Paddington: Economic History

ECONOMIC HISTORY.

Agriculture.

Paddington, with Knightsbridge and Westbourne, was probably included in the 13½ hides in the vill of Westminster which were attributed to St. Peter's abbey in Domesday Book. (fn. 1) The manor was not subinfeudated, and was still in the hands of a monk warden in Stephen's reign. (fn. 2) A custumal of c. 1225 treated Knightsbridge and Paddington together, listing 29 villein holdings and one holding of both free and customary land; free holdings, known to have existed, were not recorded. All but one of the 30 customary tenants held ½ virgate (probably 7 a.) or more; thirteen holdings were of up to 10 a., seventeen were of between 10¼ and 20 a. Services owed were manuring, hoeing, ploughing, harrowing, mowing, and carting hay. (fn. 3) Hoeing, ploughing, reaping, and carting services were recorded in Knightsbridge and Paddington in 1316. (fn. 4)

In the early 14th century the Paddington demesne, separated from Knightsbridge but including Paddington rectory, comprised 155 a. of arable, 10 a. of meadow, and no pasture. By that time there was no customary land. The demesne was leased out with the rectory from the early 15th century, the rent in 1514 being slightly less than it had been in 1422-3. (fn. 5) In 1647 the bishop of London's lands in Paddington were estimated at 641 a., (fn. 6) slightly more than half of the parish, consisting of 12 houses, 20½ a. of arable, 576½ a. of meadow or pasture, and 44 a. of woodland. The manor had been leased to Sir Rowland St. John and the lands subleased to 15 tenants, the most substantial being William Kenwrick with 117 a. and Mrs. Kenwrick with 60 a., Alderman Bide with 94 a., Mrs. Wheatley with 90 a., and William Browncar with 54 a. (fn. 7) In 1742, when the bishop's estate was leased to Sir John Frederick, it was estimated at 612 a. in 12 holdings, besides 20 a. divided into 9 lots in the common fields. The chief tenants were William Godfrey with c. 127 a., John Pruce and John Baker jointly with c. 123 a., Bartholomew Wetherall with 94 a., and John Geayes with c. 73 a. and Martin Geayes with c. 40 a. (fn. 8)

Early field names included Hundeshalle (fn. 9) from the early 14th century, and South field, (fn. 10) the Downe (later Downes), Westbourne field, the Half Hide, and the Westland in 1360. (fn. 11) North field, South field, Bush field, and Oxleas were mentioned in 1489 and Bridge field in 1530. (fn. 12) Few medieval names were used after the 16th century, presumably because of subdivision, although 4 a. were called Little Hounshill in 1647 (fn. 13) and Bridge field survived in the 18th century. The Paddington Estate had c. 70 fields in 1742, many of them upper or lower portions of older areas; the largest was nearly 25 a. comprising one of three divisions of Pond field, abutting Edgware Road south of Paddington wood. The common field, a mere 20 a. beside the Uxbridge road between the Westbourne and Black Lion Lane in 1742, had disappeared by 1790. (fn. 14) Westbourne manor had c. 30 fields in 1790. They were of similar size to those of Paddington manor, the largest being Great Marylands and Oak Tree field, each of 27 a. in the northwest corner of the parish. (fn. 15) Great Marylands was presumably so named because it had been assigned to the upkeep of St. Mary's chapel in Westminster abbey; the nearby Arnold's field in Henry VIII's reign belonged to the warden of the abbey's new work. (fn. 16) The 18th-century fields of both Paddington and Westbourne manors survived until building spread over them from the south and east. (fn. 17)

Encroachments on the commons of Westbourne manor were presented from 1566. Inhabitants of Kensington were not to seek pasture in Westbourne in 1584 and heavy fines were ordered for unlicensed inclosures in 1616. (fn. 18) Encroachments on the waste of Paddington manor in 1647 amounted to only two tenements, one of them on Paddington green, in addition to two small gardens occupied by Mrs. Kenwrick. (fn. 19) Several petty infringements of the waste were presented in 1678 (fn. 20) and admissions to wastehold parcels of both manors took place throughout the 18th century. (fn. 21) Often inclosures were made by the occupants of large houses around the greens, such as Denis Chirac and Isaac Ware. (fn. 22) In 1801 the vestry agreed to inclosures by S. P. Cockerell for £3 an acre, apparently the usual rate, and by a neighbour on payment of £100, the money to be invested for the poor. The vestry, however, refused another applicant leave to inclose, since he had no adjoining property, (fn. 23) and in 1814 threatened to demolish the fences of those who had inclosed more than the agreed amount of land or had not paid. In 1819 Cockerell himself claimed that inclosures had always been restricted to freeholders, who might take in only strips along public roads in order to preserve their frontages. (fn. 24) Although responsibility for the commons in practice had passed to the vestry, the chapter of Westminster, as lord of Westbourne manor, was asked to prevent the removal of turf in 1817. (fn. 25)

