Paddington

infobox UK place
country = England
map_type = Greater London
region = London
static_

static_image_caption = St Mary's Hospital
population =
official_name = Paddington
latitude = 51.5172
longitude = -0.1730
os_grid_reference = TQ267814
london_borough = Westminster
post_town = LONDON
postcode_area =W
postcode_district =W2
dial_code = 020
constituency_westminster = Cities of London and Westminster
london_distance

Paddington is an area of the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. It was formerly a metropolitan borough of itself, but was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965.

Historically a part of Middlesex, the earliest extant reference to "Padington" is in the year 1056. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddington station, designed by the celebrated engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and opened in 1847; St Mary's Hospital and Paddington Green police station (the most important high-security police station in the United Kingdom).

Associated celebrities

Paddington has been home to many famous sons, daughters and associated residents, including:

* Robert Browning, the great Victorian poet who lived at Beauchamp Lodge on the junction of two canals and named that precinct "Little Venice". (The name is now given to a longer reach of the canal system.)

* Edward Wilson, physician, naturalist and ornithologist who died in 1912 on Captain Robert Scott's ill-fated British Antarctic expedition. The Senior Street primary school was renamed the Edward Wilson School after him in 1952.

* At St Mary's Hospital in 1874, C R Alder Wright synthesised heroin (diacetylmorphine). Also there, in 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming first isolated penicillin.

* The royal princes William (21 June, 1982) and Henry ("Harry") (15 September, 1984) were both born at St Mary's Hospital.

* A notable contemporary resident is Michael Bond, the author of children’s and adult fiction, most famously "Paddington Bear"

* Celebrity actors associated with Paddington include Sir Alec Guinness, Emma Thompson and Kiefer Sutherland, .

* Margaret Jay, former Labour leader in the House of Lords and daughter of James Callaghan lives in the area and has the title 'Baroness Jay of Paddington'.

References in fiction

*Possibly the most famous fictional reference to Paddington comes from Michael Bond's Paddington Bear books. In the story, Paddington is named after the station where he was found and adopted.

*In the BBC mini-series of John le Carré's "Smiley's People", the General lives off Westbourne Terrace, and Smiley later visits, with scenes also filmed around Paddington Station and Craven Road.

*In the Railway Series books by Rev. W. Awdry, the character Duck the Great Western Engine is said to have once lived here.

*In the Sherlock Holmes short story "The Stockbroker's Clerk", Dr. Watson mentioned that he purchased a practice in the Paddington district.

*"4.50 from Paddington" is one of the most well-known of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple mystery novel series.

* In the original stage version of "Oliver!", Oliver meets the Artful Dodger outside what is now Paddington Green; this is changed in the 1968 film version, in which Oliver meets him in the marketplace of London.

Paddington station

Paddington has a main-line railway station, Paddington station, with commuter service to the west of London (e.g. Slough, Maidenhead, Reading, Swindon) and main-line service to Oxford, Bristol, Bath, Taunton, Exeter, Plymouth, Cornwall and South Wales (including Cardiff and Swansea). There is also the Heathrow Express service to Heathrow Airport.

In the station are statues of its designer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the children's fiction character Paddington Bear.

Education

Gallery

See also

* Paddington Bridge
* Paddington Bear
* "Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green"