churchill unveiled a memorial (rededicated in 1949) designed by sculptor Charles Sargeant Jagger to commemorate the Great Western Railway employees who fell in both world wars. The bronze monument at platform 1 depicts a soldier dressed in combat uniform reading a letter. From 1930 to 1934 the GWR extended the platforms of tracks 2 to 11 to behind the bridge over Bishop's Road, and a new parcel warehouse was added. While local trains had always played a minor role before, their number has now increased significantly. For this purpose, the station section on Bishop's Road received four additional tracks (13-16), a new ticket hall and an additional entrance next to the bridge.

Statue of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (created 1982)

During the First World War , the station remained undisturbed, but during the Second World War it was the target of air raids by the German Air Force several times . On April 17, 1941, an air mine hit the departure tracks, while on March 22, 1944 two 230 kg bombs destroyed the roof over tracks 6 and 7. Passenger traffic increased markedly in the course of the war, in particular due to the evacuations into the Thames Valley and the fact that vacation destinations on the south and east coast were largely reserved for the military. On July 29, 1944, the station had to be closed for three hours because the platforms were overcrowded.

The switch to electrical operation began in the late 1950s. British Rail introduced diesel multiple units to suburban traffic between 1959 and 1961 ; the last long-distance train pulled by a steam locomotive left Paddington Station on June 11, 1965. In 1967 the track layout was reorganized, which meant the abolition of the Paddington distinction between arrival and departure platforms. In 1970 the cross platform was enlarged, and the counter hall was rebuilt the following year. At that time, public opinion had turned against the complete demolition and rebuilding of historically significant stations such as Euston , which is why the renovations in Paddington were aimed at preserving the original station design by Brunel and Wyatt.

In 1982 the building society Bristol & West had a statue created by John Doubleday that represents Isambard Kingdom Brunel on the cross platform . The open space, known as The Lawn , between the rear of the hotel and the cross platform was redesigned between 1989 and 1999 with shops and cafés on several levels. In 2010 the fourth pillar in the main hall was renovated, which also included the repair and restoration of the original glass roof. In this way, natural daylight shines on tracks 9 to 12. A second renovation phase began in 2014 and lasted two years. Network Rail had previously intended to demolish the fourth pillar and erect an office building over this part of the station. A public campaign prevented this project.

Subway

Praed Street Underground Station (Circle and District Lines)

Early on, the Great Western Railway was aware of the fact that Paddington was quite a distance from central London and in 1854 invested £ 175,000 in the Metropolitan Railway , which wanted to build a rail link to the City of London . Consequently, on January 10, 1863, Paddington was the western terminus of the world's first underground train . The station was then called Paddington (Bishop's Road) according to its location . An extension of the Metropolitan Railway created a connection to districts in the south. It branched off at Praed Street Junction east of the existing subway station and led from October 1, 1868 via the separate Paddington station (Praed Street) to Gloucester Road . The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway opened on December 1, 1913 an extension from Edgware Road to Paddington (Praed Street). The subway station on Bishop's Road was simply called Paddington from September 10, 1933 , and the subway station on Praed Street from July 11, 1948.

Due to the historical development of the various railway lines, Paddington Station is now served by four London Underground lines, which run through two separate stations. The Bakerloo Line , the Circle Line and the District Line stop below Praed Street on the south side of the station . While the first runs as a tube line in a deep tunnel, the other two paved roads are directly below the surface of the earth. The second station is used by the Hammersmith & City Line and the Circle Line towards Hammersmith . The Circle Line therefore runs through both stations.

Crossrail train station

A new underground station for Crossrail's Elizabeth Line is being built under Eastbourne Terrace, the road along the south-west side of the station . It lies 18 meters below the surface and is 260 meters long. For this purpose, the road was closed for around two years in 2012. Operation on the S-Bahn-like railway line, which crosses central London in a west-east direction, is scheduled to start in December 2019.

Cultural influence

Statue of Paddington Bear in the concourse

The children's book character Paddington Bear by Michael Bond is named after the train station . A statue of the bear created by Marcus Cornish (based on the original drawings by Peggy Fortnum ) has stood on platform 1 under the large clock since 2000, together with a plaque that explains the story of his arrival at this station and the origin of his name.

The station is mentioned in two Sherlock Holmes works by Arthur Conan Doyle , one in the novel The Hound of Baskerville , and the other in the short story The Boscombe Valley Mystery . The novel 4:50 p.m. from Paddington by Agatha Christie begins in a train that leaves Paddington and from which a traveler observes a murder that is committed on a parallel train. The 1957 novel was published four years later made into a film .

