Paddington Track League Reunion

Mick Clark • June 12, 2024
Carlton Tavern

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Reunion Celebration Thursday 6th August 2026




Situated by the gates of Paddington Recreation Ground, Carlton Vale, NW6 'Carlton Tavern' has been an integral part of West London cycling scene for over 100 years and past-owners Charringtons supported racing as well as quenching thirsts after a hard evening's track acing on Tuesday & Friday during summer months.

Built in 1920 the pub survived heavy bombarded in WW2, coming away fully intact however suffered partial demolition in 2020 from new owners who applied to Westminster Council to demolish and rebuild as flats. Westminster refused stating 'Carlton Tavern' was a historic feature in a landscape of high-rise flats surrounding it and would be awarded Grade 2 listing immediately. 

Next day locals awoke to the sound of a contractors wrecking ball smashing into the upper floors and contacted Westminster immediately who ordered an immediate halt to proceedings. The new owners were taken to court and ordered to rebuild the pub brick by brick back to it's former glory. 

'Carlton Tavern' opened for business in April 2021 under ownership of two local people (one attended 

 Brad Wiggins old school St. Augustines although they never met).

Paddington's final meeting was held on 9th August 1988 and the first reunion last year to celebrate 35 years. It proved to be very popular and recently repeated again this year. Tuesday's track League provided hard racing for riders in and around London however Friday's '100' races gave an opportunity to rub shoulders with World class riders like Hugh Porter & Les West in a series of 4 x 25 mile races sponsored by Charringtons which led to future sponsors like Curry Sark whisky, Chrysalis Records and Pernod getting involved.

Paddington Track has disappeared (part of the banking coming into the home straight is still here) but memories remain and can't be erased as long as the yearly reunion continues which is already being planned for 2025


Paddington Track's final meeting was held on 9th August 1988 and last year celebrated 35 years from it's closure with a celebration at the iconic 'Carlton Tavern' pub by the gates of Paddington Rec.on August 15th

Over thirty riders and supporters made it a memorable day which will be repeated on Friday 9th August.

All are welcome to share drinks & memories from 1300 hrs onwards. Please bring along any artefacts, photo's, numbers etc. and share the experience of something which was part of our sporting lives for many years.

Paddington Recreation Ground 1887
In the 1880s Paddington Cricket Club began to find it more and more difficult to find fields to play on. London was expanding at an ever faster rate and fields which they had used for decades were disappearing under rows of new houses. Half of Saturday was spent travelling to distant grounds, while evening practice became impossible.

A huge campaign was waged which succeeded in buying about nine acres of land, but only after a long hard campaign. Beachcroft, a keen cricketer, was the leader in this as he was in so many things.

The Terrible Winter of 1887-88
In 1887, Queen Victoria was celebrating her Jubilee with one of the greatest economic slumps in history. There was great unemployment this year. Thousands of even the most skilled artizans faced dire poverty, while unskilled labourers had to choose between starvation or the Workhouse. There was no Unemployment Pay or Old Age Pension at that time, so that the relief of local unemployment was a local problem. There was no national support. Local people had to relieve their own local unemployment, as they had done from Medieval times.

Relief funds were subscribed; soup kitchens and clothing depots opened, but much more was needed. A commit­tee of local people, called together originally by Lord Randolph Churchill, raised a local Relief Fund of almost £1,800 but could not decide how best to employ it - how to relieve want in a society without any Unemployment Insurance or Old Age Pensions, without turning people who were only too willing to work, into Paupers. The Vestry was besought to find work - even if only stonebreaking - for as many of the poor residents as possible, but this hardly touched the problem.

An Imaginative Solution to Unemployment, 1888.
R.M.Beachcroft again seized his chance. He offered to rent, even on a risky annual tenancy, an additional eleven acres adjoining the cricket ground, which had already been laid out at his own expense, providing that part, at least, of the Relief Fund was used in paying for labour to drain, fence, and lay out the land and to form a cinder track for athletics and cycling. He estimated that from forty to fifty men could be continuously employed in the work for eight or ten weeks. He entered into an agreement with the Committee of the Fund by which he would:-

Provide the cost of the materials for converting the fields into a Recreation Ground, pay rent for the fields, provide for maintenance, and to employ men sent to him by the Committee and no others, provided sufficient competent men were forthcoming.

As soon as he had recouped his costs by letting portions of the ground to clubs, etc, the Committee could take over the grounds if they so wished. If not, he would be free to act as he chose, save that out of any profits, he would refund to the Committee the cost of the labour provided by the Fund.

That the Ground should not be used for any political or public meetings.

The Ground, if open on Sundays, to be free to the Public, but for promenading only.

No intoxicating Liquors to be per­mitted.

In consideration for the above, the Committee agreed to send him such number of men as they thought fit fron the Unemployed in Paddington and tc pay their wages from the Fund.

This imaginative offer made it clear that Beachcroft, or his heirs, would not profit personally from the Recreatior Ground. All money, after providing for the yearly cost of maintenance ground-men, etc., would be set apart towards acquiring the present, or failing that, some other permanent cricket ground.

