Paddington Station's Sculptures and Secrets

 

Sculpture on the corner of Praed Street. Sculpture Called The Wild Table Of Love. 

The |Elephant on The Wild Table Of Love Sculpture. Outside Paddington Station. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The Wild Table of Love sculpture by Gillie and Marc. Praed Street. Outside Paddington Station

. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The Wild Table of Love

The sculpture is nothing to do with Alice in Wonderland. It was created by two Australian artists, concerned about animals facing extinction , including the elephant. The idea is that we human are at the same table as the animals and share our world. There are two empty chairs where you can sit and be photographed with the sculpture.

Wikipedia article on Paddington station has a picture of the Paddington Bear sculpture on Platform 1.

Paddington station's official name is London Paddington which is how it is listed in Wikipedia.

The overground section built by Brunel was in his time on the west of London and ran west to Wales. 

The Paddington underground station has exits adjacent and within a complex. The station occupies the whole of a block on Praed Street, including the old station hotel.

The Big Hotel

The old railway hotel was built in grand style. It is now, in 2026, a Hilton.

 They were charging about £400 for a walk-in rate which was the price quoted to me on reception in October. But you might find it cheaper off-peak and booked through booking.com.

Toilets and Shops

The toilets are on ground floor, on platform 1 of the mainline overground station.

Upstairs, above the underground, are branches of Mango and Accessorize. Somewhere to go whilst waiting to meet a friend, or for a break before catching a second train.

Useful Websites on Paddington Station

London Museum

https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/paddington-station-bears-westward-travel/

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Paddington_station

TFL (Transport For London)

https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

I have several more blog posts on Paddington, Paddington Bear sculpture, the Paddington Clock.

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2022/09/paddington-bears-in-england-and-south.html

https://tfl.gov.uk/tube/stop/940GZZLUPAC/paddington-underground-station/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_art_in_Paddington

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Wild_Table_of_Love_by_Gillie_and_Marc_21.jpg

-ends-

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What are GWR trains?

GWR train on Paddington station. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

See the GWR sign on trains on Paddington station and all points going west. GWR means Great Western Railway. The railway line and the station were designed and built by Brunel whose statue is on the station and still going strong.

I recently took the GWR train from Paddington to Cardiff and back. Smart train with optional reservations of seats. Some seats are solo, others pairs, others share a table.

Overhead racks are convenient for small suitcases and rucksacks. You may want to get them out of the way, but also and keep them handy nearby to put things in and out. Also safer than leaving luggage in the rack at the end of the carriage, where you cannot watch your suitcase.

The pairs of seats have little room for a wheel on suitcase by your knees.

However, a great plus point, you can plug in your phone in the socket between your seats. Three pin plug. So, bring the power pack if you have a laptop. Bring the British three pin plug as well as the connector for your phone.

The toilets are huge, big enough for a wheelchair, with a semi-circular sliding door. You press various buttons to open and close and lock and unlock. All clearly marked and illuminated.

I have several posts on Brunel and Paddington station.

Useful Websites

Useful Websites

Paddington Bear statue

The Meeting statue & Paddington Station

http://www.pauldaysculpture.com/artworks/

Buy a framed picture of it, a postcard, a tote bag, or a square throw pillow for your sofa or bed.

Or as a gift.

https://www.redbubble.com/people/sanyara/works/5346721-st-pancras-meeting-place?p=framed-print

Brunel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel

Bakerloo Line

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakerloo_line
https://tfl.gov.uk/tube/route/bakerloo/

Great Western Railway GWR

https://www.gwr.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Western_Railway_(train_operating_company)

Visit London
https://www.visitlondon.com/london-app
Travel to the UK
singaporeair.com

About The Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, speech trainer, teacher of English and other languages. Member of four Toastmasters International Clubs, one in the UK and three in Singapore. Please share links to your favourite posts.

What can you see from the train window to Wales on a GWR train - Welsh words, Cardiff Stadium

Problem
What can I see? And when I've seen it, what have I seen? You can see stations, with Welsh language, major buildings and sculptures.

