Paddington is an area of the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. It was formerly a metropolitan borough of itself, but was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965.

Historically a part of Middlesex, the earliest extant reference to Padington is in the year 1056. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddington station, designed by the celebrated engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and opened in 1847; St Mary's Hospital and Paddington Green police station (the most important high-security police station in the United Kingdom).

Associated people

Paddington has been home to many famous sons, daughters and associated residents, including:

• Michael Bond OBE, the English author of children?s and adult stories, most famously the iconic Paddington Bear; the stories of a guinea pig named Olga da Polga; and the adventures of Parsley the Lion and the Herbs. Born in Newbury, England and educated in Reading, Bond moved in later years to an area of Paddington called "Little Venice". A solitary teddy bear sitting on an empty shelf in one of Paddington Station?s shops on Christmas Eve was the source of his inspiration for the character.

• Robert Browning, the great Victorian-era poet who lived at Beauchamp Lodge on the junction of two canals and named that precinct "Little Venice". (The name is now given to a longer reach of the canal system.)

• C.R. Alder Wright, the British chemist who, in 1874, first discovered heroin (diacetylmorphine) at St Mary's Hospital on Praed Street.

• Dr. Edward Wilson, the British polar explorer, physician, naturalist and ornithologist who, together with Captain Robert Scott, Captain Lawrence Oates, Lieutenant Birdie Bowers and Petty Officer Edgar Evans, died in 1912 in Antarctica on the ill-fated British Antarctic expedition. Dr. Wilson lived and worked in Paddington during his lifetime, in recognition of which the Senior Street primary school was renamed the Edward Wilson School in 1952.

• John Netley was a carriage driver in London in 1888. Netley has been connected by some authors with the 'Whitechapel Murders' committed by Jack the Ripper. He is usually included in the royal conspiracy theory. According to this theory Netley drove the coach in which Sir William Gull carried out the actual killings.

• Sir Alexander Fleming, the Nobel Prize-winning British (Scottish) scientist who first isolated penicillin (penicillium chrysogenum) in 1928, in his laboratory at St Mary's Hospital on Praed Street.

• Sir Alec Guinness, the British Academy Award, Tony Award and BAFTA Award winning actor. Guinness was born in Paddington on 2 April, 1914 and starred in many movies, including Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, The Ladykillers, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Cromwell, Scrooge and A Passage to India.

• Emma Thompson, the British Emmy Award, BAFTA Award and Academy Award winning actress, comedienne and screenwriter. Thompson was born in Paddington on 15 April, 1959 and has starred in such films as Henry V, Howards End, The Remains of the Day, In the Name of the Father, Sense and Sensibility, Love Actually, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

• Margaret Jay, former Labour leader in the House of Lords and daughter of James Callaghan has the title 'Baroness Jay of Paddington' and lives in the area.

• Kiefer Sutherland, the Canadian Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winning film and television actor. Sutherland was born in Paddington on December 21, 1966 and has starred in such films as Stand By Me, The Lost Boys, Young Guns, A Few Good Men and Phone Booth as well as the TV series 24.

• Zara Phillips MBE, the British European Eventing and World Eventing Gold-medal-winning equestrienne who was born in Paddington on 15 May, 1981, is Patron of Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and is currently 11th in the line of succession to the throne.

• Prince William of Wales was born in St Mary's Hospital on 21 June, 1982 and is second in the line of succession to the throne.

• Prince Henry of Wales, popularly "Prince Harry", was born in St Mary's Hospital on 15 September, 1984 and is third in the line of succession to the throne.

Paddington Mainline.

Paddington Underground (Circle, District and Hammersmith and City Line)

References in fiction

• Possibly the most famous fictional reference to Paddington comes from Michael Bond's Paddington Bear books. In the story, Paddington is named after the station where he was found and adopted.

• 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 Road.

• 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.

• 4.50 from Paddington is one of the most well-known of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple mystery novel series.

• In the original stage version of Oliver!, Oliver meets the Artful Dodger outside what is now Paddington Green; this is changed in the 1968 film version, in which Oliver meets him in the marketplace of 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.

In the station are statues of its designer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the children's fiction character Paddington Bear.

Education

Gallery

<gallery> Image:PaddBasin.jpg|Paddington Basin, Grand Union Canal Image:EdgwRd.JPG|Edgware Road Image:SussGdns.jpg|Sussex Gardens Image:VictPubPadd.jpg|Victoria pub, Gloucester Square </gallery>

See also

• Paddington Bridge
• Paddington Bear
• "Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green"

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