Paddington is not mentioned in Domesday Book.
The boundaries of the borough of Paddington are not quite coterminous with those of the parish. It is true that the alteration is not great. On the east Edgware Road and Maida Vale still mark the limits with a line as straight as that drawn by a ruler. On the south Bayswater Road serves a similar purpose as far as the Serpentine, where the boundary dips to include part of the Gardens; these are the same as the old boundaries. The present line, however, returns northward up the Broad Walk to Bayswater Road instead of up Kensington Palace Gardens. From Bayswater Road it follows Ossington Street, Chepstow Place, Westbourne Grove, Ledbury Road, St. Luke's Road, and crosses the railway lines northward to Kensal Road, having from the Bayswater Road been either a little within or without the parish line, doubtless so drawn for convenience' sake, as it follows streets and not an arbitrary division. From Kensal Hall the line follows the canal to Kensal Green Cemetery, and, going northward, returns east along Kilburn Lane, thus including a bit of ground previously owned by Chelsea. From Kilburn Lane the northern boundary dips down between Salisbury Crescent and Malvern Road, and up again by Kilburn Park Road; in this last part it remains unaltered.
The Westbourne stream formerly ran right through the district. It rose in Hampstead, flowed through Kilburn, and followed the trend of the present Cambridge and Shirland Roads, though keeping on the east side of the place where these streets now stand. It crossed the Harrow Road, and ran on the west side of the present Gloucester Terrace until it reached the Uxbridge Road. It fed the Serpentine, and, crossing the road at Knightsbridge, formed the eastern boundary of the Chelsea parish.
A stream somewhat similar in course was the Tyburn, which also rose at Hampstead, but flowed through the parish of Marylebone, the ancient Tyburnia. This was considerably to the east of Paddington, and has been treated in the Marylebone section. Oxford Street was the ancient Tyburn Road, and the gallows stood opposite the Marble Arch.
In Rocque's map (1748) only the Westbourne is marked, but we see Tyburn Turnpike at the junction of the Edgware Road, and near by "the stone where soldiers are shot." These things do not belong properly to Paddington, but are too intimately connected with it to be passed over without comment. The Edgware Road itself is the old Watling Street, which was continued at first down Park Lane to the ford at Westminster, and which afterwards, when London Bridge was built, followed the course of Oxford Street and Holborn to the Bridge. Edgware was the name of the first town through which it passed after the forests of Middlesex. Newcourt says "the parish of Edgeware or Edgeworth consisteth of one main street ... ten miles north-westward from London."
In Rocque's 1748 map the district is nearly all open ground; part of the Harrow Road is marked, and there are a few houses on it near the Edgware Road. The Green Lane, now Warwick Road, runs into it from the north. The Pest House is marked prominently about where the chapel stands in Craven Terrace in the south of the parish. Below is marked "Bayswatering." Queen's Road is Westbourne Green Lane, and the green itself is very nearly where Royal Oak Station now stands. About it there are a few scattered houses.
History.
"King Edgar gave the Manor of Paddington to Westminster Abbey;" this Lysons affirms without any comment. Dart varies the tradition slightly by asserting that it was Dunstan and not the King who presented the manor to the Abbey. But later writers have thrown discredit on both statements. Paddington is not mentioned in the Conqueror's Survey, which points to the fact that it was not at that date a separate manor. Robins, on the authority of the Rev. Richard Widmore, for many years librarian to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, boldly states that the documents supposed to prove this gift are undoubted forgeries.
Newcourt says, "the Manor and Rectory of Paddington (which of old did belong to the monastery of Westminster)," etc. The first authentic mention of the manor is in a document "in the thirty-first year of Henry II.," drawn up between "Walter Abbot of Westminster and Richard and William de Padinton, brothers, touching the entire tenement which they held in Padinton of the Church of Westminster," whereby they gave up their hold on the land in consideration of a sum of money. This Abbot Walter gave, we are told, the manor of Paddington for the celebration of the anniversary of the day on which he died.
For this festival