Paddington station - Network Rail Paddington station Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment Website Network Rail Cookie Policy We use cookies to give you the best possible experience on the Network Rail website. By browsing this website you give consent for cookies to be used. For more details, including how you can amend your preferences, such as by disabling cookie usage on our site, please read our Cookie Policy . Biography Isambard Kingdom Brunel -Biography Online About Biography Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British engineer, who played a key role in the early industrial revolution. He built one of the first major railway routes – the Great Western Railway (GWR) between London and Bristol. He also designed and built steam ships and important bridges. Early Life Brunel Brunel was born in Portsmouth in 1806 to a notable engineer – Sir Marc Isambard Brunel and his wife Sophia. Seeking to follow in his father’s footsteps, he was sent to France to be educated at the Lycee Henri-Quartri and the University of Caen.

By the age of 20, he was working with his father on the ground-breaking Thames Tunnel between Rotherhithe and Wapping. Using an innovative tunnel shield, they were able to protect workers from a collapsing tunnel as they buried under the soft earth. Nevertheless, on one occasion, the tunnel collapsed, killing two workers and Brunel narrowly escaping death. The tunnel was eventually completed Great Western Railway In 1833, Brunel was appointed chief engineer of a new project to link London to Bristol by railway. This was at the infancy of the railway era, and it was one of the most ambitious projects to date. Brunel took to the project with his customary enthusiasm, dedication and innovative approach. He spent hours and days surveying the route, eventually deciding (controversially) on the flatest approach through Reading and Swindon (which at the time was only a small village). There were still many obstacles to overcome, and on the route he planned and built several viaducts and several tunnels, such as Box Tunnel. At the time, Box tunnel was the longest in the world, and serious men of medicine even questioned whether it was safe at all.

Brunel was a hard task master, expecting others would share his same non-stop work ethic, (it was said he survived on four hours sleep a night). Like other railway builders of the time, he was harsh on the navies who risked accident and death in the construction of the railway. The navies worked under appalling conditions, and received little, if any compensation, from the company should they be killed or injured. Brunel was never content to follow other approaches, and according to his own calculations, decided the best gauge was not the standard gauge other railways were using, but a wider ‘broad’ gauge. Brunel may have been correct to say this offered more stability, but it made railways construction more expensive and, more critically, it meant the Great Western Railway lacked integration with the rest of the network. When the network grew, the broad gauge increasingly hampered the lucrative freight traffic of GWR as goods had to be transferred from one network to another. Eventually, after his death, Brunel’s broad gauge was converted, at great cost, back to standard gauge. On other parts of the line near Devon, Brunel made an expensive mistake in hoping trains could be run on atmospheric pressure.

A largely untried technology, it had to be abandoned when it proved impractical. In 1854, Paddington station, designed and built by Brunel was opened; the GWR’s entry into London was considered another great success, and is still in use today. Despite over-running on costs and making mistakes, such as the choice of gauge, the Great Western Railway proved a huge success and revolutionised travel between London and the West. Such a project clearly needed someone with the drive and vision of Brunel to move it to completion. At times, Brunel’s stubbornness may have been costly, but it was also his stubborn determination which got the project completed. Transatlantic shipping Brunel was a workaholic, and even as the GWR was still being built, he moved onto another project – a steam ship for transatlantic shipping. The Great Western sailed in 1837, and was the largest steamship in the world. Later, he would build the world’s first metal ship 1843 (the SS Great Britain, pictured left). This was a forerunner of modern ships around the world. Bridges Brunel is also famous for the building of bridges.

Many bridges needed to be built as the GWR extended south west down into Cornwall. Important bridges included the Royal Albert Bridge (above) spanning the River Tamar at Saltash, near Plymouth. His most famous bridge design was the Clifton Suspension bridge in Bristol. Speaking of his approach to building, he said: I am opposed to the laying down of rules or conditions to be observed in the construction of bridges lest the progress of improvement tomorrow might be embarrassed or shackled by recording or registering as law the prejudices or errors of today. Brunel would also later look back and claim this was his proudest achievement – even though it wasn’t completed in his lifetime. Brunel, not known for his modesty said, “Of all the wonderful feats I have performed, since I have been in this part of the world, I think yesterday I performed the most wonderful. I produced unanimity among 15 men who were all quarrelling about that most ticklish subject — taste.” At the time, it was the largest suspension bridge in the world over 700 ft (213 m). Started in 1862, and completed in 1864. Brunel’s work was remarkable for its wide ranging scope.

When Britain entered the Crimea war in 1854, Brunel was asked to make a pre-fabricated hospital which could be transferred to the region. The Renkioi hospital was considered a great success for its attention to hygiene and sanitation. Florence Nightingale referred to them as ‘those magnificent huts’. Brunel epitomised the energy and innovation of the era. With supreme confidence in his own abilities, he blazed a trail for others to follow. Always innovative, he left a profound legacy of design and engineering, which still is very much in use today. Personal Life Brunel married Mary Elizabeth On 5 July 1836, Mary came from an accomplished musical and artistic family. They had three children Brunel suffered a stroke in 1859, just before the Great Eastern made her first voyage to New York. He died ten days later at the age of 53 and was buried, like his father, in Kensal Green Cemetery in London. Citation : Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Brunel”, Oxford, , 28th May.

2010 Related pages: […] more about Brunel on the BBC website, BiographyOnline or, for University staff and students, Credo […] October 31, 2016 9:31 AM A Selection of Great Victorian Railway Stations A Selection of Great Victorian Railway Stations Stuart Durant [ Victorian Web Home —> Technology —> Railways —> Stations ] “Railway Stations: Go into ecstasies over them, and cite them as architectural wonders.” (“Gares de chemin de fer: S'extasier devant elles et les donner comme modï¿½les d'architecture.”) — Flaubert, Le dictionnaire des idées reçues [The dictionary of received ideas] — never completed and invariably published with Bouvard and Pécuchet, which was also unfinished. The dictionary is an assemblage of popular opinions — cited as examples of bourgeois crassness. But here we must agree with those who were the butts of Flaubert’s humour.

[Click on thumbnails for larger images and more informaion.] Euston Station, London (1837-49) Philip Hardwick (1792-1870), architect and Robert Stephenson (1803-59), and Charles Fox (1810-74) engineers Euston was the first of the great stations. With it began the era of competitive station building in capital cities. The London & Birmingham Railway started services between the two cities in 1837. The railway reduced the arduous twelve hour coach journey from London to Birmingham to less than half — the current journey time is an hour and thirty minutes. Such a transformation in society was celebrated with a new kind of architecture. The train sheds, however, were modest, economical, structures. They were designed by Robert Stephenson, the son of George Stephenson, and the Chief Engineer of the railway, and Charles Fox, the son of a prominent sugeon. Fox went on to have a distinguished career as a civil and mechanical engineer. Passengers arriving at Euston could step out from trains straight into carriages waiting immediately outside the train sheds.