Statue of seated Brunel, the man who built the stations and the railway lines. The Great Western Train is behind him.

The Stadium.

Welsh words for station names, new, and way out.

Swansea's Liberty Stadium. Photo from the train by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

The stadium holds football matches, weddings, concerts by groups such as Little Mix (July 2018), and car boot sales.

Newport Wave sculpture, Newport, Wales. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. The sculpture was by Peter Fink, erected in 1990. It is on the redeveloped riverfront promenade along the River Usk in Gwent. The sculpture represent the waves of the sea and the steel of the local industry. The triangular pieces, hanging in the middle of the scupture's wave, move with the wind so there is continual movement.

White Welsh sheep on the green grass, reminiscent of the book How Green Was My Valley. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

The Seafront. Ask a local and they will point out landmarks, like the Dylan Thomas boathouse museum, in the distance. I should have brought binoculars, and a long distance lens on a camera, or for a mobile phone.

Phoot by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. On the train. Buy from the trolley Bara Brith, a kind of fruit cake

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. Welsh cakes, like a cross between a squashed Welsh scone and a thick pancake.

Station and train signs

Useful Websites

Wales tourist board

visitwales.com

Tourist board for England, Scotland and Wales

visitbritain.com

Great Western Railway whose lines include Paddingto to Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, and on by local trains to Fishguard and Goodwick (for a holiday or ferry to Ireland)

https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photogapher. Teacher of languages. See my other posts on Wales and my posts on learning Welsh.

Bristol has Banksy, RLS and Treasure Island, The Suspension Bridge: what to see and do, where to go

Problem
I was looking at the Balloon Festival and wondering what else there is to see and do in Bristol. A lot has been added since last time I visited.

Answers
Firstly, if you are visiting the Balloon Festival, it is Thursday 9th August to Sunday 12the August. over a long weekend, the August bank holiday.

Ashton Court, Long Ashton, Bristol BS41 9JN.

The 850-acre parkland estate includes a mansion and two pitch and putt golf courses, deer park, miniature railway, orienteering and nature trails. The Balloon event is free. You need to budget for the booked parking places, or for a ticket on the shuttle bus from Temple Mead station.

The historic places are:

1 Hardy's winery (you'd have to arrange to join a group tour). Famous for Bristol Cream Sherry.

2 Brunel's ship SS Great Britain by the harbour.

3 Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge. (The Avon Gorge Hotel alongside has a view. But you might prefer to stay and eat at a modern spa hotel of which there are several.) The open top bus tour takes you to the bridge.

Bristol Suspension Bridge. £1 to cross by car. Free to walk across.

4 Old Inn where Robert Louis Stevenson is supposed to have met Selkirk who inspired Robinson Crusoe; also characters from the story of Treasure Island. Being Kidnapped, then as now, was a possibility. I was told the inn, like others, had a spy hole so you could watch for people approaching. When I went there it was the highlight of my trip.

I'm sure somebody somewhere will deny everything about its connections with Stevenson. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. It's a fabulous story, the book treasure Island, and how he came to write are both full of tension, amazing characters. You could sit over drink talking about it for hours.

Long John Silver, the man with the missing leg, was based on Stevenson's good friend, whose leg was amputated, who wrote the inspiring poem Invicticus, 'I am the captain of my ship', or is it soul? Never mind. I'll look it up later.

Llandoger Row, King Street, Bristol, BS1 4ER.
Tel 0871 951 1000 (calls cost 10p per minute plus network extras)
Bristol Temple Meads station is 0.6 miles, Clifton Down 1.2 miles and Redland 1.3 miles. The chain is Brewers Fayre.

If alcohol is not your thing, the city also has a juice bar.

3 You could go to the Aerospace Bristol Museum and step inside Concorde.

4 On a fine day you might go on a Banksy walking tour. Several companies offer Banksy themes.

5 The city also has trips to the Cheddar Gorge. (If you are driving from London you might allow time to do this as a detour on the way down or the way back.)

6 Another trip is to the castle.

7 Bristol Museum is free.

The Bristol tourist board has one of the best websites I have seen. You can even list all the thing you want into a personalised list.