Enclosed meadows covered most of the parish east of the Bayswater rivulet in the 1740s, stretching across the north part into Chelsea detached and also south of Westbourne green along the west side of the later Black Lion Lane to the Uxbridge road. There were arable fields in the south-western corner of the parish, adjoining those of northern Kensington, and the common field east of Black Lion Lane was also arable, as were two large fields of Paddington manor in the south-eastern corner, away from the main roads. Also on Paddington manor, apparently converted to grass, were the Parsonage farm's Wheat and Rye Grass fields, abutting the parish's northern boundary formed by the Bayswater rivulet. (fn. 26) By 1800 the arable had been reduced to a small field at Westbourne green and another on the east side of Black Lion Lane. (fn. 27) Of c. 430 a. subject to tithes in 1844, 310 a. were under grass and only 10 a. arable, the rest being covered by gardens, roads, or buildings. (fn. 28)

Orders were made in 1595 for controlling cattle and ringing swine. (fn. 29) The conversion of arable to grassland, arising from London's demand for dairy produce and hay, was to meadow rather than pasture. In 1798 cowkeepers were said to engross every inch of available land around Paddington and similarly placed villages. The cows were kept in stalls and yards, while the fields were mown two or three times every summer to supply a rich diet of soft hay, supplemented by grain and green vegetables. (fn. 30) There were still 99 a. of permanent grassland for hay in 1867, besides 20 a. of clover and ½ a. of potatoes. Three farms of under 50 a. survived in 1870, when there were 57 a. of permanent grass. (fn. 31) Confined to the north part of the parish, grassland had shrunk to 33½ a. by 1880 and 7 a. by 1890, after which date the only agricultural land consisted of allotments, numbering 200 in 1895. (fn. 32)

Cowsheds in unhealthy proximity to dwellings, together with adulteration of milk, formed a major preoccupation of the medical officer of health in 1856, when 314 cows were kept by 27 keepers. (fn. 33) Many families lived under the same roof as livestock in 1862 (fn. 34) and an outbreak of cattle plague led to the appointment of a temporary assistant inspector of nuisances in 1865. (fn. 35) The number of cows in milk fell more slowly than the acreage of grassland: there were 157 cows in 1867, 133 in 1870, 86 in 1880, when 2 people were returned as occupying farmland and 7 as keeping livestock but not occupying land, and 83 in 1890. (fn. 36) Three cowhouses survived in 1894, in Elgin Avenue, Chichester Mews, and Star Street; only the one in Star Street, licensed for 10 cows, remained in 1904, surviving until 1927. (fn. 37)

Welford & Sons, (fn. 38) dairymen to the queen from 1876, was founded by Richard Welford, who took over Warwick farm between Harrow Road and Warwick Crescent in 1845 and opened his first dairy shop at no. 4 Warwick Place in 1848. The cowsheds were soon removed to Wembley but much land was acquired in Willesden (fn. 39) under Richard (d. 1858), his widow, and their three sons, and dairy shops were opened in Queen's Road, by 1879, and elsewhere. A new model dairy, with workmen's flats, was opened in 1882 on 2 a. at the north corner of Elgin Avenue and Shirland Road, where in 1891 the processing of produce from over 100 farms employed 400 men, besides 50 girl clerks. After forming subsidiary companies in the 1890s, Welford's in 1915 joined United Dairies, which from 1959 was part of Unigate. (fn. 40) United Dairies retained a depot at Welford House, part of the Shirland Road building, where the Church Army Housing Trust had its headquarters in 1983. (fn. 41) United Dairies also had offices in St. Petersburgh Place which had been built for the Kensington-based Belgravia Dairy Co., most of whose outlets had been in Bayswater. (fn. 42)

Livestock other than dairy cattle were both kept in and driven through the parish. A slaughter house for horses and other beasts was to be inspected in 1798. (fn. 43) Styes and slaughter houses could be removed under the Local Act of 1824, which also authorized fines to curb the driving of great numbers of sheep and cattle during churchgoing hours on Sunday. (fn. 44) Stray animals were to be taken in 1830 to the parish's green yard, which adjoined the infants' school and which in 1835 was to be attended by the engine keeper. (fn. 45) Livestock in an increasingly built up area gave rise to many complaints, including those about a slaughter house behind the late Earl Ferrers's residence at Craven Hill in 1831 and one behind St. Petersburgh Place in 1845, (fn. 46) and about sheep crowded into a stable in Porchester Square Mews in 1859 and pigs being killed in Cirencester Mews in 1861. (fn. 47) Thirty-nine slaughter houses were inspected in 1856, of which 8 were found satisfactory and all but one of the others were improved, often by finding better premises. (fn. 48) There were 32 licensed slaughterers in 1865, (fn. 49) 12 in 1894, 8 in 1904, and 3 in 1925; one survived in 1937. (fn. 50) A three-storeyed stable block was built in Winsland Street east of Paddington station in 1878 and still held 500 horses of the G.W.R. Co., mainly for deliveries to London markets, in 1938. British Railways later converted the building into offices. (fn. 51)

Nurseries and market gardens.

