Paddington

Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed by the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel opened in 1847. It is also the site of St Mary's Hospital and the former Paddington Green Police Station. Paddington Waterside aims to regenerate former railway and canal land. Districts within Paddington are Maida Vale, Westbourne and Bayswater including Lancaster Gate. The earliest extant references to Padington (or "Padintun", as in the Saxon Chartularies, 959), historically a part of Middlesex, appear in documentation of purported tenth-century land grants to the monks of Westminster by Edgar the Peaceful as confirmed by Archbishop Dunstan. However, the documents' provenance is much later and likely to have been forged after the 1066 Norman conquest. There is no mention of the place (or Westbourne or Knightsbridge) in the Domesday Book of 1086. It has been reasonably speculated that a Saxon settlement led by the followers of Padda, an Anglo-Saxon chieftain, was located around the intersection of the northern and western Roman roads, corresponding with the Edgware Road (Watling Street) and the Harrow and Uxbridge Roads. From the tenth century, Paddington was owned by Westminster Abbey which was later confirmed by the Plantagenet kings in a charter from 1222. This charter mentions a chapel and a farm situated in the area. While a 12th-century document cited by the cleric Isaac Maddox (1697–1759) establishes that part of the land was held by brothers "Richard and William de Padinton". They and their descendants carried out activities in Paddington; these were known by records dating from 1168 to 1485. They were the earliest known tenant farmers of the land. During King Henry VIII's dissolution, the property of Paddington was seized by the crown. However, King Edward VI granted the land to the Bishop of London in 1550. Successive bishops would later lease farmlands to tenants and city merchants.