Paddington, District And Circle Line Underground Station

1900/0/10307 PRAED STREET 11-AUG-03 Paddington, District and Circle Line Underground Station

GV II

Paddington District and Circle Line Underground Station. Train shed and platforms of 1866-68 by (Sir) John Fowler, engineer to the Metropolitan Railway. Street frontage rebuilt 1914 by Charles W. Clark, engineer to the Metropolitan Railway. Yellow brick, iron roof, white-glazed faience. EXTERIOR: central entrance flanked on each side by three shops. Two storeys. Projecting canopy with heavy scrolled consoles, segmental arched entrance with keystone. Ground floor shops divided by piers; left-handmost shop retains original shop front. Canted ends. First floor with 17 windows, each within a framed surround; some blind panels between them. Rusticated quoins to angles, and to slightly projecting centre-piece. Modillion cornice over frieze, latter inscribed in Roman capitals over entrance PADDINGTON STATION. Raised parapet to centre (originally topped with urns) inscribed METROPOLITAN RAILWAYS. INTERIOR: BOOKING HALL: much altered in c.1990 and clad in white tiles. No surviving features of note. INTERIOR: TRAIN SHED: retaining walls to cutting of tuck-pointed yellow (Halsey) brick with two-tier blind arcade; arcade of 20 bays on southern (westbound) side, of 22 bays on northern (eastbound) side. Segmental iron roof, part-glazed, with principal arches springing from cast iron foliate brackets; trussed purlins; roof in 2 sections, of 5 bays to west of booking hall, 3 to east; roof open at each end of the platforms. Booking hall built across centre of tracks and platforms; footbridge with latticed sides spans tracks to west. HISTORY: this station was originally Paddington Praed Street, and formed the northern end of the Metropolitan Railway's southwards extension to Gloucester Road, sanctioned by an Act of 1864. It opened on 1st October 1868. The earlier 1863 section of the Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground line, terminated at a separate and now-demolished station named Paddington Bishop's Road. The Metropolitan Line was built as a 'cut and cover' project: the open ends of the roof enabled smoke and steam to escape, in order to improve ventilation along its length. Fowler's entrance and booking hall were later rebuilt in Charles Clark's characteristic white faience. SOURCES: 'The Builder' 3rd October 1868, 725-26; Lawrence Menear, 'London's Underground Stations' (1983), 9-13; David Lawrence, 'Underground Architecture' (1994), 12-13, 60. TQ2669881192