Departing passengers would pass through the grand Propylaeum, the entry to a temple complex — the affectionately remembered Euston Arch. Its stern Greek Doric columns were almost 13 metres tall. It was destroyed, in act of philistinism, or wilful vandalism, by British Railways in 1962. Sir John Betjeman by Martin Jennings in St. Pancras. The episode aroused violent controversy, and protests were led by John Betjeman. London County Council in which the Royal Fine Art Commission also joined in. Although the battle was lost conservation was to become an increasing part of architectural debate. The wrought iron gates to old Euston have been preserved and are to be found in the National Railway Museum at York. Besides the noble arch there was a magnificent neo-classical departure hall — detailed with impeccable scholarship and believed by many to have been one of the finest public spaces in London. Philip Hardwick , the architect of Euston, was articled to his father, Thomas Hardwick (1752-1829). At the age of sixteen he started attending the Royal Academy Schools. He began a four year architectural grand tour of Italy and France when he was twenty-three.

After his return Hardwick was appointed Surveyor to St Bartholemew’s Hospital in succession to his father. He also designed Birmingham Curzon Street Station (1838). Hardwick was — a founder member of the Institute of British Architects, which became the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1837. He was also a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. In 1854 he received the Royal Gold Medal for architecture. He was — with Charles Barry and Robert Smirke , one of the principal establishment architects of his era. Hardwick was a friend and defender of J M W Turne r (1775-1851) and one of his executors. Betjeman was scathing about the current Euston Station, opened by the Queen in 1968: The “great hall of glass looks like a miniature version of London Airportï¿½ On its expanse of floor and against its walls passengers lie and await trains, which they are not allowed to enter . . .

without the permission of uniformed gendarmes at the barriers, who imprison the travellersï¿½ a constant stream of lengthy official verbiage pours over the waiting queuesï¿½ the telephone boxes are open to the full blast of the Tannoy system . . . I have heard he excuse made for this disastrous and inhuman structureï¿½ that British Railways originally intended to make it pay by adding multi-storey blocks to the flat roof. This seems a lame excuse for so inhospitable a building. — John Betjeman and John Gay, London’s historic railway stations, London, 1972 Lancaster Castle, Lancaster (1846) designed by Sir William Tite (1798-1873) Hardly a “great station”, but nevertheless admirably representative of a class of sober nineteenth century British stations. It is somewhat reminiscent of Pugin ’s economical clergy houses, or his own house, The Grange, at Ramsgate (1843-4). Scott had some admiration for Tite’s work while never once mentioning his name.

In Gothic architecture, secular and domestic (1857) Scott declared: There are some simple stations between Lancaster and Carlisle which have always struck me as the best stations of the smaller kind I have seen in England. They are perfectly plain and unpretending and in the style of the old cottages in stone districts. I do not know whether the great station at Carlisle was by the same hand: if so, it is a notable instance of a person who succeeds well in small things failing in larger ones. I must except . . . the refreshment-room which is like an old dining-hall on a small scale. Tite was indeed the designer of Carlisle Station (completed in 1847) as he was of Carnforth, which was completed same year. (Carnforth is featured in David Lean’s 1945 film Brief Encounter, with Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.) Tite was an extremely versatile architect and was at one time President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. In his latter years he was a Liberal Member of Parliament.

King’s Cross Station, London (1852), desigend by Lewis Cubitt (1799-1883) The London terminus of the Great Northern Railway was completed when the GNR reached Doncaster. Services were later extended to Bradford, Cambridge, Halifax, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, and Sheffield. All the important Yorkshire manufacturing towns were eventually served by the GNR. During the ascendancy of the Modern Movement, King’s Cross was frequently cited as an example of proto-modernism and compared favourably with Euston’s classicism — “display” as Nikolaus Pevsner described it — and the brilliant, though misguided, mediaevalism of St. Pancras. John Betjeman captured prevailing attitudes in architectural circles towards King’s Cross in the 1930s: “ . . . we were all told to admire King’s Cross for its functional simplicity, an earnest of the new dawn. We were told to despise St Pancras for its fussiness though we were allowed to admire the engineer’s roof.

All the same I have an idea that St Pancras is the more practical station.” (London’s Historic Railway Stations, 1972) In his account of London in his Buildings of England, 1952, Pevsner wrote “ Cubitt, perhaps because he came from a family of builders and engineers, looked at his job with equal pride but no romanticism. [He was comparing King’s Cross with Hardwick’s Euston.] The two arched roofs . . . are frankly displayed as the predominant motif of the faï¿½ade . . . The roof of the clock tower heralds the coming of the new Italian villa ideals. Otherwise one does not look for ï¿½motifs’ at King’s Cross.

The architect was satisfied to depend, as The Builder put it in 1851, ‘on the largeness of some of the features, the fitness of the structure for its purpose, and a characteristic expression of that purpose’ It is worth pointing out that the Italianate features of King’s Cross — notably the tower as cited by Pevsner — could well reflected Prince Albert’s enthusiasm for Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Italianate designs for the Prussian royal family — notably his work at Charlottenhof. Albert, incidentally, had chosen Lewis’ alder brother Thomas as his architect for Osborne House (1845-48), the summer home of the royal family on the Isle of Wight. Thomas Cubitt (1788-1855), who had begun his career as a carpenter, was the greatest London speculative builder and developer of the 1820s. Belgravia, Bloomsbury, Pimlico and Tyburn were largely built by him and he made an immense fortune. Lewis Cubitt also built the Great Northern Hotel (1854) — the oldest hotel in central London — which adjoins King’s Cross.

Unlike the station, it is of no remarkable architectural distinction, though the passing years have given it a charming patina. It is recommended for those wishing to spend a night in London before going on to Luton Airport. When King’s Cross is restored the space between King’s Cross and St Pancras International will form a magnificent piazza. The two stations will supply a vivid lesson in the polarities of nineteenth-century architecture. (Lewis Cubitt was a very successful bridge designer — much of his work was overseas. He deserves more attention than he has received from historians.) Paddington Station, London (1854), designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-59) Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820-77) and Owen Jones (1809-74) Christopher Wren’s son inscribed upon his father’s tomb in St Paul’s “Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice,” [“Reader, if you seek his monument, look about you”]. The Great Western Railway is Brunel ’s monument. A railway is infinitely complex — calling for prowess in both civil and mechanical engineering, to say nothing of artistry.