The band Supertramp went to Paddington Station to record the sounds of moving trains. These can be heard in the song Rudy on the 1974 album Crime of the Century .

literature

  • Steven Brindle: Paddington Station: Its History and Architecture . English Heritage, London 2004, ISBN 1-873592-70-1 .
  • Alan Jackson: London's terms . David & Charles, London 1984, ISBN 0-330-02747-6 .
  • John R. Day, John Reed: The Story of London's Underground . Capital Transport, London 2008, ISBN 978-1-85414-316-7 .

Web links

Commons : Paddington Railway Station  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ COUNTS - 2016 - annual entries & exits. (Excel) (No longer available online.) Transport for London , 2017, formerly in the original ; accessed on April 1, 2018 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / tfl.gov.uk  
  2. ↑ Estimates of station usage, 2016/17 data. (Excel) Office of Rail and Road , 2017, accessed April 1, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b Paddington Station Planning Letter. (PDF) Westminster City Council, April 2008, accessed April 1, 2018 .
  4. ↑ London Paddington station map. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Network Rail , 2018, archived from the original on April 1, 2018 ; accessed on April 1, 2018 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / cdn.networkrail.co.uk
  5. ^ Riding the Parliamentary Train out of Paddington. Ian Visits, May 8, 2017, accessed April 1, 2018 .
  6. ^ Brindle: Paddington Station: Its History and Architecture. P. 3.
  7. ^ Brindle: Paddington Station: Its History and Architecture. P. 14.
  8. ↑ Jackson: London's Terms . P. 303.
  9. ^ Brindle: Paddington Station: Its History and Architecture. P. 20.
  10. ↑ Jackson: London's Terms . P. 306.
  11. ↑ Jackson: London's Terms . P. 396.
  12. ↑ a b Jackson: London's Terms . P. 308.
  13. ↑ a b Jackson: London's Terms . P. 311.
  14. ↑ Jackson: London's Terms . P. 314.
  15. ^ Brindle: Paddington Station: Its History and Architecture. P. 60.
  16. ↑ Jackson: London's Terms . Pp. 315-316.
  17. ↑ Jackson: London's Terms . Pp. 318-319.
  18. ^ Great Western Railway Paddington - WW1 and WW2. Imperial War Museum , 2018, accessed April 1, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Jackson: London's Terms . Pp. 319-320.
  20. ^ Brindle: Paddington Station: Its History and Architecture. P. 69.
  21. ↑ Jackson: London's Terms . P. 322.
  22. ↑ Jackson: London's Terms . Pp. 324-325.
  23. ^ Brindle: Paddington Station: Its History and Architecture. P. 94.
  24. ↑ Jackson: London's Terms . P. 369.
  25. ^ Brindle: Paddington Station: Its History and Architecture. P. 98.
  26. ↑ Let There Be Light. Railnews, February 14, 2010, accessed April 1, 2018 .
  27. ^ Victory at Paddington. (PDF) Save Britain's Heritage, November 16, 2016, accessed April 1, 2018 .
  28. ^ Reed, Day: The Story of London's Underground. P. 69.
  29. ^ Reed, Day: The Story of London's Underground. P. 70.
  30. ^ Paddington station. Crossrail, accessed April 1, 2018 .
  31. ↑ Paddington Bear Statue. This is Paddington, September 8, 2014, accessed April 1, 2018 .
  32. ↑ John Christopher: The London of Sherlock Holmes . Amberley Publishing, Stroud 2012, ISBN 978-1-4456-1568-4 , pp. 107 .
  33. ^ John Christopher: The Mojo Collection . Canongate Books, Edinburgh 2007, ISBN 978-1-84195-973-3 , pp. 335 .


Previous station National Rail Next train station
final destination Great Western Railway
intercity trains 		Slough or Reading
Great Western Railway
Night Riviera 		Reading
Great Western Railway
local trains 		Acton Main Line
Heathrow Connect Ealing Broadway
Heathrow Express Heathrow Central
Chiltern Railways
run Monday through Friday 		South Ruislip
Previous station Crossrail Next train station
Acton Main Line Elizabeth Line
(from 2018) 		Bond Street
Previous station London Underground Next station
Warwick Avenue   Bakerloo Line   Edgware Road
Bayswater   Circle Line  
  District Line  
Royal Oak   Circle Line  
  Hammersmith & City Line  

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 '58.7 "  N , 0 ° 10' 39.3"  W.