Praed Street, W2
Paddington
Praed Street was named after William Praed, chairman of the company which built the canal basin which lies just to its north.

Praed Street was laid out in 1828 being built up from the Edgware Road end. Leases for the first houses were granted in 1826.

There were already shops in Praed Street before it came to form the chief approach to Paddington station. The original station opened on 4 June 1838 on a site to the west of what is now Bishop’s Bridge Road. It was not until May 1854 that the station was fully operational in its current location.

St Mary’s Hospital was founded in 1845 on Praed Street as a voluntary hospital for ’the deserving sick poor’ and opened the Medical School in 1854. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin there.

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