And Brunel had the imagination of an artist. He was responsible for building over a thousand miles of track. The gauge of his track was 7-foot-and-a-quarter inch. As trains could be more stable than with a narrower gauge, high speeds could be attained — speeds of 60 mph were commonplace, locomotives were more powerful,; since they had bigger boilers, railway carriages could accommodate more passengers in greater comfort, freight trains could carry more . . . For all its advantages, the broad gauge was not adopted nationally. The last broad gauge train ran on May 22nd 1892. The proudly independent Great Western had finally to conform to the standard gauge used by the other railways — 4-feet 8-and-a-half inches. The designer of Brunel’s locomotives was Daniel Gooch (1816-89), who is, for many, the greatest locomotive designer of the century.

Then there were Brunel’s ships — the SS Great Western (1837), the SS Great Britain (1843) — the first screw propelled ship to cross the Atlantic — and the Great Eastern, it had a length of just over 207 metres and a breadth of just over 25 metres. The Great Eastern could reach a speed of almost 20 miles an hour. Here is Brunel writing to Matthew Digby Wyatt on Paddington — months before the completion of Paxton’s Crystal Palace , which housed the Great Exhibition of 1851. I am going to design, in a great hurry, a station after my own fancy . . . with engineering roofs etc., etc.. It is at Paddington, in a cutting, and admitting of no exterior, all interior and all roofed in . . .

Now such a thing will be entirely metal as to all the general forms, arrangements and design; it almost of necessity becomes an Engineering Work, but, to be honest, even if it were not, it is a branch of architecture of which I am fond, and, of course, believe myself to be fully competent for, but for detail of ornamentation I neither have time nor knowledge, and with all my confidence in my own ability I have never any objection to advice and assistance even in the department which I keep to myself, namely the general design. Now, in this building which, entre nous, will be one of the largest of its class, I want to carry out, strictly and fully, all those correct notions of the use of metal which I believe you and I share (except that I should carry them sill farther than you) . . . I want to show the public that colour can be used . . . ” (quoted also by L T C Rolt, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, London, 1957.) The colour scheme of Paddington — long since vanished — was by the architect, historian and theoretician, Owen Jones , who was responsible for the colouring of Paxton’s Crystal Palace.

Jones, whose stature has yet to be fully recognised, was as progressive as Brunel. He moved in advanced intellectual circles and was a close friend of the novelist George Eliot (Marian Evans, 1819-80) and her consort George Henry Lewes (1817-78), the writer and biographer of Goethe. Matthew Digby Wyatt was a successful architect — Secretary of the Great Exhibition and Surveyor of the East India Company . He was also, in an era when art history was an emerging discipline, the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge. Like Owen Jones he was an accomplished designer and, indeed closely associated with Jones. It is not difficult to detect the influence of Jones in the Moorish cast-iron capitals at Paddington. Jones’ first great publication — the monumental two volume Alhambra, London, 1836-45, being the inspiration. The Railway Station, by William Powell Frith (1819-1909) Brunel had a copy of the book — the early plates are the first to be printed in colour in Britain.

The Railway Station, by William Powell Frith (1819-1909) depicts a crowded arrival platform at Paddington in 1862 — the painting is justly famous for depicting the many layers of Victorian society. Frith’s depiction of the station and one of Gooch’s splendid 4-2-2 locomotives is commendably accurate. (In 1953 Sergei Kadleigh (d.1972) put forward detailed proposals for a high rise scheme — a “town of eight thousand people” to be built over the goods yard adjoining Paddington Station. “High Paddington” was a megalomaniac scheme, inspired no doubt by Le Corbusier’s Ville radieuse. It would have dominated West London.) New Street Station, Birmingham (1854) designed by Edward Alfred Cowper (1819-93) New Street has always been the busiest of provincial British stations. Cowper’s station was entirely re-built by British Railways in the mid 1960s when the West Coast Main Line was electrified. It is a bland, efficient station of no substantial architectural interest.

At 211 feet (64.31m.) Cowper’s original wrought iron and glass roof had the largest single span anywhere — until it was surpassed by Barlow’s and Ordish’s St Pancras train shed at 243 feet (74.07m.) completed in 1867. New Street was constructed by Messrs. Fox, Henderson & Co. for whom Cowper had worked — he had been responsible for the company’s contract drawings for Joseph Paxton’s 1851 Crystal Palace. George Gilbert Scott praised New Street in Secular and Domestic Architecture (1857): “An iron roof in its most normal condition is too spider-like a structure to be handsome, but with a very little attention this defect is obviated. The most wonderful specimen, probably, is that at the great Birmingham Station . . . ” Cowper was among the leading figures from what L T C Rolt described as a “brief heroic age of engineering”. He was the son of a professor of engineering at King’s College, London . At fourteen he began a seven-year apprenticeship with John Braithwaite (1797-1870) — a successful civil engineer.

While still an apprentice he devised a system of railway signalling by means of small detonators — which made a load bang when a train passed over them. These were widely used in fog to alert engine drivers of hazards — when conventional signals could not be seen. Cowper set up on his own account as a consulting engineer in 1851. He contributed much to the development of steam technology. In 1870 he invented a device by which hand-written messages could be transmitted by telegraph without the need for the use of Morse code. Cowper was consulting engineer to the Post Office. St Pancras, London (1865-68) Designed by William Barlow (1812-1902) and Rowland Mason Ordish (1824-86) — Midland Hotel by George Gilbert Scott (1811-78) For the last ninety years almost, Sir Gilbert Scott has had a bad press. He is condemned as facile. Smart, aggressive, complacent and commercial. When at the top of his form Scott was as good as the best of his Gothic contemporaries.

He was so firm a believer in the Gothic style as the only true ‘Christian’ style — Scott was a moderate High Churchman — that he was determined to adapt it for domestic purposes. St Pancras Station hotel was his greatest chance in London and well he rose to the occasion. I used to think that Scott was a rather dull architect, but the more I have looked at his work the more I have seen his merits. — John Betjeman and John Gay, London’s historic railway stations, London, 1972 With its castellated fringes, scores of dormer windows (each with its finial), its myriad pointed-arch windows below the cornice . . . the Midland Grand Hotel was one of the finest and largest examples of Victorian secular Gothic. From the elaborate porte cochï¿½re at the west-end, at the west end, the 565 ft frontage curved back and round to parallel the Euston Road, terminating in a 270 ft spire-capped clock tower which was a worthy rival to that of Barry and Pugin at Westminster.