Nurserymen called Latin, in Edgware Road, and Prior were listed as at Paddington in 1786. Both may have been on the Marylebone side of the road, which had nurseries at Pine Apple Place and elsewhere (fn. 52) and where John Prior was in business as a florist in 1802. (fn. 53) At Bayswater John Hill (1716?-1775), miscellaneous writer and superintendent of the royal gardens at Kew, prepared medicines from herbs grown in his own physic garden, later the Flora and finally the Victoria tea gardens. (fn. 54) Nursery or market gardens, mostly set back from the Uxbridge road, stretched eastward from Black Lion Lane to the Bayswater rivulet in 1800. (fn. 55) Irrigated from the stream, the neighbourhood supported several nurseries, including those of the Greig family, with watercress beds, (fn. 56) and by 1812 of Thomas Hopgood. The Craven Hill nursery of Francis Hopgood, next to the Flora tea gardens, survived until 1855 or later. (fn. 57)

As housing spread along the Maida Vale section of Edgware Road, much land behind the main road, north of Paddington green, was leased to nurserymen for 21 years. George Hogg, who had been a gardener at Pine Apple Place in 1802, took a lease in 1808 of 3½ a. of Pond field, bounded north by the field called Paddington wood. (fn. 58) Thomas Hogg was a florist at no. 55 Harrow Road, Paddington green, by 1826, (fn. 59) and a younger Thomas and James Hogg remained in business until c. 1842. (fn. 60) The elder Thomas raised a pink called 'Paddington' and in 1820 published a successful gardening treatise, dedicated to the dowager Lady de Clifford, a Paddington resident. (fn. 61) Parts of Lower Pond field were leased in 1809 to William Hill and to John Dobson and Henry Heyward, to be used only as nursery ground and not for market vegetables except during the first three years. William Calder, a nurseryman of Edgware Road, was leased a nearby plot in 1815. (fn. 62) Both George Hogg and William Hill built houses facing Edgware Road. (fn. 63) James Stephens had a nursery at Paddington green in 1826 and 1836, (fn. 64) and T. Pearman had nurseries in Queen's and Blomfield roads in 1863. (fn. 65) The 430 a. not subject to tithe included c. 28 a. of 'garden ground' in 1844. (fn. 66) The parish contained 5½ a. of market garden in 1880 but none in 1890. (fn. 67) Clifton nurseries was established in Warwick Avenue in 1941 and acquired further premises in Bishop's Bridge Road in 1977. (fn. 68)

Woods.

Richard the forester was among the customary tenants of Knightsbridge and Paddington c. 1225. (fn. 69) Woodland was not fully recorded in the early 14th century but was extensive, to judge from sales of faggots, (fn. 70) as in 1321-2, and the use of timber from Paddington for rebuilding the nave of Westminster abbey, including the provision of 22 cartloads in 1460-1 and 42 loads in 1478-9. (fn. 71) When Paddington manor paid £19 to the warden of the new work in 1535, both the almoner and the keeper of St. Mary's chapel received £1 in wood. (fn. 72)

Paddington wood, in Paddington manor, in 1647 amounted to 44 a., (fn. 73) although 17th- and 18thcentury leases routinely described it as 30 a. (fn. 74) In 1742 it was the name of c. 48 a. abutting Edgware Road, half way between Paddington village and Kilburn bridge. (fn. 75) Westbourne manor's Ash Groves survived into the 19th century as a name for the land along the north side of Harrow Road in the parish's north-western corner. (fn. 76)

Woods, underwoods, and hedgerows were reserved when Paddington manor was leased in 1489, (fn. 77) as were the great trees and woods in 1543. (fn. 78) In leases by the bishop of London from 1626 Paddington wood, with the right to take timber and herbage and pannage there, was included with the rest of the estate for an additional 40s. a year. Great trees and saplings were noted in 1647 (fn. 79) but Paddington wood had been divided into four closes by 1742, when it formed part of the meadow land of William Godfrey's Manor House farm. (fn. 80) All trees were reserved when Paddington green was settled in trust from 1753. (fn. 81) Timber was similarly reserved in leases of Westbourne manor from the 16th century until the 19th. (fn. 82) Probably no woodland was left in the parish by 1746, (fn. 83) although the former wooded state of Ash Groves, five closes by 1669, (fn. 84) and the adjacent Marylands was suggested by some of the names of their later divisions: Oak Tree field, Elm field, and, south of Harrow Road, Wood field. Adjoining Wood field, west of Westbourne green and so detached from most of Paddington manor, were Upper and Lower Readings, (fn. 85) whose names recalled woodland clearings. (fn. 86)

Trade and industry.

