A 3 mile linear walk between Marble Arch and Queensway (Central) or Bayswater (Circle & District) tube stations. Lancaster Gate is also on the route. This walk can be combined with my Kensington Gardens route [click here].

Exit the station and go to the right
Marble Arch was designed by John Nash for Buckingham Palace but was moved to this site in 1851.

Use the subway to cross Edgware Road (exit 11) and continue along Bayswater Road
The traffic island by Edgware Road marks the site of the Tyburn gallows, the principal place of public execution 1388-1783. At 8 Hyde Park Place is the Tyburn Convent where an order of nuns perpetuate the memory of the 105 Catholic martyrs.

Return to and go left along Stanhope Place into Connaught Square.
This was one of the first areas of the Hyde Park Estate to be developed in 1828.

Exit at the far side and go left along Connaught Street.
This along with Kendal Street was a shopping area of the Victorian and Edwardian period.

Left down Albion Street
William Makepeace Thackeray lived at number 18 (blue plaque). On the left is the entrance to St Georges Fields, a development of the 1970s on the cleared site of the burial grounds of St George's Hanover Square (in use 1763-1852). The Royal Toxophilite Society of Archers used this area in the Regency period. There are attractive houses from the 1820s in Albion Street with a mews to the left.

At the end go right and then first right into Hyde Park Street.
There is a blue plaque to WH Smith. Further along is Hyde Park Square with mostly original houses on the north side. Hyde Park Crescent was rebuilt in the 1960s around the parish church of St John the Evangalist, designed by Charles Fowler in 1832. Horseman's Sunday is held here in September [more info].

Take Southwick Place opposite the church and continue into Gloucester Square.
At the junction with Strathearn Place the Victoria pub has fittings from the Strand's Gaiety Theatre, demolished in 1957.

Left into Sussex Place and right along Hyde Park Gardens Mews. At the end go left into Sussex Square.
Houses here were rebuilt from 1933.

Exit on the far side and go left along Bathurst Place.
Bathurst Mews on the right still has its horses and stables.

At the end of Bathurst Place go right along Westbourne Street.
This recalls one of London's 'lost' rivers. St James the Less is the parish church of Paddington. It was originally constructed in 1843 but except for the tower & spire was rebuilt by George Street in 1882. It has stained glass windows of 1952 depicting Lord Baden-Powell, Alexander Fleming and the church in WWII.

Take Lancaster Terrace back to the Bayswater Road (Lancaster Gate tube station) and go right.
By Elm Mews is the Swan pub established in 1775. The Bayswater Road (then Uxbridge Road) had an early tram service in the 1860s. Lancaster Gate has classical porticoes and colonnades.

Go through the centre of this development.
Ahead is the former Christ Church of 1855 by F & H Francis which was sold in 1978 and converted to a complex of flats called Spire House.

Go left along Lancaster Gate and right into Leinster Terrace continuing along Leinster Gardens.
Numbers 23 & 24 are only facades as the houses behind were pulled down when the Metropolitan Railway was constructed in 1868.

Go right to take a circuit of Cleveland Square.
To the north is the Hallfield Estate designed by Sir Denys Lasdun and Lindsey Drake for the Borough of Paddington in the 1950s to replace bombed properties. The school is a listed building.

From Leinster Gardens go along Leinster Place continuing along Porchester Gardens. Cross Queensway and walk through Whiteleys.
Whiteley began his store in Westbourne Grove in 1863 and rebuilt after a fire in 1887. They advertised they could provide everything from a pin to an elephant! The present building was constructed in 1911 on the site of the Paddington Baths. Whiteley himself was shot by a man claiming to be his illegitimate son. The store was closed in 1981 but has reopened as a shopping centre and cinema complex.

Continue along Queensway and go left at Westbourne Grove.
Flats have been built behind the retained facade of the former Queens cinema, with Eygptian style decoration. The facade of Westbourne Hall survives at number 26. This has served as a lecture theatre, auction rooms, school of opera, and temperance billiard hall.

Go right around Newton Road and Monmouth Road back to Westbourne Grove then go left.

Go right into Kensington Gardens Square.
There are some Art Deco styled apartments at number 50.

At the end go right into Princes Square continuing across Ilchester Gardens. Through the square go left into Hereford Road.
Notice Princes Mews to the left.

Go left along Moscow Road.
This passes the Cathedral of St Sophia (Greek Orthodox) designed by John Oldrid Scott in 1877-82. Opposite are former dairy premises.

Right along St Petersburgh Place.
The church of St Matthews was built in 1882 on the site of the Bayswater Chapel in an Early English style. A little further along is the New West End Synagogue of 1877-9 with an attractive rose window.

At the end of St Petersburgh Place go left along the Bayswater Road.
Orme Square to the left was built in 1815-24 for the print-seller Edward Orme. Residents have included Sir Rowland Hill and Lord Leighton.

Continue along Bayswater Road. Just into Queensway on the left is the tube station. Continue north along Queensway to visit Queensway Market (on the left) or access Bayswater tube station (Circle & District lines).

london-footprints.co.uk 2007

Resources
Guide to Bayswater by John Wittich & James Dowsing available from Westminster Archives who also hold a collection of material relating to Whiteleys. website

[Art Deco] [blue plaques] [walks list]