The Paddington experience

Paddington’s impact is immediate. You head straight down the slope from Praed Street, the rhythmical shapes of Brunel’s train sheds ahead of you, building a sense of anticipation of the journey to come. An ethereal light shimmers through the glass roofs on a bright day. Slender, gracefully curving columns sprout, plant-like, from the floor.

The best view is from the bridge at the end of the station shed leading to the Underground, which affords a splendid vista back down the station (above).

A fine spot to appreciate the functional and decorative ironwork, it is so atmospheric you can almost imagine steam-engine whistles and belching smoke.

The bridge is reached via the side of platform one, which contains Brunel’s original western entrance portal. Here is the huge station clock and the highly decorated Venetian windows of the Director’s Balcony, through which Brunel watched as the station’s development proceeded. Charles Jagger’s powerful war memorial is below.

A statue of Brunel between platforms eight and nine looks back across to the balcony. He died only five years after the station opened, in 1859, aged 53.