PADDINGTON

'Paddington' is an area of west London in the City of Westminster, 2.2 miles (3.5 km) north-west of Charing Cross.

Contents

Meaning of place-name

Places of note

Famous people

References in fiction

Paddington station

Education

See also

Meaning of place-name

Paddington means 'estate associated with a man called Padda', from the Old English personal name Padda + ''ing-'' + ''tun'', ''ing-'' meaning '(place) of' and ''tun'' (farm, estate). The name was recorded as ''Padington'' in 1056.
Pada is an Old English version of the first name Patrick.

Places of note

Important places in Paddington include Paddington station, St Mary's Hospital (and nurse-training centre) and Paddington Green police station (high-security police station). The IRA bombed the telephone box outside the police station one morning in 1991 as a demonstration to the British security services.
The Paddington arm of the Grand Union Canal to Birmingham terminates at Paddington Basin.

Famous people

Paddington has several famous sons, notably Alexander Fleming, the scientist who discovered penicillin (a plaque commemorating this is placed outside his laboratory at St Mary's Hospital on Praed Street); and Alan Turing, the mathematician (there is a plaque on the hotel where he was born, The Colonnade in Warrington Crescent). The doctor who died with Scott in the Antarctic, Edward Wilson, lived and worked there for a while, in recognition of which the Senior Street primary school was renamed the Edward Wilson School in 1952. The Paddington precinct known as Little Venice was so named by the great Victorian poet Robert Browning who lived at Beauchamp Lodge on the junction of two canals.
More recent residents of Paddington include the musicians Seal, Courtney Pine and Elvis Costello, the footballer Les Ferdinand and the actresses Emma Thompson and Rhona Mitra, as well as actor Alan Rickman.
An early nineteenth century political rhyme comparing the stature of two politicians goes "''London is to Paddington as Pitt is to Addington''".

References in fiction

★ Possibly the most famous fictional reference to Paddington comes from Michael Bond's Paddington Bear books. The title character is named after the station.

★ 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 Terrace.

★ 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.

Paddington station

Main articles: 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.
The station has a statue of Paddington Bear, a character in children's fiction who was discovered at this station and, hence, named after it.

Education

:''For education in see the main City of Westminster article.''

See also

★ Paddington Bridge

★ Paddington Bear

★ "Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green"