The Cross Keys

We met the tour group, eight of us in total, at Paddington Station in front of the statue of Brunel, the engineer who built Paddington Station, and also constructed the first tunnel under the Thames. We are an interesting group, but get along well. There are Jean and Edward, who are American but live in Brazil - they are missionaries, then Scarlett and Carmen, who are work friends from Seattle, Jonathan from Austin Texas, Mikhal from Israel, and Ian and I. Fabian, our guide, is originally from Berlin but has lived in London for 8 years. He came to do a one year course in urban planning, and hasn’t left, because he fell in love with the city - in his view, the greatest city on the planet.

We headed out of Paddington Station, and walked a couple of blocks to a beautiful row of town houses in downtown Paddington. But, more interestingly, he then took us to the rear of the town houses to the “mews”, to show us some wonderful housing which used to be where the horses and carriages were kept. These have now been turned into fashionable and very expensive dwellings with great character and street appeal. Also, this mews has the only fully working stables! People hire horses and go riding in Hyde Park, which is just round the corner.Læs mere