Paddington Basin - central London connections

Wednesday, 10 August 2011 11:24

We were wondering how popular Paddington Basin would be in the summer - we now know!

West Basin and St Mary's Footbridge

Narrowboats, wide boats, workers, tourists, the place is "heaving" as we say .....

Moored here by the station, Epiphany has been photographed many, many times - not only by foreign tourists! My sister, Lois has visited us - we walked to Little Venice and back to West Basin where we stopped at one of the cafes. It is such a shame that the basin beyond the Helix Bridge is unused and that the businesses there are losing out because there is nothing to look at.

Apparently the owners of that part of the Basin (known as Merchant Square), Paddington Basin Business Barges Ltd (BW is a 50% shareholder), are planning to replace this bridge with a lift bridge. Then it will be used by static boats and a canoe club.

Business Barges (only two so far out of the proposed 17)

I seem to remember that this has been the plan since the inception of the Paddington Waterside Partnership in the late 1990s. To see the whole plan of the development of Paddington Basin click here. Also worth a look if you are as interested as I am in what it is all supposed to be about download this PDF.

Steel Bridge just beyond our mooring

Crossrail is now being developed - between Paddington Station platforms and the moorings here. There is a fence being put up to block off the works - despite the brick wall already there.

Crossrail crane at night

Paddington Station, fence and path by moorings at night

The fuel boat "Baron" (Pete Wakeman) came down - we did not need to top up, but he was advertising fuel at 80p/litre. I wonder how often he comes and how many boats use him?

Fuel boat Baron under Bishops Road Bridge

So now we are here, we can visit some central London attractions, but what .....?