— Alan A Jackson, London’s termini, Newton Abbot, 1969 Liverpool Street, London (1871-75) designed by Edward Wilson — Chief Engineer of the Great Eastern Railway The first London terminus of the Great Eastern Railway was at Shoreditch. Liverpool Street was created in order to bring the railway closer into the City. A substantial part of the station’s traffic consisted of working-class commuters who came from London’s northern suburbs. In addition, Liverpool Street served East Anglia — and Harwich which was growing steadily in importance as a port. The site had been once occupied by Bethlem Hospital, where people once paid to enjoy gawping at and teasing the insane. Liverpool Street takes its name after Lord Liverpool (1770-1828), the longest serving British Prime Minister. The cost of the site was considered to have been excessive at the time. And there are still the steep gradients — always to be avoided in railway construction — leading up to the station. Liverpool Street perhaps lacked the architectural charisma of the old Euston, St Pancras, or Brunel’s Paddington.

For all that, its ironwork, with its filigree cast iron brackets and sturdy capitals — now painted in very congenial colours — is a delight. The 1994 metamorphosis of the station by Nick Derbyshire and his team — which involved the replicating of Victorian wrought and cast iron — has given new energy to the once dowdy station. Circulation in the station which was once notoriously difficult to navigate has also been vastly improved. The present Liverpool Street station affirms the value of refurbishing a perfectly serviceable nineteenth structure. The Great Eastern Hotel, by Charles Barry, junior (1823-1900), the son of the architect of the Houses of Parliament , has been transformed into a boutique hotel by Conran & Partners. The Victoria Terminus (now Mumbai Chhatrapati Sivaji Terminus, 1888) Designed by Frederick William Stevens (1847-1900) The station was named the Victoria Terminus on the occasion of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1887.

In 1996 it was renamed the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in honour of Chhatrapati Shivaji (1627-80), scourge of the Mughals and founder of the Mahratta empire, which was finally extinguished by the British in the early nineteenth century. Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra and Shivaji is the state hero. The station — the original terminus of the Central Railways — was designed by Frederick William Stevens, born in Bath, who joined the Indian Public Works Department at the age of twenty. It is said to have been influenced by George Gilbert Scott’s Gothic Midland Hotel, although it incorporates fine Indian carving and decorative features. John Lockwood Kipling (1837-1911), father of Rudyard Kipling , was Director of the Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art in Bombay — the first modern art school in India. The institution promulgated the idea of amalgamating Indian and Western traditions, which was part of government policy. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus was put on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2004 — the first building of its kind.

Waterloo, London (1922) , designed by James Robb Scott The busiest British station. The first London and South Western Railway’s London terminus was at Nine Elms and opened on 21st May 1838. It was a modest neo-classical structure designed by Sir William Tite (1798-1873). It was his first station. He had no inhibitions about style and Gilbert Scott admired some of his bold vernacular stations in the North. Steam riverboats took passengers from Nine Elms to London Bridge and other points on the North bank of the Thames. This arrangement caused fairly considerable inconvenience to passengers. Waterloo Station was opened in 1848 — with two train sheds of 100 feet (30.48 meter) spans. The LSWR’s traffic passenger traffic increased exponentially as Waterloo served Portsmouth — and latterly Devonport (1876) — the great naval bases as well as Aldershot, the principal army base. There was also the huge increase in commuter traffic from Kingston, Surbiton and Richmond. By 1892, Waterloo was handling 50000 passengers a day.

The LSWR had, incidentally, extended its services to Exeter in 1860 and, by 1899, Padstow in Cornwall. The station became noted for the difficulties passengers experienced in finding their correct departure platforms. There is a story — no doubt apocryphal — of a Devon farmer who declared to his wife “no wonder the French were defeated at Waterloo”. At the turn of the century the LSWR Board decided that Waterloo needed to be rebuilt and J W Jacomb-Hood, LSWR’s Chief Engineer, was sent to the United States to study contemporary station design. He was to be responsible for the structure and planning of the present station — although certain bays from the earlier station were retained. After the death of Jacomb-Hood in 1914, A W Szlumper took over. James Robb Scott, “Chief Architectural Assistant of the LSWR” was to be responsible for the architecture of the station. Nikolaus Pevsner in his Buildings of England. London, first published in 1952, had little time for Waterloo.

Its steelwork was “sadly timid” and Robb Scott’s faï¿½ade was “spoiled by a hopeless position”. Indeed, the location of Waterloo has always been to its disadvantage — and, furthermore, it is the only great London station south of the river. Scott’s architecture is, for the most part innocuously late Edwardian. However, his triumphal arch is a splendid example of the style that has been described as “Imperial Baroque”. Sir Aston Webb (1849-1930) — designer of the Admiralty Arch of 1911, which commemorated the life of Queen Victoria , was the supreme exponent of the style. Pathetically ill-sited — but where else could it have been placed? — Scott’s arch commemorates the victory of the First World War. The names of LSWR employees killed in the war are recorded on plaques on the side of the steps, as are those of the Southern Railway killed in the Second World War. There are monumental statues of Bellona, the Goddess of War, and Peace flanking the steps. The arch is surmounted by a triumphant Britannia.

Attached to the station — and sharing the concourse — is Waterloo International Terminal by Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, which was opened in 1993. The design has been much admired. It has been said that it owes a little to Dutert’s and Contamin’s three-hinged Palais des Machines, at the Exposition Universelle, Paris 1889. The International Terminal will cease operation when the new St Pancras opens, although it will continue to be used for ordinary train services. Waterloo, despite its architectural failings — in particular its vainglorious attempt at monumentality — is a pleasant and efficient station. For all the lack of bravura of the scheme, the glazed roofs of Jacomb-Hood and Szlumper give Waterloo some of the best natural lighting of any station. Engineering Timelines - Paddington Station Paddington Station Praed Street, Paddington, London, UK associated engineer era Victorian | category Building | reference TQ265814 ICE reference number HEW 301 photo institution of Civil Engineers Isambard Kingdom Brunel's magnificent station of cast and wrought iron and glass, designed to serve his broad gauge railway. The picture was taken in 1944.

Brunel was the engineer for the Great Western Railway, for which Paddington was the London terminus. The GWR reached Bristol in 1841. The first terminus at Paddington, also by Brunel, was a temporary timber structure sited to the north-west that utilized the arches of the Bishop's Road bridge. It came into use on 4th June 1838 and Queen Victoria alighted there after her first train journey, from Slough, in 1842. This terminal was replaced by 1854 with the graceful soaring train shed we can see today. It is thought that Brunel was influenced by Paxton's Crystal Palace in its design. Indeed, both his collaborators, the architect Matthew Digby Wyatt and the contractors Fox Henderson, were involved in the realization of Paxton's Great Exhibition project. Certainly Paddington Station was meant as a grand statement, a showcase of technical innovation. It was also planned to out-do the Great Northern Railway's London terminus: Euston.

