PADDINGTON
Paddington, (fn. 1) apart from containing the G.W.R.
Co.'s London terminus and St. Mary's hospital, was
notable mainly for contrasting social conditions, with
fashionable terraces facing Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, middle-class avenues around Westbourne Grove and in Maida Vale, and some of
London's worst slums along the lines of communication which bisected the parish.
The present account includes Queen's Park, formerly part of a detached portion of Chelsea parish. (fn. 2)
Paddington was roughly triangular in shape before
the addition of Queen's Park and was nearest to
London at the south-eastern corner, close to Marble
Arch. Marylebone lay to the east, Willesden to the
north, Chelsea detached to the north-west, and
Kensington to the west. St. Margaret's, Westminster, lay to the south, until its division left Paddington
bordered by a detached portion, with part of St.
Martin's-in-the-Fields, later St. George's, Hanover
Square, farther east. The longest, north-eastern,
boundary followed Edgware Road, the Roman Watling Street, for 3.2 km. to Kilburn. The north-west
boundary in the north followed the Westbourne
stream, which was later straightened along the line
of Kilburn Park Road, before turning northwestward towards Willesden Lane, and then ran
south and south-eastward through fields to meet the
Uxbridge road (later Bayswater Road) nearly opposite Kensington Palace Gardens. The southern
boundary mostly followed the Uxbridge road but
south of the road it included a rectangular piece of
Kensington Gardens (fn. 3) and on the north, near Marble
Arch, from 1763 it excluded c. 5 a. which were sold
by the beneficial lessee of Paddington manor to St.
George's, Hanover Square, as a burial ground. (fn. 4) The
eastern and western halves of the parish were divided
by the Westbourne, in part a manorial boundary, (fn. 5)
and the northern and southern halves by Harrow
Road, and later also by the Paddington canal, the
G.W.R. line, and the elevated road called Westway.
The inclusion within Paddington of land south of
the Uxbridge road antedated the creation of a royal
residence at Kensington Palace and annexations to
it from 1689 of parts of Hyde Park as Kensington
Gardens. (fn. 6) Boundary stones between the parishes of
St. Margaret's, Kensington, and Paddington were to
be placed in Hyde Park in 1658. (fn. 7) It was suggested in
1803 that a perambulation of Paddington had failed
to include enough of the park. (fn. 8) After an attempt to
levy rates on the land leased to St. George's parish
for a burial ground, Paddington in 1828 was advised
that it had no rights there, despite a breach of faith
by St. George's in having allowed houses to be
built. (fn. 9)
The area of the parish was estimated at 1,220 a. in
1831. (fn. 10) After minor changes, including an addition
from Kensington Palace's gardens in 1841 (fn. 11) and a
transfer to Willesden in 1883, the acreage was 1,256
in 1891. Under the Metropolis Local Management
Act, 1855, Paddington became a civil metropolitan
parish within the area of the M.B.W. (fn. 12) In 1900,
under the London Government Act, 1899, Queen's
Park, the northern part of Chelsea detached, was
allotted to the new Paddington metropolitan
borough, which also acquired the disused St.
George's burial ground. Many slight adjustments
were made to the Kensington boundary, chiefly eastward to skirt Ledbury Road, southward from Artesian Road to the west end of Westbourne Grove,
westward from Hereford Road to Chepstow Place,
and eastward again to Ossington Street. (fn. 13) Houses at
the north-eastern end of Kensington Palace Gardens,
with part of the gardens stretching east to the Broad
Walk, were also surrendered to Kensington. (fn. 14) Paddington metropolitan borough, covering 1,357 a. (c.
550 ha.) in 1911 and 1961, formed the north-western
portion of Westminster L.B. from 1965. (fn. 15)
The northern two thirds of the parish are covered
by London Clay, which also covers the west side as
far south as Moscow Road but the east side only to
Paddington green. A narrow central tongue of clay,
along the line of the Westbourne stream and
Gloucester Terrace, stretches south across Bayswater Road to the Serpentine. Taplow Gravel lies in
the south-western corner, south of Moscow Road,
and more extensive gravel, broken only by a patch of
clay beneath Stanhope Street, covers south-eastern
Paddington. (fn. 16)
The natural contours were said in 1853 to have
been obscured by excavations, deposits, and subsidence. (fn. 17) Paddington lies on a gentle slope from
Hampstead and has its highest point, 120 ft.
(36.6 m.) above sea level, in the north-east corner at
Maida Hill. The slope is gradual along Edgware
Road but more marked along the valley of the Westbourne, where part of Westbourne Grove lies at only
63 ft. There is a slight rise towards Bayswater Road
in the south-western part, with Craven Hill and the
north-western slope of Notting Hill. (fn. 18)
The Westbourne, (fn. 19) until the mid 19th century
usually called the Bayswater rivulet, is a union of
streamlets rising on the west side of Hampstead
Heath and joining near Kilburn. From the dip in
the northern boundary it flows overall in a southeasterly direction across Paddington. Often straightened and culverted, as the Ranelagh sewer, before
being built over, its course was still open in 1871
along the later line of Kilburn Park and Shirland
roads; (fn. 20) farther south, it had disappeared beneath
Formosa Road, Ranelagh (later Lord Hill's) Road,
the western ends of Bishop's Bridge Road and
Cleveland Square, and behind the western side of
Gloucester Terrace to Hyde Park, where its valley
had been dammed in 1730 to form the Serpentine.
Half way along Shirland Road, the Westbourne was
joined by a stream which flowed from Kensal Rise
across Queen's Park. A small eastern tributary,
from Marble Arch to the Serpentine, was sometimes
called the Tyburn brook but was not the better
known Tyburn, which flowed southward across
Marylebone.