Before the opening of the Paddington branch of the Grand Junction canal in 1801, only a few craftsmen were recorded. They included a tailor in 1566 (fn. 87) and 1617, (fn. 88) a weaver in 1581, (fn. 89) and a carpenter and collar maker in 1615. (fn. 90) Peter Parisot, a carpet and tapestry maker, employed two French workmen at Paddington c. 1750 before moving to Fulham c. 1753. (fn. 91)

Almost equal numbers were employed in agriculture, 158, and in trade, manufacturing, or handicrafts, 160, in 1801, when as many as 1,563 people belonged to neither group. The canal so stimulated industry that by 1811 there were 95 families engaged in agriculture, 549 families in trade, manufacturing, or handicrafts, and 439 others. In 1831 there were 82 families in agriculture, 1,049 in trade, manufacturing, and handicrafts, and 2,362 others, many of them presumably residents of newly built Tyburnia with their servants. (fn. 92)

For the area around the canal basin, ambitious schemes projected docks to the north, besides wharves and warehouses stretching as far as Edgware Road and Grand Junction Street. In the event a smaller area was taken over. (fn. 93) Yards and warehouses, reached by North Wharf or South Wharf roads, lined the basin (fn. 94) where eight laden barges arrived on the canal's opening day. A market in straw, hay, and vegetables soon arose on the north side and one in cattle on the south, but the early activity dwindled when the basin was bypassed by the Regent's canal. (fn. 95) Coal from the Midlands was one of the chief commodities, although in 1805 its transport to London by canal was restricted to 50,000 tons for one year and subjected to a duty equivalent to that on north country sea coal. (fn. 96) While canal-borne supplies remained small compared with the amount shipped to the Thames or later brought by railway, (fn. 97) the Act of 1805 was repeatedly renewed; the duty was eventually reduced and finally abolished in 1890. (fn. 98) In 1844 three coal agents or merchants were listed among the 30 lessees of wharves on the north side and 12 among 38 lessees on the south side, besides two in Irongate wharf (later Irongate Wharf Road) at the eastern end of the basin. Despite competition from the railways there were still six coal merchants in 1855 beside the canal company's own coal wharf. At least 10 occupants in 1844 were described simply as wharfingers or carmen and many of the others were suppliers of builders' materials. (fn. 99)

The wharfingers were presumably engaged in general conveyance, as was the firm of Pickford & Co., which in the late 18th century had expanded with the canal trade. A warehouse at the basin was finished in 1801 and a second in 1804, and in 1817 the Paddington depot was insured for £16,000, more than a third of the company's total payments. Pickford's moved c. 1890 from South Wharf Road to no. 68 Harrow Road and c. 1930 to no. 101A, leaving no. 68 to Carter, Paterson & Co., which had controlled Pickford's since 1912. (fn. 100) Both concerns passed in 1933 to the four main railway companies and in 1947 to the British Transport Commission, which maintained a parcels office in Harrow Road until 1962. (fn. 101) Most canal boats came to be owned by companies: as many as 164 boats were registered at Paddington between 1879 and 1884, a number similar to those at Coventry or Wigan, but only 15 were steered by their owners. (fn. 102) Conveyance was the chief male occupation in Paddington in 1902, accounting for 22 per cent of the workforce. (fn. 103) Presumably the figure included those who worked for the railway companies: the G.W.R. Co. had a staff of nearly 3,000 at Paddington station in 1921. (fn. 104)

Builders and their suppliers occupied wharves both around the basin and farther west along the canal. (fn. 105) In 1844 and 1850 they included James Ponsford, who built much of Tyburnia and Bayswater, and John Mowlem, stone and granite merchants. Mowlem's business, forerunner of the modern building contractors, had started in Paddington in 1820 (fn. 106) and, as Mowlem, Freeman & Burt, still had a wharf there in 1863. There were also five lime merchants or lime burners around the canal in 1844, some of them later also described as makers of tiles, bricks, and cement, besides two timber merchants, a brickmaker, and a cement maker in Irongate wharf. Building and allied trades formed the second largest source of employment for men, 13 per cent of the workforce, in 1902. (fn. 107)

Among long-lived firms were the timber merchants Samuel Putney, who by 1879 were at Baltic wharf, no. 149 Harrow Road, where their successors Sandell Perkins opened a new warehouse in 1974. (fn. 108) Sandell Perkins was formed after 1964 by the amalgamation of Ingram, Perkins & Co. with Joseph Sandell & Co.; both of those older firms of timber merchants had started business outside Paddington, where by 1927 the premises of Ingram, Perkins had included no. 12 Praed Street, no. 1 Irongate Wharf Road, and no. 6 Amberley wharf. (fn. 109) The brickmakers Broad, Harris & Co., established in 1881, leased no. 2 South Wharf Road in 1891, supplying their depot from west Middlesex. Broad & Co. Ltd. was formed in 1896 and, after the dissolution of the original partnership and further acquisitions, Broad's Manufacturing Co. in 1948. (fn. 110) The company was taken over by Sandell Perkins in 1975 and came to be administered from the group's head office in Kent, although the traditional name was retained for Broad's showrooms in Praed Street. In 1983 Sandell Perkins occupied nos. 119 and 149 Harrow Road, no. 4 South Wharf Road, and no. 22 Praed Street, with a local workforce of c. 140. (fn. 111)