You could group together all the hotels with spas and indoor swimming pools, or the zoo and acquarium and other animal attractions. Or all the museums.

Catch the train to Bath (Jane Austen museum), only fifteen minutes, or drive there, 12 miles.

How could anybody not want to go there?

https://visitbristol.co.uk/things-to-do/banksy-walking-tour-p1354013
www.visitbristol.co.uk
Tel: 0333 321 0101.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Brunel's Statue on Paddington Station

Problem
Where is Brunel's statue on Paddington station?

Answer
It is easy to find a statue of Brunel on Paddington's main line overground station. I saw two statues and I wasn't even looking. One shows him standing.

The other shows him sitting.

 Notice the top hat.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Famous Personalities of Pinner, Harrow and London

* Mrs Beeton - Hatch End - Mrs Beeton see plaque outside restaurant. (See my previous post on Mrs Beeton.)
* Mrs Beeton - Norwood Cemetery - gravestones of Mrs Beeton and her husband; Tate the sugar king of Tate and Lyle who founded the Tate, modern art gallery in London.
* St Anselm's Church, Hatch End.
* Byron, Harrow on the Hill. Monument to Byron. His daughter buried under the step into the church.
* Gilbert - wrote the words of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, quotations such as 'I've got a little list,' 'A policeman's lot is not a happy one' - Gilbert's house, now Grimsdyke hotel holds Gilbert & Sullivan evenings.
* Gilbert bust in church beside the former Leefe Robinson pub.
* Gilbert memorial in Norwood cemetery.
* Leefe Robinson. Old news cuttings in Leefe Robinson pub (Miller and Carter).
* Grave of Leefe Robinson in cemetery extension across the road from Leefe Robinson pub. A wreath or mark of respect is laid on the grave by the Mayor of Harrow on Armistice Day November 11th every year.
* Amy Winehouse, Camden statue, Stables Market.

Others: Dick Whittington, Oscar Wilde, Keats (Keats House), Florence Nightingale, Mary Seattle, Queen Victoria, Albert (memorial); Freud (bust Swiss Cottage; museum in Hampstead); Karl Marx bust in Highgate cemetery.
See my other posts on statues and famous Londoners.

Alphabetically by surname:
Beeton, Isabella; Brummell, 'Beau'; Brunel, Isambard Kingdom; Byron; Chaplin, Charlie; Gilbert; Robinson, Leefe; Seattle, Mary; Wilde, Oscar; Winehouse, Amy.
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker.

Top Ten Statues in London: Brummell, Brunel, Handel, Winehouse,

Beau Brummell Statue near Fortnum and Mason store in London, Photo by Angela Lansbury, copyright.

1 Oscar Wilde - reclining near Trafalgar Square
2 Map maker - Euston
3 Painter - station
4 Beau Brummell - dandy, near Fortnum and Mason
6 Handel - Music
7 Amy Winehouse - Camden
8 Brunel - Paddington
9 Lovers - Paddington station
10 Kindertransport - Liverpool street station

See also
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/statues-on-stations.html

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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New Plans For Crossrail Trains and Stations In London; please copy Singapore and Hong Kong

Free event takes place in London on Friday September 23rd, at the Building Store in London showing plans for Crossrail. The new Elizabeth Line will open not next year but the end of the year after, December 2018. But here's a chance to see preview, and possibly influence the decisions. The line is set to link up London and transform stations from Haringey over in the east to Hillingdon in the West on the Heathrow side of London.

Major historic stations in central London will also be enjoying a re-fit. Streets now shrouded in scaffolding will emerge in their new glory, sparkling new and clean.

I am happy about the development, and hopeful that the new stations will provide state of the art artworks, entertainment, traditional history and modern design, and safety measures.


New pictures out of Crossrail plans. They are having a meeting in London to display the plans. Meanwhile, a few photos are online.

I looked at the escalators and felt nervous. We have had escalator accidents on London underground, in undergrounds and shopping malls in Singapore and China.

