This first station opened for business in June 1838 and initially the trains ran only as far as Taplow, near Maidenhead, until the workable line was completed in stages.
The original station was very basic and consisted of wooden roofs supported by slender iron columns. It was at this station that Queen Victoria arrived on completing her first railway journey in 1842, o9 the Phlegethon, which travelled at 44 mph.
Its cluster of wooden structures soon proved woefully inadequate however and the company directors gave the go-ahead for the construction of a new terminus in late 1850. The terminal was designed by engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunnel (1806-1859) with the assistance of architect Matthew Digby Wyatt (1802-1877).
Built between 1850 and 1854, it was one of the first stations to utilize the iron-arched roof and the ridge-and-furrow roof glazing also employed in Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace of 1851. In 1854, the Great Western Hotel was opened adjacent to the station.
In 1921 Great Western Railway employed 3000 people at Paddington Station.
London Paddington station
