Paddington has a very local feel. You will truly feel welcome and at home here.
As you may have seen in my bio, I have visited London 49 times. While most of time I’ve stayed in Paddington, I’ve also on occasion stayed in other areas, particularly during my earlier visits. None of those areas ever gave me that “Experience” that Paddington has, and during my last stay elsewhere (somewhere near South Kensington), I actually cut my stay short, and transferred myself back to Paddington. I just knew I belonged there. From that point on, I never again considered staying in another area of London .
So what is this “feel” you may be asking? I’ve never been clever at describing an intangible, but here goes: Paddington has loads of hotels so, logically it’s safe to assume that there are that lots of tourists there. So just how does an area with tourists swarming the sidewalks (pavements if you’re British) with their rolling suitcases, waiting for their tour groups to organize in front of their hotel stoops, or queuing for an open top tour bus on busy London Street (London Street is actually the name of a street in Paddington), make for an area with a feel unlike other areas of London. I’ve contemplated this often over the years, and what it always comes down to for me is, that it’s the people who run the pubs and shops, as well as the residents there. They are almost always enthusiastically willing to help you, and if you visit a Paddington pub after a busy day of sightseeing and find yourself talking to some of the locals there, you’ll find they have a plethora of interesting information, and you’ll learn a lot about the every day life of a Londoner.
Allow me to share with you my very first Paddington Pub experience on my first visit to London in 2002. I left my hotel on the first evening to explore the area (ok yes, I was also looking to have a pint or two). Within a time span of about four minutes I happened upon a pub called “The Pride of Paddington”. Interesting name I mentally noted, and thought, I guess I need to see what makes this pub Paddington’s pride. I mean, how many pubs do you come across making such a grand statement about themselves? Right?
So in I go to this proud drinking establishment, and in it I find a crowd of people watching a soccer match (or football as it’s called in the UK). Without knowing its significance, I stationed myself at the corner of the bar which is the spot where the locals hang out, and I was happily sipping my pint when I noticed a referee for the match holding a yellow card above his head. Knowing nothing about soccer, I asked the guy next to me what this meant. Within about 10 seconds six locals surrounded me, all anxious to make sure this typical American who knows nothing about the “beautiful game” leaves this pub knowing full well what a yellow card was all about. I’m going to end this paragraph by saying that, to this day I am still friends with a few of these chaps, one of whom is someone I consider a best friend, and who is my co-writer for articles on this website. I’m quite sure that this experience is all I need to tell you about that Paddington feel.
Like me, you’re probably going to want return there. Trust me on that.
My daughter put it best to me a few years ago when she said to me, “Staying in Paddington is the true London experience.” I don’t think I can close this article any better than that.
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