A still canal basin behind glass towers sits a short walk from cream stucco garden squares.
What Paddington looks like
The station sits in a shallow cutting between Praed Street and Bishop's Bridge Road. Its Victorian train shed runs on wrought iron arches under glass. Three spans of 68, 102 and 70 feet stretch 699 feet, with a fourth span added between 1906 and 1915. The canal basin runs along the station's eastern side, a still stretch of water with the Rolling Bridge and the folding Fan Bridge crossing it.
Glass and terracotta blocks rise straight from the water around , curved balconies wrapping the rounded ones. A 42 storey tower is going up on the basin's edge, on completion the tallest building in the City of Westminster.
West of the station, Tyburnia's cream stuccoed terraces run four and five storeys over a basement. They circle Norfolk, Talbot, Hyde Park and Sussex Squares. is the main through street. The terraces run in two styles, plain brick from the 1820s and taller stuccoed Italianate ranges from the 1830s. Rusticated stucco covers the ground floors. Bow fronts on the north-south streets catch a view of the park, with verandahs and balconies at first floor.
and the mews lanes behind it carry the same brick and stucco at a smaller scale, with rear yards, arched gateways and iron railings. The Pride of Paddington, a four storey Victorian corner pub, faces the station across Praed Street.
Shot in Paddington
For the 2014 film Paddington, the production filmed on the real platforms of the station on Praed Street. Its establishing exterior instead uses Marylebone station's frontage, since Paddington's own station has little street presence.
Paddington, 2014
The real platforms stand in for themselves under the station's original wrought iron and glass roof. The film's tea room interior was a built set rather than the station's own concourse.
What Paddington can double for
Regency Square in Brighton, England
Regency Square's cream stuccoed terraces face the sea at the same four and five storey scale as Tyburnia's garden squares, with matching bow fronts and iron balconies. Both were laid out within the same decade, so window proportions and cornice lines line up closely. The Brighton terraces curve around the square rather than running in straight ranges, so a wide establishing shot gives the difference away. Tighter frames on a single terrace hold the match. Try searching cream stuccoed terrace square now.
Grand Canal Dock mirrors Merchant Square's shape, with glass and steel towers rising straight from a still canal basin and public plazas along the water. The basin itself is a similar width, so wide shots along the waterline read the same. Dublin's towers run lower and squarer than the curved blocks around Merchant Square, so a shot that includes a rounded balcony facade is the giveaway. Try searching glass towers canal basin now.
Park Circus in Glasgow, Scotland
Park Circus is a stuccoed Victorian crescent from the 1850s, a few decades after Tyburnia's own terraces went up, with similar first floor balconies and rusticated ground floors. It sits on a hill rather than flat ground, so a shot down the side streets gives the slope away. Keep the camera on the crescent's own facade. Try searching stuccoed Victorian terraces crescent now.