What are the causes? Children, drunks, daredevils, suicides, accidents. People caught in steps, falling, leaning, jumping, riding over rails, sliding down the handrails and edges. Teens and students sit on barriers chatting and eating ice cream or taking photos with legs having over concourses above stairwells and atriums.

Exits
I am also concerned about quick exit in the case of emergency, and signs to exits.

Singapore Safety Measures
Singapore has constant videos in four languages with subtitles on avoiding troubles. I watched videos about gaps, leaning on doors, getting bags caught caught in train doors.

Signs everywhere tell you how to alert staff, how to escape. (I did see emergency escape pictures on trains in Wales.

Singapore also has signs showing where to find alternative transport in an emergency.

Also signs to lifts for those with baby buggies, sticks, wheelchairs, suitcases on wheels.

Advantages Of New Stations and Routes
What is planned for Crossrail? You can visit their Facebook page.

In addition to the advantages for commuters, after the lull during building works shopkeepers will have more customers. People buying and selling property can expect that the new stations and train services will make property more saleable, quick sales, less stress, properties only empty briefly between sales and rentals, and prices for home owners and investors might rise.
In Singapore the development of the new train lines has been a delight. Good signs tell people to give up seats to the pregnant, and elderly.

The art on Hong Kong stations is wonderful.

I look for modern stations, shops and eating places on the move, free clean toilets. See my previous posts on stations in Hong Kong and Singapore and London.

Best station sights and sites?
London
Paddington
- see statues of Brunel;
and loving couple, not kissing goodbye but hello - the statue is called The Meeting;
Baker Street
- Murals of Sherlock Holmes inside Baker Street station and a statue of Sherlock Holmes outside.

Hong Kong:
The apple on the concourse at a station.
Videos on the airport express - like riding in a plane. All you need to add is a running commentary on the sights through the windows.

Singapore Stations (MRT)
Tanjong Pagar
- Modelled after Finland's Helsinki Central Railway station. Four statues outside. Inside, arched ceiling and six tall oblong coloured panels showing ships and houses and landscapes and the four characters and industries - like a cathedral but modern.

Little India
- Drawings of elephants on corridor walls.

Botanical Gardens
- Panels around entrance about the trees and plants in Singapore.

see www.remembersingapore.org (Tanjong Pagar station)

http://www.crossrail.co.uk/news/news-and-information-about-crossrail-events

See my posts on London stations, Welsh stations, stations in Hong Kong, and stations in Singapore.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Fishguard, Famous for Moby Dick, Under Milk Wood and Lusitania

Isambad Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), whose statue stands on Paddington station, built the railway lines west from Paddington to Bristol, across bridges he built, such as the Bristol Suspension Bridge (opened 1864), on to Wales, where ships such as the passenger ships Brunel designed were to carry passengers to the USA (SS Great Britain 1843).
This was around more than a century ago.

Fishguard Harbour railway station opened 1906 jot serve the ferry service to Ireland.

Today the  Fishguard ferry and ship port, still runs a ferry service to Ireland. The trains from London are designed to meet the ferries. That explains why the second train I could have caught on a Saturday arrived at 1.30 in the morning. I thought the Fishguard Bay hotel would be locked up for the night, and nobody would be pleased to see me. The reason is that the ferry leaves at 2 am. The train passengers are expected to have time to get into the ferry.

Why do boats and trains leave late at night or early in the morning? No, it's not so that your taxi has a clear run racing you to or from the airport of ferry port. It's so that your boat or plane disgorges its business passengers at the right time for them to arrive at the office in the morning.

The Railway lines had transformed travel in the UK since the 1860s, when the world's perception of time changed. No longer could every town time itself independently and accurately in time with the sunlight. Instead the towns across Britain had to co-ordinate their clocks and watches with Greenwich mean time abbreviated to GMT.

From the port of Fishguard the ships left for the USA. In WWI the ill-fated Lusitania sank. Later ships left from the port of Southampton. The Titanic left in 1913, an unlucky year for her passengers, although lucky for anybody who missed catching the ship.