Rubbish tipping and burning added to the unhealthy state of the area around the canal basin, where in 1856 the water itself formed a fetid pool, polluted by stockyards, laystalls, dust wharves, and bargees' sewage. (fn. 112) In the face of the vestry's repeated demands for a thorough cleansing, (fn. 113) stimulated by complaints from St. Mary's hospital about effluvia, (fn. 114) the Grand Junction Canal Co. blamed careless wharfingers and the illicit dumping of manure. (fn. 115) In 1876, by which time conditions had improved, it was recalled that rubbish heaps had once towered above the house tops. (fn. 116) In 1891 yards on the north side of the basin contained piles of cinders and manure, a sifter, and mud pits. (fn. 117) In 1899, when three wharves belonged to the vestry's scavenging department, (fn. 118) the neighbourhood was described as 'the home of the dustmen'. (fn. 119) Besides the three municipal wharves of Paddington, there were six used by Marylebone council by 1927. (fn. 120) Westminster council had recently left nos. 33-37 North Wharf Road in 1985, when it retained a street cleansing depot, with c. 300 employees, at nos. 21-31. (fn. 121)

Engineering firms (fn. 122) included that of William Henry Lindsay, whose Paddington iron works was on the south side of the basin by 1879 and, as Lindsay, Neal & Co., on the north side by 1902. Described as constructional engineers and iron and steel roof manufacturers, the company remained in North Wharf Road until after 1964. James H. Randall & Son, founded in 1851 in Marylebone, from 1904 had a tinplate works in Green Street, leading south from Paddington green (later part of North Wharf Road). As Randalls of Paddington, it employed c. 40 people in making sheet metal and in light engineering in 1984. (fn. 123) Acrow (Engineers) in 1952 moved to no. 8 South Wharf Road, where, together with Acrow (Automation), it made steel shutters and storage racks in 1975. About 100 people worked there in 1983, when it was the head office of Acrow's group of international companies, whose business was in construction equipment and general engineering. (fn. 124) Selfridges, the department store, acquired part of a building in South Wharf Road in 1947 and the rest in 1956. After a third of it had been reconstructed, the premises served in 1983 as a warehouse, despatch depot, and offices, with a total workforce of c. 200. (fn. 125) James Purdey & Sons, the gunmakers, which had been founded in 1814, took over no. 2 Irongate Wharf Road in 1900 and later also nos. 18-22, before moving into a new factory at no. 57 North Wharf Road in 1971. All the premises were used for making sporting weapons, the workforce at its largest numbering 109. The firm left Paddington for Hammersmith in 1979. (fn. 126)

By 1985 there was little need for warehousing around the basin, since the transport by water of refuse from the municipal depot and of building material by Sandell Perkins had recently ceased. Employers nearby included Sandell Perkins, British Telecom's depot at the eastern end of the basin, Westminster council, Selfridges, and varied users of nos. 47-55 North Wharf Road. There were several vacant sites in South Wharf Road, owned by St. Mary's hospital, which planned further extensions, or by the British Waterways Board. (fn. 127) The hospital was probably the biggest employer: in 1986, when catering and domestic services were done by contracts, it retained a staff of over 1,000, including c. 425 trained nurses and 250 medical and 230 technical staff. (fn. 128)

Another patch of canalside industry arose in the 1860s, as building spread around Westbourne green, in the form of a line of wharves along the south side of Amberley Road. (fn. 129) In 1879 there were 9 occupants of Amberley wharves, including Richard Marks, an ice merchant, whose firm survived there until c. 1968. There was a lime and cement merchant at the neighbouring Westbourne Bridge wharf and a timber merchant at St. Peter's wharf, where the Metropolitan Electric Supply Co. later had its works. In addition to Ingram, Perkins & Co., later timber merchants at Amberley wharves from c. 1927 until 1964 or later included A. J. Ferguson & Co., which was succeeded by H. W. Daniells. (fn. 130) Industry had left the wharves by 1975, the departure of Matthew Hall & Co., heating engineers, in 1968 being seen as part of a general movement out of London. (fn. 131)

Away from the canal, there were few industrial firms of large size or long duration. The Sovereign brewery, north of the Black Lion on the east side of Black Lion Lane (later Royal Hill, Queen's Road) c. 1830, was under Christopher Alexander by 1843, (fn. 132) Mrs. Ann Alexander by 1857, and A. and G. Alexander in 1876. It retained its old name in 1895 but belonged to Usher's Wiltshire Brewery by 1900 and was merely an off-licence by 1923. Among other businesses in Queen's Road by 1888 was a parquet floor maker's and an early ice cream company, Horton Ices, which survived until c. 1912 and c. 1929 respectively. (fn. 133) The residential nature of much of the parish placed industry at a disadvantage: there were complaints about nuisances from a carpetbeating yard in 1831, (fn. 134) from brick burning near Talbot Road in 1861, (fn. 135) and from a veterinary college and from a cocoa mill in White Lion Place in 1866. (fn. 136)

Much work was done on a small scale. Paddington had 149 factories and 579 workshops in 1904, employing 7,442 people. (fn. 137) More than 500 girls had been identified as seamstresses in 1869, when there were thought to be many more in unidentified private houses around Westbourne Grove, (fn. 138) and dressmaking was by far the biggest industrial employer, with 47 per cent of the workforce, in 1904. (fn. 139) Laundries, of which there were many in former dwellings in northern Paddington, (fn. 140) employed c. 10 per cent of the industrial workforce, while men worked mainly in making articles of wood or metal, accounting for 13.5 and 10.5 per cent of the industrial workforce respectively. (fn. 141)

