European Railroad Discussion > European Railway Station Where is it No. 45

As discussed a bit yesterday, many large stations in the U.K. have their head house serving a non railway function. That is not the case at Kings Cross. But many others in London, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and probably some others I haven't visited have or had hotels incorporated into the building. I have not noticed this trend in continental European stations but perhaps there are examples I'm not aware of. Here is such a case with a Hilton Hotel occupying the structure. Often such hotels have been expanded with newer additions built out back. Thus the railway portion of the building is behind, often not at all visible from street side. In this case, it's a historic Brunel structure. The station also has a famous bear named after it because he was first discovered there. 

If someone could re-orientate this for me it would be much appreciated. 

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Ah, London Paddington! Terminus of the old Great Western Railway.

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The 2014 view attached here is looking roughly south toward the rear of the head of the station, with the back of the hotel visible in the distance at left centre and former Great Western Railway offices adjacent to it. One of the trainshed arches is visible but not prominent among the surrounding buildings. The very modern entrance structure at right provides access to the outer end of most platforms and also to the above-ground platforms 15-16 for the Circle Line and Hammersmith & City Line of London Underground. 

The body of water in the foreground is Paddington Basin, a tributary of the Grand Union Canal.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/20 03:49 by railsmith.

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That was the first London hotel my wife and I stayed at - in 1973 I believe. For our first several visits to the UK we stayed only at the railway (British Transport) hotels, and even after they were sold off we have stayed at several.

It also includes statues of Mr. Brunel and Paddington Bear. The original Brunel shed has been restored having been covered with a false ceiling for many years. Can anyone think of any other stations outside the U.K. that include hotels in the structure? Denver doesn't count. The hotel was added only recently. I also wouldn't count the Queen Elisabeth in Montreal. It was built on air rights over Central Station. Oslo Central was converted to a hotel after a new station building was constructed. Several others have been converted to hotels and other use following closure as stations.

After Kings Cross, Paddington was my next favourite station. It had easy platform access, loco hauled trains, and laterly HSTs. Sadly, now it is nearly all Hitachi IEPs, and has a fairly souless atmosphere. However, its latest clean left it bright and airy. Let's go back to 2016, and the last fling of HSTs. chris UK.

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And here is something else I encountered at Paddington station on a March 2016 visit -- The Great Western Railway Paddington Band performing at the entrance ot one of the platforms. I'm not sure how either common or unique this is, but this was the first time I saw something like this.
WP17

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Bruce you gave a lot of clues on this one. Although I thought it could be Charing Cross named after the famous Charing Cross bear. Traveling through Ontario on the 401 and saw the exit sign for Charing Cross my dad said he wondered if the Charing Cross bear was around, the third bear in the series after Paddington and the equally famous St Pancras Bear. I was driving and he actually had me going for a couple minutes since he has cable and I thought perhaps maybe there were other station bears. 

Here is my thread from my first visit to Paddington

More Than £17.20 Worth of HST Fun at Paddington

I too liked the Great Western Paddington band. I used picture 3 from the thread as my 2013 Christmas Card picture and it was a favourite of many.

The station in Halifax Nova Scotia has a former CN Hotel that is attached to the station building. According to Wiki it was actually built two years later. I stayed there on my first visit to Halifax. The clerk gave me room rate on a piece of paper I couldn't refuse.

Jim

Because Paddington is the station for the Heathrow Express, I've been in and out of there more than any other U.K. station and only at Frankfurt Flughaffen have I had more departures or arrivals outside the U.S. . But I've never encountered the GW band. Probalby because it's typically early morning arrival or departure.