Paddington
Paddington's combination of classic urban squares and and grand tree—lined terraces gives the district a wealthy and almost Continental feel, but the volume of traffic, as usual, spoils much of the effect. The area’s main focus is Paddington station on Praed Street, one of the world’s great early train stations; designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1851, the cathedral-scale wrought—iron sheds replaced a wooden structure that was the destination of Queen Victoria and Albert’s first railway journey in 1842. The train, pulled by the engine Phlegethon, travelled from Slough (near Windsor) at an average speed of 44mph, which the prince consort considered excessive - “Not so fast next time, Mr Conductor”, he is alleged to have remarked.
Squeezed between Paddington station and the flyover of the Westway to the north is Paddington Basin, built as the terminus of the Grand Union Canal in 1801. Now at the centre of a massive regeneration project known as Paddington Waterside, it’s worth exploring if only to have a look at the trio of funky footbridges which span the water: Helix Bridge, a twisted tube of Perspex; Paddington Bridge, a vast wall of illuminated glass and steel; and Rolling Bridge, a hydraulic gangway that coils up into an octagon rather like a curled-up woodhouse. If you follow the basin to the northwest, you’ll reach Little Venice in St John’s Wood.
One block east of Paddington up Praed Street is St Mary’s Hospital, home of the Fleming Museum (Monday Thursday l0am-1pm; £2 0207 886 6528, www.medicalmuseums.org/museums/alex.htm on the corner of Norfolk Place, where the young Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin in 1928. A short video, a small exhibition and a reconstruction of Fleming’s untidy lab tell the story of the medical discovery that saved more lives than any other during the last century. Oddly enough, it aroused little interest at the time, until a group of chemists in Oxford succeeded in Purifying penicillin in 1942. Desperate for good news in wartime, the media made Fleming a celebrity, and he was eventually awarded the Nobel Prize, along with several of the Oxford team. For fantastic Hotels in Paddington London at discounted rates see this page from Online Discounted Hotels Ltd. |
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