When built the train shed had three parallel semi-elliptical spans of 69ft 7in, 102ft 6in and 68ft, plus two smaller side spans of 50ft each: a total of 700ft of spanned width. A fourth main span, made of steel, was added 1915-16. The roofs of the three original spans are made of wrought iron arch ribs with glass and corrugated iron, supported on slender columns of cast iron. When the fourth span was added, work began on replacing the columns with steel ones, a project that was not completed until 1924. One or two originals remain. For lateral stability the train shed uses the station building along the south-west frontage and is propped back to the road embankment to the northeast. Longitudinal stability is provide by cross-bracing between the arches. In the second half of the 20th century the cladding and glazing were successively replaced, in ways sympatheic to the original. Extensive repairs and strengthening were undertaken in the 1990s.

Architect: Matthew Digby Wyatt (ornamentation) Contractor: Fox Henderson & Co. (train shed) Paddington Station - Isambard Kingdom Brunel - Great Buildings Architecture Discussion Paddington Station Commentary The Creator's Words "I am going to design... a Station after my own fancy; that is, with engineering roofs, etc. ... such a thing will be entirely metal as to all the general forms ... ; it almost of necessity becomes an Engineering Work, but, to be honest, even it if were not, it is a branch of architecture of which I am fond, and of course, believe myself fully competent for, but for detail of ornamentation I neither have time nor knowledge ..."  Isambard Kingdom Brunel, in a letter to Matthew Digby Wyatt inviting collaboration on the design of Paddington Station, as quoted in Randall J. Van Vunckt, ed., International Dictionary of Architects and Architecture: Volume 1, Architects. Detroit: St. James Press, 1993.

Resources Isambard Kingdom Brunel Bicentenary - new Great Britain stamps 23 February 2006 - from Norvic Philatelics Norvic Philatelics Bicentenary of the birth of Isambard Kingdom Brunel - 6 stamps, Miniature Sheet & Prestige Book: 23 February 2006 Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a true genius of the Industrial Age, whose vision and daring produced some of the greatest engineering wonders of Victorian Britain. To mark the 200th anniversary of Brunelï¿½s birth Royal Mail worked with eminent Brunel historians to select six examples from his incredible portfolio of work. The images of single stamps & FDCs are taken from pre-relase publicity photos. The image of the miniature sheet shown below has been scanned from an actual sheet. 1st class - Royal Albert Bridge (1854-1857) over the River Tamar at Saltash. 40p - Box Tunnel (1836-1841), Five miles east of Bath and still in use today. 42p Paddington Station (1849-1854), London terminus of the Great Western Railway.

47p PSS Great Eastern (1858), the largest ship ever built at the time of her launch. 60p - Clifton Suspension Bridge (1831-1864) over the Avon Gorge in Bristol 68p - Maidenhead Railway Bridge (1838) still carries the main line over the River Thames in Maidenhead, Berkshire. The stamps in more detail 1st class - Royal Albert Bridge (1854-1857). The magnificent Royal Albert Bridge, designed and built to carry the Cornwall Railway at a height of 100 feet across the waters of the River Tamar at Saltash, must surely be recognised as one of his most outstanding works. Its unique design and handsome proportions, set in an idyllic location between the hills of Devon and Cornwall, give an aura of grace and majesty all of its own. As the ï¿½Gateway to Cornwallï¿½ it forms a fitting and lasting memorial to this great Victorian engineer. The stamp features a steel engraving of the Royal Albert Bridge, Saltash by Cornish artist R T Pentreath, copyright Science Museum/Science and Society Picture Library.

40p - Box Tunnel (1836-1841). This was the most difficult engineering problem that Isambard Brunel had to solve when building the London to Bristol line. Positioned between Bath and Swindon, Box Hill consists mainly of limestone. Five miles east of Bath and still in use today, it was built to bring the Great Western Railway down to Bristol from Swindon. The first train passed through on 30 June, 1841. The stamp image is taken from a coloured lithograph West Entrance to Box Tunnel on the Great Western Railway by John Cook Bourne, 1846 copyright National Railway Museum/Science and Society Picture Library. 42p Paddington Station (1849-1854). Brunel was ambitious in the design of the GWRï¿½s London terminus, which he was charged with rebuilding in 1849 to accommodate the crowds expected to converge on London for the 1851 Great Exhibition.

He was asked to construct a flexible covered space without columns to accommodate the railwayï¿½s future needs and to outshine the London terminus of the GWRï¿½s arch-rival, the Great Northern Railway, at Euston. In an age when the new railways were regarded as the acme of modernity and sources of future prosperity for provincial cities and towns, public interest in Brunelï¿½s daring schemes for the GWR was intense. The stamp image is a photograph taken by York and Son between 1870 and 1890, copyright English Heritage. 47p PSS Great Eastern (1858). The Great Eastern was designed by Brunel. She was the largest ship ever built at the time of her launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers around the world without refuelling. She would only be surpassed in length in 1899 (by the SS Oceanic), and in tonnage in 1901 (by the SS Celtic). She was built in partnership with an experienced ship designer, John Scott Russell. Unknown to Brunel, Russell was in financial difficulties, and the two men disagreed on many details.

It was Brunelï¿½s final great project, as he collapsed after being photographed on her deck, and died a few days later. She was built by Messrs Scott, Russell & Co. of Millwall, London, the keel being laid down on May 1, 1854. She was launched on January 31, 1858. She was 692 feet (211 m) long, 83 feet (25 m) wide, 60 feet (18 m) deep (draught was 20 ft (6.1 m) unloaded and 30 ft (9.1 m) fully laden) and weighed 32,000 tons (her tonnage was 18,915). Little is known about this image apart from the fact that it is dated around 1860, copyright Science Museum/Science and Society Picture Library. 60p - Clifton Suspension Bridge (1831-1864).

The story of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, spanning the Avon Gorge, began in 1754 with the dream of a Bristol wine merchant, who left a legacy to build a bridge over the Gorge. A competition in 1829 was held to find a design, being judged by Thomas Telford, the leading civil engineer of the day. Telford rejected all the designs and submitted his own but the decision to declare him the winner was unpopular and a second competition was held in 1830. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, only 24 at the time, was eventually declared the winner and appointed project engineer ï¿½ his first major commission. The image is taken from the lithograph Clifton Suspension Bridge by G Childs, after a sketch by S Jackson circa 1834, copyright Science Museum/Science and Society Picture Library. 68p - Maidenhead Bridge (1838). Maidenhead Railway Bridge carryied the main line of the Great Western Railway over the River Thames in Maidenhead, Berkshire. The railway is carried across the river on two brick arches, which at the time of building were the widest and flattest in the world.

