Description

TQ 2681 NW HARROW ROAD

1900-/40/10036 No.179 - Paddington British Rail
Maintenance Depot, West Block

GV II*

Workshops, offices and boiler house of the maintenance depot
for road vehicles built for British Rail's Paddington Goods
Yard in 1966-8 by Paul Hamilton of Bicknell and Hamilton.
Designed in 1964. Reinforced concrete frame clad on the upper
floors with glazed ceramic mosaic. Flat roof. Irregular,
expressionist triangular plan on four main storeys on land
scooped out for the making of the elevated Harrow Road and M40
Westway. Ground-floor boiler house under projecting first
floor workshops, with funnel-like chimneys. Workshops and
offices above, rest rooms in tall staircase and lift block
rising from broader entrance or 'stern' end. The building can
be entered from the first floor roadway or exposed
semi-basement. Bands of continuous metal mullion-light glazing
on first and upper floors.

The interior is little altered, and has been praised for its
well-detailed finishes. The main floors are open plan. Of
special interest is its staircase, with continuous and sinuous
ceramic-clad balustrade.

The Paddington Maintenance Depot marks the culmination of
British Railways' post-war building programme, which can be
appreciated as a continuous development from lightweight
prefabrication to the heavy, romantic and sculptural forms
seen here.

Sources
Architectural Review, January 1965, p.90
Architects' Journal, 18/25 December 1968, pp.1465-75
Official Architecture and Planning, February 1969, p.151-7
Concrete, June 1974, p.35

Listing NGR: TQ2625081703

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17550253

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
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