Today the train lines still take you from London, England, to Fishguard in Wales. The big hotel on the hillside overlooking the bay is Fishguard Bay hotel. By the bar are accounts and pictures of famous films made in the area. Moby Dick was filmed in the bay which you can see from the hotel's front windows and terrace. So was Under Milk Wood in 1971, starring Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole and Glynis Johns who stayed at the hotel. The old newspaper accounts tell of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton staying at the hotel. In 1979 the hotel was designated a building of Historic and Architectural and Interest.

Fishguard Bay Hotel is a popular spot for weddings of local people. A bride was on the terrace greeting her guests, when I arrived in July 2015.

Her white dress contrasting with the green trees Wales, like England, is green from abundant rainfall. Wales is the land which inspired the best-selling book How Green Was My Valley.

The bride could have served a wedding breakfast of meet or fish, followed by a disco with a buffet of hamburgers. Not everybody wants to get all dressed up and then eat with their fingers, but finger food is the fashion nowadays and cocktail parties have always served canapes. As Marie Antoinette never said, Let them eat burgers.

Fishguard bay serves freshly cooked food. I was particularly partial to the plum tart with cream. Does the Fishguard Bay Hotel serve fish? (The phrase is the pope a Catholic springs to mind.) Yes, sometimes salmon, sometimes trout, almost always a meat dish a fish dish and a vegetarian dish.

The hotel is currently being upgraded. The sea view from the terrace and dining room are delightful. But the rooms are a mixture. A group of us were playing musical bedrooms. A previous year I was sharing a room so we had a front room with sea view and sea gulls looking through the window at us trying to get in.

I asked one of the seagulls if he'd been an unpaid extra in a famous film. But he didn't answer. I think that was before his time.

This year I had a room at the back, 119, no sea view, a sheer cliff of greenery. Ideal if you want to write a script for a horror movie. Things brightened up literally, when I discovered two spotlights over the bed. I complained that the light over the mirror was not working. Immediately up came a desk lamp. A day late (Sunday) the manager produced a replacement bulb. My room had a double bed and bath. TV. All day seaside music from gulls outside.

Several rooms are singles. One of the front single rooms has the view obscured by a tree which apparently has a preservation order on it.

The room with the least outside light is ground floor room number three, which has two high windows, like being in a castle with narrow high windowed, except you are on the ground floor. Oddly enough, I thought this was an ideal room for a honeymoon couple, romantic anniversary, or jolly dirty weekend, where you want total privacy. It was also the best decorated room, not that Victorian royalty carpet and with cream walls so loved by old hotels, and whoever decorated other parts of this hotel, instead bright white and brand new contrasting colours, delightful.

See the hotel whilst it still has the old atmosphere and creaking stairs. The downstairs front room with the magnificent decorated ceiling is already modernised at great expense. The old high ceiling has been replaced by a part false ceiling suspended to reveal the old high ceiling around the edges. The modernisation includes a handy a screen for showing football films, a screen which can be let down to conceal the view of the carved wooden fireplace.

The staff can't do enough for you. I asked for a couple of extra hangers and got half a dozen. Slices of lemon for the water jug. They have weddings many weekends in summer, just when two or more members of staff take off on their own holidays or family weddings.

The Visit Wales awards the hotel a 3 star rating. When the hotel first opened, it had a designated smoking room. Now it is entirely non-smoking.

Writers' Holiday is held here annually, attracting visitors from Wales, England, Scotland and as far away as Australia.

For the 2016 programme - see Writers' Holiday website.
writersholiday.net

(Writers Holiday 2015 July Monday 27 to Saturday Aug 1st courses include Writing Children's books and Travel photos.)
Writers Holiday Feb 2016 19-21 £229, or day delegate £129.
Writers Holiday Monday 25th July to Saturday 30th 2016 £499 full board and accommodation or day guest only rate of £299 (Courses include writing ebooks.)

www:fishguardtrains.info
wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishguard_Harbour_railway_station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel
Fishguard Bay Hotel
Quay Road
Goodwick
Pembrokeshire
Wales
SA64 OBT
Tel:01348 873571
email:reservationsfbh@gmail.com
Website www.fishguardbayhotel.co.uk

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, speaker.