Many more men came to be employed in public transport. In 1901 they included over 2,500 workers on the railways, over 2,200 cabmen or non-domestic coachmen and grooms, and over 1,800 carriers. (fn. 142)

Domestic service was a still greater source of employment in the late 19th century, when there were also increases in the hotel or boarding house and catering trades and the retail trade in general. In Tyburnia, where special services for servants in 1879 preceded the opening of Ascension chapel, (fn. 143) the population c. 1902 consisted mainly of rich families, their servants, and a few good-class lodging house keepers and shopkeepers. (fn. 144) Paddington had 16,881 indoor servants, most of them women and excluding those in hotels or lodging houses, in 1901. With 50.2 servants to every 100 families or separate occupiers, it ranked sixth among the London boroughs with the highest proportion of servants and, with its aristocratic quarters, fifth among those with men servants. (fn. 145) In 1902 nearly 7 per cent of the total male workforce and 61 per cent of the female worked in domestic offices and services. (fn. 146)

In addition to the Great Western hotel, (fn. 147) the opening of the railway terminus gave rise to many small hotels and boarding houses in Paddington, (fn. 148) as did the opening of Victoria station in Pimlico. (fn. 149) John Pearson kept the Warwick Arms hotel in Bridge Terrace, Harrow Road, in 1847. It was called Pearson's Warwick hotel in 1855, when there were also hotels in Chichester Place and Westbourne Villas, Harrow Road, in Eastbourne Terrace, and in Queen's Road. By 1863 there was a second hotel in Queen's Road and there were others in Gloucester Crescent, Sutherland Gardens, London Street, and Conduit Street. By 1902 there were at least 26 hotels, many of them private. Establishments classed as boarding or lodging houses (fn. 150) numbered at least 30 by 1850 and over 120 by 1863 and had further multiplied by 1902, when many were described simply as apartments. In the poorer areas the subletting of houses to weekly lodgers made it hard to enforce sanitary standards in 1869. (fn. 151) The need to cater for both travellers and lodgers perhaps accounted for the employment of 10 per cent of the male workforce in food and drink trades in 1902. (fn. 152) There were 851 houses registered as being let in lodgings in 1902 and 1,326 by 1910, when Paddington, although only the fourteenth most populous metropolitan borough, had the sixth highest total of such houses. In 1937 there were 2,031 houses let in lodgings. (fn. 153)

Most of the early boarding houses were in Tyburnia, where in 1850 there were 9 in Portsea Place off Connaught Square and 3 in Upper Berkeley Street West (later Connaught Street). Cambridge and Oxford terraces, along the northern and southern sides of Grand Junction Road (later Sussex Gardens) contained 1 each. By 1863 the lodging houses in Tyburnia included as many as 14 in Cambridge Terrace, 7 in Oxford Terrace, 10 in Cambridge (later Kendal) Street, and 5 in Albion Street. Another large group existed in the recently built area bordering Bayswater and Westbournia: Cumberland Place (later Courtnell Street) and Northumberland Place, both running north from Artesian Road, had 8 each. The tendency for such establishments to form concentrations continued with the conversion of large houses in Bayswater. There were 8 boarding house keepers, some at more than one number, in Kensington Gardens Square but only two in the nearby Leinster Square in 1902. Paddington station lay between Eastbourne Terrace, with 3 hotels and 28 apartment houses, and the more commercial London Street, with 7 hotels. Most of the houses in Grand Junction Road, including 47 of the 83 numbers in Cambridge Terrace and 35 of the 93 numbers in Oxford Terrace, were described as apartments; Cambridge Street had 22 apartment houses, besides a private hotel, and Albion Street had 13.

Several of the earliest hotels had a long existence. Pearson's Warwick hotel was called simply the Warwick hotel in 1879 and survived at no. 106 Harrow Road in 1985. The Prince of Wales, at no. 1 Eastbourne Terrace by 1855, was owned by Cope's Taverns in 1947 and closed by 1952. In Harrow Road the Maze hotel was open in Chichester Place from c. 1855 until 1959 or later and the Stafford at no. 1 Westbourne Villas from c. 1855 until 1964 or later. The Norfolk Square hotel was in Norfolk Square by 1863 and also in London Street by 1879; it was called the New Norfolk hotel by 1917 (fn. 154) and the Royal Norfolk by 1975, surviving in 1985. The Warrington hotel was in Sutherland Gardens (later Avenue) in 1863 and 1879; a later establishment of that name, however, at no. 93 Warrington Crescent, was no more than a public house. (fn. 155) In London Street a private hotel at no. 29 by 1879 was kept by Richard Ashton in 1902, still open as Ashton's hotel in 1959, and refurbished as the Grosvenor Court in 1975, (fn. 156) while the Sussex, at no. 21 by 1902, had become the Sussex Arms by 1975. The purpose-built Coburg Court hotel was opened in 1907 and renamed the Coburg in the 1960s; it was built over an Underground station and part of the freehold remained with the London Transport Executive in 1985. (fn. 157) The Inverness Court hotel was open by 1912. (fn. 158) The Court Royal opened at nos. 105-6 Lancaster Gate in 1927 and was renamed the Lancaster Gate hotel in 1964. (fn. 159) The former Warrington Lodge nursing home was opened as the Esplanade hotel in 1936 and, under the management of Austrian emigrés, offered a temporary home in 1938 for Sigmund Freud. (fn. 160) It was renamed the Colonnade in 1947 and from 1948 was run by the Richards family, which bought the freehold in 1983. (fn. 161)

