Welcome to London x London’s Paddington Guide: your guide to the best bars, restaurants and things to do in this West London neighbourhood.
Paddington sits in the City of Westminster just north of Hyde Park, bordering Bayswater, Maida Vale and Little Venice.
Paddington is best known for its station, but there is a lot more going on in the neighbourhood around it than platforms and departure boards.
Queen Victoria took her first train ride from here, penicillin was discovered here, and three royal babies were born within these streets.
The area’s train station, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and opened to the public in 1854, remains one of London’s main transport hubs and its most recognisable landmark. But Paddington’s history runs deeper than the railway: Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin here, and St Mary’s Hospital delivered Prince William, Prince Harry, and later Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
Paddington was its own borough until it merged into Westminster in 1965, and its streets still carry the imprint of successive waves of migration, from 18th-century French Huguenots to the Greek, Jewish and Asian communities who settled here later. That mix has given the area an unusually good spread of restaurants and cafes, many serving genuinely authentic cooking at prices well below what’s charged a little further into central London.
A railway hub with a canalside secret
