Paddington Station
In building Paddington Station, the Victorians achieved a fantastic sense of arrival and evoked the excitement of rail travel.
International passengers arrive at Paddington from Heathrow and the station needs to impress. To sustain this does not require huge scale or expense, but does need well-designed and proportioned spaces to be constructed within budget. The existing Paddington station is a central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex served by four underground lines – the Bakerloo, Hammersmith & City, District and Circle and Departrures Road south, while the northern perimeter is bounded by the Grand Union Canal.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel – a legendary figure in the growth of British railways – was 29 years old when given the contract to build the First Great Western line from Bristol to Paddington. Bristol commerce were concerned that Liverpool would become the major port for America since a railway was being built from Liverpool to London. The current mainline station opened in 1854. The site was first served by Underground trains in 1863, and was the original western terminus of the Metropolitan Railway, the world’s first underground railway. An average of 26,500 passengers used the line every day.
The existing station is Grade 1 listed, which means Crossrail cannot interfere with any part of the listed structure without prior permission from English Heritage. The application process required to realise permissions is lengthy and can take a number of months to be granted, hence advance detailed planning is necessary to avoid delays to the programme.
Crossrail produces regular newsletters for each central section station. You can download the current On Track Paddington Station newsletter below.
Download On Track - Paddington Station, 3rd edition
Sign up to our Paddington Station mailing list to receive station newsletters and notifications about Crossrail works taking place in the area by completing our Station News form. You can also sign up by calling our Helpdesk.
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