Each span is 128 feet (39 m), with a rise of only 24 feet (7 m). The Thames towpath passes under the right-hand arch (facing upstream), which is also known as the Sounding Arch, because of its spectacular echo. As built, Maidenhead Railway Bridge carried two lines of Brunelï¿½s broad gauge track. Subsequently the bridge has been widened, and now carries the four lines of standard gauge track that make up the Great Western Main Line out of London Paddington Station. The image is taken from a colour lithograph of the Maidenhead Bridge by John Cook Bourne, copyright National Railway Museum/Science and Society Picture Library. Miniature sheet A miniature sheet containing all six stamps will be issued on the same day. This image is scanned from an actual sheet so the colours are more accurate; the border is white on silver. Technical details: The 60x21mm stamps are designed by hat-trick design, and the Mini-Sheet measuring 190 x 67mm, is designed by Irene Von Treskow.

and are litho-printed by Joh Enschede Security Print, perforated 14ï¿½ x 14ï¿½. The stamps are printed in sheets of 24 and 48. Technical details for the Prestige Stamp book have not been announced. All images are Copyright (c) by Royal Mail 2005/2006. Prestige Stamp Book This is a black & white picture of the cover of the PSB, which is in silver-grey, imitating cast-iron. The 20-page PSB has been designed by hat-trick design with copy by journalist and writer Eugene Byrne. The book details Brunelï¿½s career, achievements and legacy. There are four stamp panes consisting of three three-stamp panes and one eight-stamp pane These images are from pre-release publicity photos; the background images are silver, for scans of the actual stamps see the miniature sheet above. Pane 1 contains the Royal Albert Bridge, Paddington Station and the Maidenhead Bridge stamps. Background: the Thames Tunnel. Pane 2 contains the Box Tunnel, Clifton Suspension Bridge and PSS Great Eastern stamps. Backgroud: Treviddo Viaduct.

Pane 3 contains the PSS Great Eastern from the Brunel issue and two of the PS Great Western from the Ocean Liners issue; note these are not se-tenant. Background: the Great Eastern under construction Pane 4 consists of eight Machins which surround a commemorative label featuring a relief bust of Brunel. The stamps are 4 x 1st class, 2 x 40p, 2 x 35p. Background: Royal Albert (Saltash) railway bridge. Special First Day of Issue Postmarks These postmarks will be available for the date of issue; these cannot be obtained after 23 April, except on FDCs which we will have in stock. Ref FD605 Isambard Kingdom Brunel Saltash, Cornwall Norvic Exclusive First Day Covers We have produced limited edition FDCs for this issue, for the set of 6 stamps, for the miniature sheet, and one for the set of prestige book panes.

Set of 6 stamps on 'Thames Tunnel' cover with London postmark - Price ï¿½8.95 Set of 6 stamps on 'Paddington Station' cover with Paddington postmark - Price ï¿½8.95 Miniature Sheet of 6 stamps on 'Royal Albert Bridge' cover with Saltash postmark - Price ï¿½8.95 Set of 4 'Clifton Suspension Bridge' covers with the Prestige Stamp Book panes, each cancelled with a different postmark, Great Western Railway London, The Great Engineer Bristol, The Great Eastern Millwall, and Paddington. SOLD Some sets of 4 on Royal Mail fdcs may be available - please ask if interested. If you would like to be contacted when this page is updated please email us. This page updated 23 February 2006. B.G. Today - London Today - West of Bristol Broad Gauge Route Today - London To Bristol The original GWR broad gauge line from London to Bristol has been modified many times to increase capacity beyond Brunelâs dreams, but despite extra tracks and modern stations, many original features can still be found.

The Paddington station of 1838 was west of the road that crosses the end of todayâs platforms. The Paddington station in use today was designed by Brunel, and opened in 1854. This grand terminus sits under two glass and iron roofs designed by Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt, and is fronted with a hotel by Philip Charles Hardwick. A statue of Brunel can be seen in the entrance at the middle of Platform One. Racing down the Thames valley, modern trains pass over Wharncliffe Viaduct (just west of Hanwell station), Maidenhead Bridge (the largest and shallowest brick arch in the world), and through Sonning Cutting to reach Reading, all part of the original route. It then crosses the Thames river twice more on Gatehampton and Moulsford bridges; Brunelâs original designs for these were all widened to allow an extra pair of tracks to be laid in the 1890s. After passing Didcot, there are some grand houses that Brunel built at Steventon (on the north side of the line between two level crossings), this was the headquarters of the railway for a few years - to satisfy the shareholders from both London and Bristol.

Swindon was the engineering headquarters of the railway; originally a sensible place to change locomotives nearly midway between London and Bristol, it was also the junction for the line to Gloucester and Wales; with lots of land available, this became an expansive railway town. The old locomotive works can be seen on the north side of the line west of the station, while carriage workshops, the village and church for the railwayâs employees, can be seen to the south. The railway carries on through Chippenham station, built from local yellow stone, and climbs into Box Tunnel. This is 3,212 yards (2,938m) long, the longest railway tunnel in the world when completed in 1841. On the other side of the hill the railway drops down to Bath, passing right through the landscaped Sydney Gardens, and into the pretty station in the centre of the city, squeezed onto a sharp bend between two river bridges. Following the River Avon, the line comes at last the Bristol Temple Meads, where the station in use today has been expanded several times.

The area under the main roof (platforms 3 and 5) was built in the 1870s along with the main offices. Walk outside the station and you will see that there is also a terminus building; the section nearest the current station was also built in the 1870,s and is now used as a car park â inside there is the old signal box which is built into the wall. Beyond this is Brunelâs original G.W.R. terminus with its mock hammerbeam roof. On the opposite side of the station approach is the Jacobean style Headquarters building of the Bristol and Exeter Railway. Paddington Station Restoration, London - Railway Technology The Span 4 project began in September 2009 and includes restoring the station's ageing glass roof to provide natural light and shelter to the platforms. Paddington Station Restoration, London, United Kingdom Paddington Station, also known as London Paddington, is a central railway terminus and an underground station complex situated in the Paddington area of the west end of central London, UK. It is one of 18 stations operated by national railroad operator Network Rail.

Paddington Station opened in January 1854 to serve the Great Western Railway and since then has undergone a number of improvements. The last improvement was carried out between 1996 and 1998 and involved the refurbishment of platforms 6, 7 and 8, electrification of platforms 3 to 12, reconstruction of the footbridge between platforms 6 and 10 and the concourse area (known as The Lawn), extension of the station concourse and London Underground ticket offices, and improvement of signage and customer information systems. The station has also received a facelift as part of an improvement programme. The improvement, which had cost £65m, was designed by Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners in association with Rodney Fitch. It added a new customer information system and 50,000ft2 of retail, food and drink outlets on The Lawn. Two developments are currently underway at the station. One is the restoration of platforms 9 to 12 and their Edwardian architecture roof known as Span 4.

