Paddington is a

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...

station served by the

Bakerloo The Bakerloo line () is a London Underground line that goes from in suburban north-west London to in south London, via the West End of London, West End. Printed in brown on the Tube map, it serves 25 stations, 15 of which are underground, ove ...

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is const ...

and

District A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

lines. It is located on

Praed Street Praed Street () is a street in Paddington, west London, in the City of Westminster, most notable for being the location of London Paddington station. It runs south-westerly, straight from Edgware Road to Craven Road, Spring Street and Eastbo ...

to the south of Paddington mainline station and has entrances from Praed Street and from within the mainline station. On the Bakerloo line the station is between Warwick Avenue and

Edgware Road Edgware Road is a major road in London, England. The route originated as part of Roman Watling Street and, unusually in London, it runs for 10 miles in an almost perfectly straight line. Forming part of the modern A5 road, Edgware Road undergoes ...

and on the Circle and District lines it is between

Bayswater Bayswater is an area within the City of Westminster in West London. It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, and ...

and

. It is in

London Fare Zone 1 Fare zone 1 is the central zone of Transport for London's zonal fare system used by the London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and National Rail. For most tickets, travel through Zone 1 is more expensive than journeys ...

. The station is in two parts: sub-surface platforms, opened in 1868 and deep-level platforms, opened in 1913. It is one of two separate Underground stations of the same name. The other station, to the north of the mainline station, is served by the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines. Although shown on the

London Underground map The Tube map (sometimes called the London Underground map) is a schematic transit map, transport map of the lines, stations and services of the London Underground, known colloquially as "the Tube", hence the map's name. The first schematic Tube ...

as a single station, the two stations are not directly linked and interchange between them is via the concourse of the mainline station.

History

Sub-surface station

The Circle line and District line share tracks in the sub-surface station. It was opened as ''Paddington (Praed Street)'' by the

Metropolitan Railway The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...

(MR, later the

Metropolitan line The Metropolitan line, colloquially known as the Met, is a London Underground line between in the City of London and and in Buckinghamshire, with branches to in Hertfordshire and in Hillingdon. Printed in magenta on the tube map, the line i ...

) on 1 October 1868 when the company opened a branch from its main route between

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

and Moorgate Street. The branch ran southwards to Gloucester Road and was planned as part of the '' Inner Circle'', a circuitous route being constructed in conjunction with the

District Railway The Metropolitan District Railway, also known as the District Railway, was a passenger railway that served London from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete an " inner circle" of lines connecting railway termini in London, the first par ...

(DR, now the

District line The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One branch runs to in south-west London and a short branch, with a limited servic ...

) that was intended to link most of the capital's mainline stations. The extension was constructed mostly in shallow tunnels using the

cut-and-cover A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube constr ...

technique. Services were provided by both the MR and the DR, with each company running Inner Circle trains over the other's tracks. The station has two platforms positioned in a cutting partially covered with a glazed roof and partially exposed to the atmosphere. It was designed by John Fowler, the MR's chief engineer. The brick-built street-level entrance building featured a balustrade along the edge of the roof decoratively topped with urns. Fowler's building was demolished and reconstructed to a design by the MR's architect Charles W Clark in 1914 with a cladding of white

faïence Faience or faïence (; ) is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major ad ...

blocks. The building is

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

Grade II by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

. The brickwork of the platform retaining walls was restored in 1986 during a renovation of the station. The station was the second opened by the MR at Paddington. The earlier station, named ''Paddington (Bishop's Road)'', opened on 10 January 1863. It is north of the mainline station and is served by trains on the

branch. From 1 November 1926, the MR provided all Inner Circle services. DR services on the west side of the circular route terminated at Edgware Road using two platforms that had been constructed by the MR for an abandoned plan for a new route between Edgware Road and

Finchley Road Finchley Road is a designated arterial road in north-west London, England. The Finchley Road starts in St John's Wood near central London as part of the A41; its southern half is a major dual carriageway with high traffic levels often freque ...

. "Praed Street" was dropped from the name of the sub-surface station on 11 July 1947 to match the name used for the deep-level platforms. From 1949, the Circle line was identified on tube maps as a separate line replacing the Metropolitan line service. The sub-surface station has twice been damaged by explosions. On 30 October 1883, a bomb planted by

Fenian The word ''Fenian'' () served as an umbrella term for the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and their affiliate in the United States, the Fenian Brotherhood, secret political organisations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries dedicated ...

s campaigning for an independent Irish Republic exploded on a train near the station. The bomb damaged the train it was on and a passing train along with part of the station and the signal box. Sixty-two passengers were injured. On the night of 13 October 1940, the station was hit by German bombs dropped during

The Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

, killing five people in the station; four more subsequently died of injuries.

