LONDON GUIDE!

The London Paddington area is a major tourist hub with the convenient distance to areas like Notting Hill, Oxford Street, Queensway and Bayswater as well as a range of shopping and dining options nearby. The area is perfectly located providing a convenient distance to the most important sightseeing, Paddington attractions as well as business sites.

With the historic Paddington Station that was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1854 and became the London terminus of the Great Western Railway, the London Paddington area is now irreplaceable because of its Heathrow Express and other mainline services.

People often wonder what do the little bears in the Paddington souvenir shops mean. The Paddington Bear has its individual story that dates to Christmas Eve of 1956. It was a writer Michael Bond who adopted the Paddington name for his fictional character, the Paddington Bear.

The writer came across the lonely and abandoned-looking bear toy in one of the London shops. He felt sorry for it and brought it to his home next to Paddington Station. Mr. Bond started writing short stories about the bear without imagining the future success of his books. The Paddington books have become extremely popular and sold tens of millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into over forty languages.

The London Paddington area is also famous for the St Mary's hospital, where Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin on the 3rd of September 1928. For those who have a passion for science and medicine, the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum might be worth seeing. It has been reconstructed as his original laboratory, with a video, exhibition and photographs of Fleming.

In terms of transport, London Paddington is superbly situated. With the Heathrow Express that that goes every 15 minutes and trains to other part of England, the station is one of the major train hubs for London. You can easily 'hail' a black cab from just outside the hotel and make your journey quick and efficient. London Paddington also provides the underground services for the District, Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Bakerloo lines.