Paddington Station (London)
Paddington Station is one of the major rail termini in London.
It is situated in Praed Street, in the West London suburb of Paddington.
The station was opened as a wooden building in 1838, and rebuilt in 1854 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Matthew Digby Wyatt, as the terminus of the Great Western Railway (sometimes known as "God's Wonderful Railway").
Brunel had a vision of a route from London to New York, via Bristol, where passengers would board his "Great Western" liner.
The Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground line and built using the cut and cover method, began operations in 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon.
In 1868, the Prince of Wales, later to be Edward VII, took part in a hunt starting in Buckinghamshire, culminating in him cornering a deer in Paddington goods yard and killing it in front of startled railway workers, before riding off into Hyde Park.
The children's character Paddington Bear, created by Edward Bond, acquired his name by being found at Paddington Station. He had travelled from Darkest Peru with a jar of marmalade and a note saying "please look after this bear".
Important places served by train from Paddington include Reading, Oxford, Birmingham, Swindon, Bath, Bristol, Taunton, Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance.
Paddington Underground Station is used by trains on the Bakerloo Line, Circle Line, District LIne and Hammersmith and City Line.