The philosopher Herbert Spencer.(1820-1903) lived permanently at a private hotel at no. 37 (later also no. 38) Queen's Gardens from 1866 for more than 20 years. The writer W. H. Hudson (1841- 1922) in 1876 married Emily Wingrove, who kept a boarding house in Leinster Square and, on its failure in 1884, another in Southwick Crescent. (fn. 162)

After the Second World War, the movement of industry away from London was counterbalanced by an increase in tourism, enhancing the importance of the hotel and catering trades. Many new hotels were built, beginning with the 10-storeyed Hertford hotel (later the Post House hotel and from 1982 the Hospitality Inn) (fn. 163) in Bayswater Road in 1961. They included such landmarks as the 19-storeyed Royal Lancaster, designed by T. P. Bennett & Son as the Rank Organization's largest hotel and opened in 1967, (fn. 164) and the 24-storeyed London Metropole, designed by R. Seifert & Partners and opened in 1973, (fn. 165) in Harbet Road. The seven-storeyed London Embassy hotel of 1972, in Bayswater Road, was also by Seifert. (fn. 166) A large but less obtrusive building, in scale with the neighbouring houses in Queensborough Terrace, was the Central Park hotel of 1973, designed by Zakaria & Associates. (fn. 167) Many enlargements and amalgamations also took place: in Lancaster Gate, Strand Hotels extended the Park Court hotel from no. 75 to include hotels and flats as far as no. 89 in 1970-2 and Mount Charlotte Hotels remodelled White's hotel, opened c. 1925 as the Whitehall and renamed c. 1949, at nos. 90-2 in 1984-6. (fn. 168)

Smaller hotels, many offering only bed and breakfast, were threatened by rebuilding schemes. Some disappeared with work on the Hyde Park estate, and in 1974 Tandlewell Trading Co. proposed to replace as many as 54 hotels on the north side of Sussex Gardens, either with 6 larger hotels or with flats: the company, which had bought the freehold from the Grand Junction Co., was refused planning permission by Westminster city council. (fn. 169) In 1961 a review of local industry admitted that Paddington was known chiefly for its station and as an area of hotels and furnished rooms. (fn. 170) Some 150 hoteliers were among the 500 members of the chamber of commerce in 1972. (fn. 171)

The retail trade flourished from the mid 19th century, particularly in and around Queen's Road and Westbourne Grove. Although it came to be linked with hotels and boarding houses, it first arose from the building up of Tyburnia, Bayswater, and Westbournia, whose residents needed shops that were nearer than those in the increasingly congested Oxford Street. The Metropolitan railway could bring customers from other areas from 1863, while William Whiteley successfully attracted the 'carriage trade' of southern Bayswater, of Tyburnia, and eventually of much of fashionable London. (fn. 172)

The first shop in Westbourne Grove, a chemist's, was opened in 1854. So many early ventures failed that the road was nicknamed 'Bankruptcy Avenue' (fn. 173) but by 1859 the older semi-detached villas were giving way to shopping terraces; the shops at its eastern end were claimed as unsurpassed by any in London and still more premises were needed as middle-class housing spread farther west. (fn. 174)

William Whiteley (fn. 175) opened a fancy goods' shop in 1863 at no. 63 (later no. 31) Westbourne Grove, which he had leased for 15 years. Originally describing himself as hosier, glover, laceman, and florist, he had 17 departments by 1867, when he leased the later nos. 41 and 43A, which soon formed part of a long row in Westbourne Grove. Dressmaking was started in 1868 and a house agency and refreshment room, the first ventures outside drapery, opened in 1872, when it was claimed that 622 people were employed on the establishment and a further 1,000 outside. New enterprises quickly followed, a building and decorating department from 1876 proving particularly profitable because the large stuccoed houses of Tyburnia and southern Bayswater needed regular repainting. A slight fall in profits from 1877 to 1880 preceded further expansion, when Whiteley, as self styled 'universal provider', claimed to be able to meet any demand, even for the hire of an elephant. He met strong opposition from smaller tradesmen, especially for starting to supply foodstuffs in 1875, and from the vestry over building plans; (fn. 176) several bad fires in the 1880s may have been caused by incendiarism. Business nonetheless prospered, aided by a delivery service extending up to 25 miles, and in 1887 the store was described as 'an immense symposium of the arts and industries of the nation and of the world'. (fn. 177) Whiteley also gained royal patronage and, by 1892, some local popularity as an economic benefactor. By 1906 his stores, with farms and factories elsewhere, covered 250 a. and employed 6,000 people.