"Paddington Station was originally designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel." The other is the construction of a new station under a project known as the Paddington Integrated Project (PIP). The station will be built by Crossrail, a subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL), which was set up to develop a new infrastructure to address congestion and capacity improvement on London's existing railway network. The roof restoration project is being executed by Network Rail, while the PIP is being jointly executed by Network Rail, Department for Transport and TfL. Design and construction The original Paddington Station was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in cooperation with Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt. It has a main train shed built in an arch shape. The ribs were constructed of wrought iron except for Span 4, which was made of steel. The Span 4 project, which began in 2009 will restore the station's ageing glass roof to provide natural lighting and shelter to the platforms. The roof was built in 1961 and was hidden by a false ceiling when the glass began to shred. The restoration is estimated to cost £35m.

The project also includes refurbishing the platforms, repairing the existing structures that support London Street, building a network of bridges and walkways, and installing new mechanical and electrical systems. The project is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2011 and the new restored structures will have a useful life of at least 75 years. Under the £250m PIP project, a new station will be constructed by Crossrail under the Eastbound Terrace and Departures Road of Paddington Station. The new station will ease traffic on the Great Western Road by 30% while reducing journey times from Paddington to Liverpool Street and Canary Wharf to ten and 17 minutes, respectively. "The Paddington Integrated Project will be built by Crossrail." It will provide space for the future growth in passenger numbers as well. The existing taxi rank located next to platform 1 will be relocated to the Span 4 side of the station to facilitate a Crossrail interchange. The project will also provide provision for future commercial development above the Hammersmith and City Line station. The station construction is scheduled to begin in 2012 with a target completion in 2017.

Contractors for Paddington Station The Span 4 roof restoration contract was awarded to the joint venture of Morgan Est and Morgan Ashurst. Valued at £26m, the contract covers replacing the existing shed roof, strengthening, waterproofing and resurfacing the parcel deck, bridge repairs and installation of mechanical, electrical, communication and fire systems. McNealy Brown is carrying out the metal and steel repair and fabrication works on a sub-contract basis for Morgan Sindall. The architectural design and heritage consultancy for the Span 4 was provided by Oxford Architects. The other contractors involved in the project are Thales for automatic train control systems, Palmers Scaffolding, Westminster City Council to ensure that the station maintains historical appeal, TI Coatings for paint works and WSP for the station design. Paddington Waterside is also one of the local partners. The main design, engineering and consulting contractors of the PIP project are Weston Williamson, Mott Macdonald and Scott Wilson. EDF Energy will replace the LVAC switchboard and auxiliary transformer at Bouverie Place substation.

Services and facilities at Paddington Station "The Paddington Station project has a target completion date of 2017." Paddington Station is served by the First Great Western, Heathrow Express and Chiltren Railways. The Underground station is served by Bakerloo, Circle, District and Hammersmith & City Lines. Facilities such as toilets and baby changing are available on platform 1. Lost property office and left luggage are present on platforms 12. Bicycle parking facility is available on platforms 8 and 12. Other facilities available at the station are telephones near the underground entrance, Wi-Fi connection, a first class lounge, food and drink outlets, retail shops and refundable coin-operated trolleys. Share Bristol Temple Meads Bristol Temple Meads Façade of Bristol Temple Meads Joint Station Did you know? Bristol Temple Meads takes its name from the land upon which it was built. In the 12th and 13th centuries this was owned by the Knights Templar.

Built as the western terminus of the Great Western Railway’s main line from London to Bristol, Bristol Temple Meads station has undergone many changes as it outgrew Brunel’s original building and became the railway gateway to the West Country. The original Bristol Station, designed by I K Brunel in a ‘mock Tudor’ style was, like the original Paddington Station, a terminus which consisted of simply an arrival and a departure platform. It opened on 31 August 1840 with trains running from Bristol as far as Bath, nearly a year before the start of through traffic to London. The station buildings had a boardroom and offices for the ‘Bristol Committee’ of the Great Western Railway. In 1841, the broad gauge Bristol & Exeter Railway also began to run its services into Bristol Temple Meads, a curved line enabling their trains to run into the station. However, the limitations of sharing the station with the Great Western Railway meant that the B&ER opened its own temporary station in 1845 at right angles to the GWR building. A permanent structure, built in a Jacobean style was opened by the B&ER in 1854.

In 1844 the Midland Railway also began to run into Bristol, having taken over the Bristol & Gloucester Railway. A new joint station Traffic and the demands of the three railway companies began to outgrow Brunel’s original 1840’s structure, but it was not until 1865 that an Act was secured to rebuild Temple Meads to serve the needs of all three companies adequately. The design, in the Gothic style, was undertaken by Matthew Digby Wyatt, who had in the 1850s assisted Brunel with the ‘new’ Paddington Station. Construction of the new Bristol Temple Meads began in 1871. Separate entrances and corresponding booking offices, with the names of the railway companies engraved in stone above them, were provided for each of the three companies. However, before the station fully opened the GWR and B&ER had amalgamated. The first section of the station opened on 6 July 1874 and the full station, with a total of seven platforms, on 1 January 1878. An additional platform was added in 1898.

Speed to the West As a major gateway to the West Country, Bristol Temple Meads became increasingly congested with holiday traffic, particularly in the years immediately after World War 1. In 1929 the GWR took advantage of interest free government loans to double Temple Meads in size, increasing the number of platforms from nine to fifteen. Work on this extension, designed by P G Culverhouse, began in November 1930 and was completed in December 1935. The original Brunel train shed functioned for 125 years until its closure on 12 September 1965. His mock hammer beam roof, built of wood to emulate Westminster Hall in London, can still be seen as part of the car park at today’s station. Page first created: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 Page last updated: Friday, April 20, 2012 1835 31 August: The Great Western Railway was authorised by an Act of Parliament to build the railway line between the cities of London and Bristol.

1840 31 August: Brunel’s Tudor style Bristol Temple Meads Station is opened as the western terminus of the Great Western Railway. 1841 30 June: the Great Western Railway London to Bristol main line is opened throughout. The Bristol and Exeter Railway begins to use Bristol Temple Meads for its services. 1844 The Bristol and Gloucester Railway (part of the Midland Railway from 1845) begins to use Bristol Temple Meads for its services. 1845 The Bristol & Exeter Railway opens its own temporary station and platforms at right angles to the GWR station. 1854 The Bristol and Exeter Railway opens its permanent station office on the same site. This is designed in the Jacobean style by S C Fripp. The main GWR station becomes jointly run by the Great Western and Midland railway companies. - 1876. Bristol Temple Meads Station expanded as through Station. 1878 1 January: Matthew Digby Wyatt’s Bristol Joint Station is opened, designed in the gothic style. 20 May: the last of the GWR broad gauge tracks are lifted. - 1935.

