Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Paddington Station
Paddington Station
, on Praed Street, is one of the world's great early train stations: the
1850s facade of the station hotel has been mucked about with over the years and lost its
charm, but cathedral-scale wrought-iron sheds, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel,
are looking better than ever. An earlier wooden structure was the destination of Victoria
and Albert's first railway journey in 1842. The train, pulled by the engine
Phlegethon
,
travelled at an average speed of 44mph, which the prince consort considered excessive
- “Not so fast next time, Mr Conductor”, he is alleged to have remarked. To the north
and east of Paddington is
Paddington Basin
, built as the terminus of the Grand Union
Canal in 1801. Now regenerated, it's worth exploring if only to admire the trio of
unusual footbridges which span the water. Funkiest of the lot is Thomas Heatherwick's
Rolling Bridge
, a hydraulic gangway that coils up into an octagon rather like a curled-up
woodlouse - it curls up every Friday at noon. If you follow the basin to the northwest,
you'll reach Little Venice in about five minutes (see p.281).
19
Fleming Museum
Praed St • Mon-Thurs 10am-1pm • £4 •
T
020 3312 6528,
W
imperial.nhs.uk •
!
Paddington
One block east of Paddington up Praed Street is St Mary's Hospital, home of the
Fleming Museum
,
on the corner of Norfolk Place, where the young Scottish
bacteriologist Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin in 1928. A short
video, a small exhibition and a reconstruction of Fleming's untidy lab tell the story of
the medical discovery that saved more lives than any other during the last century.
Oddly enough, it aroused little interest at the time, until a group of chemists in Oxford
succeeded in purifying penicillin in 1942. Desperate for good news in wartime, the
media made Fleming a celebrity, and he was eventually awarded the Nobel Prize, along
with several of the Oxford team.
Queensway
Bayswater's main drag is
Queensway
, a cosmopolitan street peppered with Middle
Eastern cafés. Queensway is best known, however, for
Whiteley's
, opened in 1885 as
the city's first real department store or “Universal Provider” with the boast that it could
supply “anything from a pin to an elephant”. The present building opened in 1907,
and in the same year was the scene of the murder of the store's founder, William
Whiteley, by a man claiming to be his illegitimate son. Whiteley's also had the dubious
distinction of being Hitler's favourite London building - he planned to make it his
HQ once the invasion was over. The store closed in 1981, and now houses shops,
restaurants and a multiscreen cinema, but the original wrought-iron staircase, centaurs'
fountain and glass-domed atrium all survive.
St Sophia's Cathedral
Moscow Rd • Tues-Fri 11am-2pm • Free •
T
020 7229 7260,
W
stsophia.org.uk •
!
Queensway or Bayswater
Hidden away up Moscow Road, off Queensway itself, is the Greek Orthodox
Cathedral
of St Sophia
, built in 1882 by John Oldrid Scott (son of George Gilbert Scott of St
Pancras fame)
.
From the red-brick exterior, you only get the merest hint of the richly
decorated atmospheric, candlelit interior, where every surface is covered in polychrome
marble and gilded mosaics by, among others, Boris Anrep. Services are well worth
attending as the cathedral has a polyphonic choir and afterwards, on the last Sunday of
the month, you can visit the treasury in the crypt where there's a small museum.
Notting Hill
Notting Hill
is home to one of London's most popular markets,
Portobello Road
, and
its most famous annual street festival, the
Notting Hill Carnival
. It's also one of the city's
most a
uent neighbourhoods, characterized by leafy avenues, private garden squares,