Whiteley's, while still trading under its old name, was acquired by Gordon Selfridge in 1927 and by United Drapery Stores in 1961. After the Second World War Bayswater became less fashionable and more cosmopolitan as a shopping district, until in 1973 it was decided to close Whiteley's food halls as a result of competition from smaller shops. The main store was refurbished but trading was eventually restricted to two floors. High rates and the cost of travel from central London, together with falling sales to tourists after 1978, were blamed for the store's closure in 1981. (fn. 178)

The physical expansion of Whiteley's was so rapid that by 1879 it consisted of a long row along the south side of Westbourne Grove, nos. 31 to 53 (odd), which was remodelled and ultimately acquired as freehold. In addition there was a provision warehouse at no. 14A Westbourne Grove, and there were premises at nos. 50, 51, and 53 Kensington Gardens Square, where a restaurant was to be opened in 1881, and shops at nos. 147, 149, 151, and 157 on the west side of Queen's Road, where the first premises had been taken in 1875. Several houses in the cul-de-sacs of Hatherley Grove and Westbourne Grove Terrace accommodated male and female staff. The conversion of nos. 147 and 149 Queen's Road, which overlooked the municipal baths, had already proved controversial, as did further work on property in Queen's Road, where two new buildings were ready in 1880 and four more in 1881. (fn. 179) Property was also secured on either side of Douglas (later Redan) Place, in the hope of joining the block in Westbourne Grove with that in Queen's Road, although attempts to have the lane widened were defeated. Much rebuilding took place in the 1880s, partly as a result of fires. (fn. 180) Male employees eventually slept in big dormitories at nos. 139 and 141 Queen's Road, while women lived in Hatherley Grove and Westbourne Terrace. (fn. 181)

Westbourne Grove, where electric lighting outside Whiteley's windows attracted sightseers in 1878, (fn. 182) remained the principal frontage in the 1890s. It was, however, for the Queen's Road frontage between Porchester Gardens and Redan Place that plans were drawn up by Belcher & Joass in 1910. Their last major work, it was a steel-framed building with a cladding of Cornish granite and Portland stone and with three gilt domes, the central one modelled on that of the Venetian church of Santa Maria della Salute. The southern two-thirds was built and opened in 1911, a roof garden made way for a restaurant in 1922, and the main façade was finished by William Curtis Green to the original design in 1925. Three of the five floor served as offices in 1981. (fn. 183) Whiteley himself, having moved from above his shop to no. 2 Kildare Terrace and in 1885 to no. 31 Porchester Terrace, was shot while at work at no. 43 Westbourne Terrace in 1907. (fn. 184)

Other fashionable retailers in Westbourne Grove included the bootmaker A. Abrahams from 1851, S. Bradley & Co., which was probably connected with an earlier Arctic Fur Store in Chepstow Place, from 1871, and William Owen, who opened his Bayswater Trimming Shop opposite Whiteley's in 1873. Bradley's, one of the first firms to have cold storage for raw skins, expanded into tailoring and dressmaking, with showrooms covering nearly 6 a., and was managed by the same family until 1953. Owen, with 2 shops in Westbourne Grove and 15 in Hatherley Grove, employed 350 assistants by 1888; he was perhaps Whiteley's main rival, although the two cooperated in trying to attract more custom to the neighbourhood. Drapers' shops were also opened in Westbourne Grove in 1873 by T. H. Ponting, whose business was later concentrated with that of his brothers in Kensington High Street, and in 1894 by the brothers-in-law Bourne and Hollingsworth, who in 1902 moved to Oxford Street. Personnel who left Whiteley's included John Barker, who opened his own store in Kensington in 1870, and Richard Burbidge, the founder of Harrods. (fn. 185)

More recent firms included William Perring & Co., house furnishers, which opened in 1892 at no. 382 Harrow Road. A new building, one of 15 Perring stores, was opened there in 1940 and retained by the firm until c. 1961. Frederick Lawrence, another furnisher, had taken over nos. 47 and 49 Westbourne Grove by 1923 and later expanded, occupying eleven former Whiteley's shops, nos. 33 to 53 (odd) in 1964, besides four showrooms opposite at nos. 18-24. In 1975 Lawrence's was described as the new king of Westbourne Grove, in succession to Whiteley's. (fn. 186) Both William Perring and Frederick Lawrence served as mayor of Paddington and were knighted. (fn. 187)

A few small businesses traded under the same name for several generations: John A. Leuty, an undertaker's established in 1842, was in Queen's Road and later at no. 312 Harrow Road until c. 1936. William Rayners, grocer's and wine merchant's, was established in 1858 and survived in Leinster Terrace until c. 1926; part of its premises continued as a grocery under Oakeshotts. John Wise, a bootmaker's established in 1861, was still in Craven Terrace in 1929. (fn. 188) Thomas Smith, a grocer's established at no. 17 Cambridge (later Kendal) Street by 1839, also survived in 1929 and was succeeded by Oakeshotts, which closed c. 1962. (fn. 189)