Deep-level station

Paddington Underground station, Praed St Bakerloo line entrance - geograph

The deep-level station was opened by the

Baker Street and Waterloo Railway The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (BS&WR), also known as the Bakerloo tube, was a railway company established in 1893 that built a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London. The company struggled to fund the work, and construction di ...

(BS&WR, later the

Bakerloo line The Bakerloo line () is a London Underground line that goes from in suburban north-west London to in south London, via the West End. Printed in brown on the Tube map, it serves 25 stations, 15 of which are underground, over . It runs partly ...

) on 1 December 1913 as the temporary terminus of its extension from Edgware Road. To enable the BS&WR to continue its route to the north-west of Paddington, the station platforms were constructed in a tight curve. A cross-over between tracks and reversing tunnels were provided beyond the new station. Construction work continued beyond the station to extend the line further to Queen's Park where it met the mainline tracks of the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

. The extension opened in stages, with the first trains running to and from Warwick Avenue on 31 January 1915. Unlike most previous BS&WR stations, a separate station building was not constructed at Paddington. A small pedestrian entrance on the north-west corner of the junction of London Street and Praed Street provides access to the below-ground ticket hall. Following their successful introduction at

Earl's Court Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...

in 1911, the station was the first on the line to be designed to use

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...

s instead of lifts.

New Bakerloo line ticket hall

In December 2016,

Westminster City Council Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors. The council is currently composed of 31 Labour Party members and 23 Cons ...

approved proposals to construct a new mixed-use development called Paddington Square on a site adjacent to the mainline station. The plans include reconstruction of the Bakerloo line station, providing a new ticket hall - four times larger than the current ticket hall, and twice the number of ticket barriers - as well as step free access between platforms and street level. The development is set to be completed in 2022.

1980s refurbishment

The ticket hall and platforms are decorated with tiling designs by David Hamilton installed during a £6 million refurbishment of the station between 1984 and 1987 incorporating elements of

technical drawing Technical drawing, drafting or drawing, is the act and Academic discipline, discipline of composing Plan (drawing), drawings that Visual communication, visually communicate how something functions or is constructed. Technical drawing is essent ...

s by

Marc Isambard Brunel Sir Marc Isambard Brunel (, ; 25 April 1769 – 12 December 1849) was a French-British engineer who is most famous for the work he did in Britain. He constructed the Thames Tunnel and was the father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Born in Franc ...

and other engineers.

Connection to Elizabeth line

As part of the construction of the

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway ...

project, a new 170m long pedestrian tunnel was dug from the Bakerloo line platforms to the new Paddington Elizabeth line station at a cost of £40m. To achieve this, the Bakerloo line station was closed for 5 months in 2016 to allow for construction to take place, as well as the replacement of escalators. The new link will include 2 escalators, as well as lifts allowing the Bakerloo line platforms to become accessible for the first time - albeit via the Elizabeth line station entrances.

Arrangement

The station has three ticket halls: one for the Circle and District lines above the platforms of the sub-surface station, one below ground for the Bakerloo line station and one under the mainline station. The sub-surface station and the deep-level station ticket halls are linked via the ticket hall under the mainline station, but not to each other directly. Entrances are on Praed Street and from within the mainline station. On the

tube map The Tube map (sometimes called the London Underground map) is a schematic A schematic, or schematic diagram, is a designed representation of the elements of a system using abstract, graphic symbols rather than realistic pictures. A schematic ...

the station is shown jointly with the other separate Underground station and passenger usage data for both is combined. Interchange with the other station is through the mainline station concourse without extra charge if the change is made within the permitted time.

Services

The station is between

and

stations on the Circle and District lines and between Warwick Avenue and

on the Bakerloo line. It is in

. Train frequencies vary throughout the day, but, generally, Circle line trains run every 10 minutes from approximately 05:31 to 00:39 eastbound and 05:07 to 00:45 westbound; they are supplemented by District line trains that operate every 10 minutes from approximately 05:44 to 00:06 eastbound and 05:57 to 00:22 westbound. Some late night Circle line trains continue beyond Edgware Road. Bakerloo line trains generally operate every 3 minutes from approximately 05:45 to 00:22 southbound and 05:55 to 00:41 northbound.

Connections

London Buses London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus se ...

routes 7, 23, 27, 36,

205 Year 205 ( CCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Geta (or, less frequently, year 958 '' Ab urbe condita' ...

, 332 and night routes N7, N205 serve Praed Street.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *

External links

London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
** ** ** ** ** {{DEFAULTSORT:Paddington (Bakerloo, Circle and District lines) Tube Station Bakerloo line stations Circle line (London Underground) stations District line stations Tube stations in the City of Westminster London Underground stations located underground Former Metropolitan Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1868 1868 establishments in England Former London Electric Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1913