Paddington's awake
Heathrow’s gateway into the heart of London with the grand, previously sleepy and very lovely neighbourhoods of Bayswater and Lancaster Gate have been largely asleep for the past 50 years. Now however, the square mile sandwiched between boho-banker Notting Hill, the shisha-café lined Edgware Road and the Grand Union Canal and Hyde Park, combines Paddington. How to label this neighbourhood on the rise? Plancaster Gate? Bayddington? Playswater?
With the opening of the Elizabeth Line, Paddington Station has pulled its socks up and the neighbourhood is now but a few minutes to Soho and the hip and energetic East End beyond. Combine this with the slick redevelopment of the Grand Union Canal behind the station, and you suddenly have an irresistibly central location with smart buildings, mature trees and emerging local culture that blends diversity of travellers with new hipster hotspots. Playswater has arrived.
For me, growing up in West London, Bayswater was the heart of an urban weekend. My sisters and I would beg to go to the ice rink on Queensway (still there) where I’d envy delicate tweens their confident icy whirling and leg warmers; there was magnificent dim sum in the black and mirrored glamour of the Royal China (now relocated to Baker Street, still black, shiny and magnificent).
We’d wind our way around the elegant fountains of the Italian Gardens of Hyde Park (on summer days you can buy ice cream from a converted 1920s Rolls Royce), looking out for the luckier children bouncing on ponies in the Mews at the nearby stables. We’d trail our hands along the railings of the park, admiring the mile of art exhibited there every Sunday by amateur artists hopeful of a sale.
Waking from its lengthy nap, the neighbourhood is tickling back to life. The grand Art Deco block, Whiteleys, once a department store as great as Selfridges and Fenwick's is being transformed by Six Senses into their only London property.
Ahead of the curve is Jeremy King (previously of Ivy, Caprice and Wolseley), whose latest offering The Park, delivers a ‘grand world café’ in a handsome wood-panelled room with the trademark huge white napkins, silver tea sets and impeccable service overlooking, you guessed it, the park.
Smaller, forward-thinking players are getting ahead of the curve too: stylish coffee house Foreign Exchange Bureau marries the best in coffee and hipster magazine titles with, yes, a money change facility in the back, whilst its grown up sister, Sol’s, is a wine bar with a bang-up tapas and low-intervention wine a couple of doors down.
To the North of Paddington Station, the canals have seen a mighty facelift too as they wend their way through impressive new glass office developments, traditional barges providing some levity with their conversion into floating cafes, bars and restaurants with Aussie inspired menus such as Darcie and May Green and even one – The Cheese Barge - with a menu devoted to the best of British cheese.
The dowdy old neighbourhood hotels are making way for fresh new takes on the townhouse hotel. The colourful Grand Belleveue Hotel (clearly channelling the Grand Budapest) has confidently set up shop just down the road from the station with its Pondicherry Bar and individually decorated rooms, whilst Inhabit’s latest venture in Queens Gardens has taken the wellbeing spirit to its heart with its natural finishes of stone and hemp, and dedicated cabinets to lock away your phone.
Old and New, grandeur and humility, tradition and modernity – these are the pleasures of the area. It’s the perfect snapshot of the diverse character of this great city before it has fully regenerated. Here you’ll still find a slice of London history, complete with coin-op launderettes and greasy spoon cafes (try Sheila’s on Craven Terrace), where publicans still know the names of their locals and the launderette will accept deliveries on your behalf.
Joanna Weinberg
