Science & Engineering

The museums, the machines and the men and women who worked it out: laboratories kept as they were, beam engines under steam, the tunnel, the barrier, the roofs, and the plaques on the houses where the ideas came.

Paddington station

Brunel's terminus of 1854, three arched spans of iron and glass with Matthew Digby Wyatt's ornament, the Great Western's London end.

Engineering landmarksFree

Windsor Castle's grey stone towers above the moat garden in summer, with lawns, flower beds and clipped shrubs on the slope below the walls. — Windsor, with a change at Slough. Photo by APK, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Thames at Henley in spring, wide and full, with willows on the far bank, boats moored by the town's riverside houses and pub tables on the bank in front. — Henley, an hour with a change at Twyford. Photo by Steve Daniels, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A green-and-red narrowboat passing under Marlow's white suspension bridge on the Thames, with a riverside pub on the left bank and trees beyond. — Marlow's suspension bridge, with a change at Maidenhead. Photo by Oxfordian Kissuth, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The spire of the University Church of St Mary in Oxford lit at dusk, with a gas lamp on the wall of All Souls to the left and bicycles against the railings. — Oxford, an hour. Photo by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Pulteney Bridge's arches and the shops built along it above a horseshoe weir, with a pleasure boat on the river and trees on the bank. — Pulteney Bridge and the weir. Photo by Andy Li, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bath Abbey's west front and tower of pale stone with tall pinnacles, in evening light, with people crossing the paved square in front. — Bath, an hour and twenty minutes. Photo by GarfieldJAustin, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A canal lock with its gates and a wide pound of still water reflecting the sky, a church tower with pinnacles on the bank behind, and a towpath on the left. — Newbury Lock on the Kennet and Avon. Photo by Steve Daniels, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Also in Outdoors & Nature.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed the Great Western Railway from Bristol to London at the age of twenty-seven, to a broad gauge of his own, and this is where it arrived: a train shed of three wrought-iron and glass roofs, built with the contractors who had just built the Crystal Palace, with Wyatt's arabesque ironwork and the oriel windows from which the directors watched the trains. Brunel's statue sits on the concourse with his hat in his hands, and Paddington Bear is under the clock; the fourth span was added in 1916.

Where: Praed Street, W2 1HQ
Nearest station: London Paddington · 1 min walk

Google Maps networkrail.co.uk

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.