A survey of London in 1827 shows us very few streets in the quarter to the south of Praed Street and east of Westbourne Terrace and Street. Connaught Square and Connaught Place are marked, and the curious rectangular piece of ground of about 5 acres belonging to St. George's, Hanover Square. This was bought by St. George's Vestry in 1764, when the land was surrounded by fields, and was suitable for a cemetery. Among others buried there was Laurence Sterne, whose body is said to have been exhumed by body-snatchers. But this ground does not belong to Paddington. In the above-mentioned survey Cambridge Street is Sovereign Street, and the oval piece with Southwick Crescent at one end is Polygon Crescent, a name now only retained in Polygon Mews.
Hyde Park Gardens is marked "Intended Crescent," but except in the triangular corner, now bounded by Cambridge and Albion Streets, there are few houses.
Cambridge Street and Oxford and Cambridge Terraces and Squares preserve in their names the memory of the gift of the Countess of Richmond to those universities.
In Southwick Crescent stands St. John's Church, built originally in 1826, and then known as Connaught Chapel. In 1832 a district was allotted to the chapel. In 1844 a portion of this was transferred to the new church of St. James. Four years later St. John's obtained a portion of the chapelry district, and in 1859 the district itself was made into a new parish. Part of the new parish was transferred to St. Michael and All Angels in 1864. The church is in a late Gothic style. It was completely renovated during 1895, when the present reredos was added.
In Titchborne Road are St. John's Schools. In Junction Mews, off Sale Street, is a boatmen's chapel. In Market Street is one of the Dudley Stuart night refuges for the destitute. And to the north, in Praed Street, is a small Baptist tabernacle with painted front, and further westward the church and schools of St. Michael and All Angels. The church was built in 1862; it is in the Decorated style, and the architect was Mr. Hawkins. Its predecessor was a chapel of ease to St. John's, but in 1859 the district was made separate. The organ is by Hill.
In Norfolk Square we find All Saints' Church. This has been lately rebuilt, having been burnt down on May 31, 1894. The old church was consecrated on All Saints' Day, 1847, and its architecture is described as having been "Gothic of the eleventh century." The first architect was Mr. Clutton. The building was restored and the chancel added in 1873 from Mr. J. Brooks's designs.
The new church is striking, being of red brick with terra-cotta mouldings over the doors and windows. The architect was Ralph Nevill, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A. The old walls that remained have been engrafted into the new building. The organ is by Hill. The floor of the church is of mosaic, and stalls, screens, and nave seats are of Burmese wood, called padouk. The church is lit by electric light.
In the 1827 map a spot at the extreme end of Stanhope Street, just where it touches Westbourne Street, is marked Archery Ground, and a little to the north, at the corner of Bathhurst Street, are "Bagnigge Wells," probably named after the more famous Bagnigge Wells, near Gray's Inn Road.
In Maitland's "History of London" we are told that in the year 1439 the Abbot of Westminster granted to the Mayor and citizens of London one head of water containing twenty-six perches in length and one in breadth, together with all its springs in the manor of Paddington, for which two peppercorns were to be paid annually. In these wells of water we have the origin of the latter part of the word Bayswater. Some writers affirm that the name originated in a public-house kept by a Mr. Bays, where horses were given water, hence the more ancient rendering "Bayswatering." Lysons says of it, "The springs at this place lie near the surface, and the water is very fine." He adds, "The conduit at Bayswater belongs to the City of London, and, being conveyed by brick drains, supplies the houses in and about Bond Street, which stand upon the City lands."
Robins quotes an Act (49 George III.) in which "Byard's Watering Place" is mentioned in Tyburn.