Paddington Station, London

Completed in 1855, this was the London terminus for Brunel’s broad-gauge Great Western Railway

London’s Paddington Station was designed by the chief engineer of the Great Western Railway, Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–59). His plans were drawn up at the end of 1850 and the building was completed in 1855.

These dates are significant, because they coincide with the creation of the Crystal Palace that was built to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. Joseph Paxton’s masterpiece of metal and glass no longer exists, but its influence was clearly evident in Brunel’s thinking. Not only that, but the engineers who built Paddington Station — Fox, Henderson and Co — were also the contractors for the Crystal Palace.

Paddington Station consists of three glass-roofed vaults, the widest of which spans more than 100 feet, with two “transepts”, or crossing points, that were originally designed so that locomotives could make “three point turns” before the invention of the turntable. Brunel needed plenty of space for this, given that the Great Western was based on the “broad gauge” system in which the tracks and trains were three feet wider than those currently used.

Practicality was combined with artistry, in which Brunel was aided by Matthew Digby Wyatt (1805–55) who designed…