Bristol Temple Meads Station is enlarged. 12 September: the original Brunel terminus at Temple Meads is closed. The electrification of London (Paddington) – Bristol - South Wales is announced. Box Tunnel, Box, Wiltshire | Tunnels At the time of opening, Brunel’s Box Tunnel was the longest railway tunnel ever built. Controversial from the start, its problematic construction delayed the completion of the Great Western Railway’s London to Bristol route until June 1841. Today it is one of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s most celebrated structures. London People - I K Brunel LONDON PEOPLE Isambard Kingdom Brunel - Engineer 1806-1859 london-footprints.co.uk I am a great admirer of this enterprising and energetic man, one of the reasons being that many of the things he worked on, quite often at personal cost, remain in daily use. This piece is mainly devoted to Brunel's London connections. Brunel was born in Portsmouth on 9 April the first child and only son of Marc Brunel, a French exile, and Sophia Kingdom. He received a technical education in England and France whilst working alongside his father in his engineering design office.

Both Marc and Isambard lived at 98 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea once part of Lindsey House. In 1825 they began constructing the Thames Tunnel, the first of its kind, using a tunnelling shield designed by Marc Brunel. His son, as the engineer in charge of construction, was almost killed when water broke through and the costly project came close to bankrupting Marc Brunel. Work was suspended between 1828 and 1836 and the tunnel was finally completed in 1843. It was only available to pedestrians as there had been no money to build the access ramps required for horses. In 1865 it was adapted to serve as a railway tunnel, a function it retains as the East London line of the Underground now runs through it. You can view the tunnel from Rotherhithe and Wapping station platforms and it is depicted in the tiles at Wapping. The access stairs at Wapping are original and at Rotherhithe are the remains of the 80' diameter shaft and the engine house. This Grade II listed building contains the only surviving compound horizontal V steam engine built by Rennie and an exhibition about the construction of the tunnel.

After convalesing Brunel worked on drainage and dock schemes. He also built an observatory for Mr, later Sir, James South at Observatory Gardens, Kensington and the Engineers pub in Primrose Hill (1841). In 1831 Brunel had won a competition to design a suspension bridge across the Avon Gorge at Clifton, a project not completed until after his death. The suspension chains used came from Hungerford Bridge, a pedestrian link designed by Brunel in 1843. This was taken down when the South Eastern Railway Company constructed the line into Charing Cross, although Brunel's pillars were retained to support the walkway alongside the track. A new pedestrian link has now been constructed on both sides of the railway, its design echoing Brunel's former suspension bridge. During 1852-4 the Crystal Palace Company, formed by designer Joseph Paxton, re-erected the structure which had housed the Great Exhibition of 1851 on land purchased at Penge. Paxton proposed making it bigger and better in a parkland setting with new attractions including splendid water features.

The glass building was unable to support the tanks these required so Brunel designed two 200' water towers to be sited at each end. These survived the fire which destroyed the Palace in 1936 but were demolished in 1941 possibly in case they proved a landmark for aid raids. Explosives were used on north tower but the south tower was taken down brick by brick because of nearby housing. The base of this tower remains in the park. In 1832 Bristol decided it needed a rail link to London if it was not to lose trade to Liverpool and appointed Brunel as engineer. The 110 mile broad gauge line was completed in 1841. The Great Western Railway was to share a terminus at Euston with the London and Birmingham Railway but had a temporary terminus at Bishops Road until 1854 when Paddington, designed by Brunel and Matthew Digby Wyatt was opened. By the side entrance on platform 1 is a statue of Brunel by John Doubleday commissioned by the Bristol & West Building Society. Part of the current redevelopment of Paddington involves the replacement of the Bishops Road Bridge with a new 5 lane structure.

However as the old bridge was being dismantled an iron bridge across the Grand Union Canal was found within it. This matched sketches and notes in Brunel's private notebooks showing it to have been his first iron bridge. Demolition was halted and the bridge is to be dismantled and reassembled within the development, hopefully for the 200th anniversary of Brunel's birth in 2006. Details of the project are available on the website . In 1859 the great Western and Brentford Railway Company opened a broad gauge line between Southall and Brentford Dock. Initially for goods traffic it carried passengers from 1860. Some remnants of this line can be found in Brentford including the remains of Brentford Town Station and some bridge rail sections in Dock Road which became obselete when the line was converted to standard gauge in 1876. The former trans-shipment dock has now become a marina and housing was built around it in the 1970s. At Windmill Lane, Southall is Three Bridges a unique, cast iron, three-level structure which took the lane over the canal and the canal over the branch railway line with the third bridge carrying a footpath.

Just north of the Uxbridge Road is the Wharncliffe Viaduct constructed in 1837. Brunel proposed extending the Great Western's route by building the Great Western steamship, fitted out in Blackwall. The ship was to make 22 round voyages from Bristol between 1838 and 1841 before being moved to Liverpool. In 1843 Brunel's second vessel for the company was the Great Britain of 1845, a screw propelled vessel with an iron hull. This was to be dwarfed by Brunel's next ship the Great Eastern, twice as long at 693' and nine times the tonnage! The contract for building this went to Scott Russell who had a yard at Millwall. Some of the timbers used to support the ship remain in situ along with some huge chains. It took several attempts over 3 months to launch the ship (sideways) so it could be towed to Deptford for fitting out. By this time Brunel was very ill with Bright's disease and travelled to Africa. He returned to take charge of the project but suffered a stroke just before the ship left for trials.

Paralysed at his home in Duke Street, Westminster he heard news of an on-board explosion. He died within a week aged 53 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetary. There is a statue of him on Victoria Embankment at the west end of Temple Place (see header). There are numerous books on Brunel and his achievements. The Jarrold publication is a good introduction and there is the curiously titled but appropriate book 'What's left of Brunel'. The Design Museum held a Brunel exhibition from October 2000 to February 2001 asking leading contemporary practitioners to assess Brunel's designs. A book of essays was published to coincide with the exhibition. The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich has some relevant items and its library is open to researchers on weekdays [ more info ]. The famous photograph of Brunel backed by the huge chains of the Great Eastern is in the National Portrait Gallery .

Question: Which London station was designed by Brunel and completed in 1854?
Answer: Paddington