Five hundred men, of almost al trades, were employed for ten weeks it building the Ground. 35,000 yards of clay, 2,800 yards of ballast, 40,000 loads of rubbish were removed, and 1,300 yards of ashes laid to form the Grounds. A well turfed cricket field, tennis courts, a splendid cinder cycling track and a handsome pavilion with a terraced roof was constructed. Owing to Mr Beachcroft's generosity, the whole of the Fund for Relieving the Unem­ployed was paid in wages. He was responsible for all materials (about £2,500) and maintenance costs.

The first season was a financial success, with receipts of £1,100.

People from Kilburn, Queen's Park, North Kensington, Hampstead, and Maida Vale, all used the Recreation Ground and £8,000 was raised by these local Vestries. £13,000 came from private individuals and eventually, after two years of persistent work, promises and subscriptions exceeded £50,000. It was a high price the 1890s for a few fields, but this was prime building land. It had to bought by the foot, not the acre.

In 1893, the `Paddington Recreation Ground Act' was passed. A further one and a half acres of land was need round off the ground and this was eventually paid for by the London County Council.

The Recreation Ground is now taken for granted, with the struggle for its creation largely forgotten, but The Beachcroft Gate and the Churchill Gate are reminders of spirited people who persisted for years in an important endeavour.

Information from "The Playground of Paddington; how we secured it- to whom we owe it", by James B, 1902.

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I have digitised the report by Chas. Lessenger the original in above

Chas. Lessenger
 Revised 1983

THE PLAYGROUND OF PADDINGTON

The Paddington area catered for mostly manual workers on the Great Western Railway, their local being a somewhat smaller "Tavern" where the Carlton stands today. Behind this was "the Cricket Pitch", the pride and joy of the Reverend Walter Abbott, Vicar of Paddington who had been instrumental in having the pitch laid out of church funds at the turn of 1860.

THIS WINTER OF 1887 was indeed a terrible one, a number of people dying through the bitter cold and causing, as it did, a considerable amount of unemployment.

IN NOVEMBER of that year, Lord Randolph Churchill called a conference in the district for the purpose of raising help for the unemployed. Most of the Committee were members of the Paddington Parliament which met every week to discuss local details.

MR. BEACHCROFT was a member of the Small Committee which was formed and he wrote to the Conference offering to rent an additional plot of land alongside and adjoining the then existing cricket ground provided that part of the relief fund was used to pay for drainage, fencing and layout of the land to form a cinder track for athletics and cycling.

A FORMAL agreement was entered into between Mr Beachcroft and the Reverend Walter Abbott, Vicar of Paddington and Chairman of the Committee of the Fund for the Paddington Unemployed.

CLAUSE 4 of the agreement was as follows:


"That the works undertaken shall comprise fencing, drainage, and levelling the ground, and preparing same for games and athletic exercises, including the laying of a track round the inside of the field, available both for bicycles and tricycles and for promenading and including, if found proper, a pavilion or other convenient erection."

EMPLOYMENT was found for 500 men, who worked as many hours as there was daylight for 5d (fivepence old money) an hour during the ten weeks the work was in progress. During the course of the work 35,000 yards of clay was removed; 2,800 yards of ballast; 40,000 loads of rubbish and 1,300 yards of ashes laid to form the ground.

IN ADDITION to the well-turfed cricket field and tennis courts a splendid cinder cycle track was constructed under the direction of Messrs Fred Jenney and Pedrop of the Little Bridge Grounds and a handsome pavilion with a terraced roof erected by Mr F.T. Chinchen, builder of Kensal Green from plans by Mr Webb, the Great Western Railway Architect and Surveyor.

Page 2

The work was completed early in April, 1888, and the opening ceremony was performed by His Royal Highness, the Duke of Cambridge, K.C. and no less a newspaper than the London "Times" published a long and leading article on the occasion which included references to:


"the need for open spaces ..... a recreation ground that promised to pay its way and even yield a handsome return to its promoters, with athletic, football and cricket fields, together with an excellent cycling track ..... conveniently situated ..... the unemployed who were paid to lay out these 11 acres were engaged upon a reproductive work in which their employer might well have been some private speculator instead of Mr Bancroft ..... the grounds supply pedestrians and cyclists with sorely needed recreational facilities."

THE PADDINGTON CRICKET CLUB celebrated this outstanding event with an outstanding dinner at the Lord's Hotel, St. John's Wood, with nine courses on the menu, two after-dinner singers and a comedian, and in all twenty speeches were made.

THE INAUGURAL CYCLING and sports meeting was held on Saturday, 26th May, 1888, there being three events for bicyclists and three for the athletes.

The 880 yards handicap was a sizzling affair being won in the last half-lap by Mr F.J. Osmond, Brixton Ramblers, with Mr A.E. Langley, Kildare Bicycle Club, three bicycle lengths away, 2nd, and Mr R. Revell, Belsize Bicycle Club at the same distance third.

AN ATTEMPT was made on two tricycle records and both of these failed miserably.

THEN came the Amateur Bicycle Championship which was won in fine style by Mr Herbert Syme, Boulevard Cycling Club.

BUT THE NEW innovation was the One mile dwarf bicycle handicap with a total of 42 entries, and with 37 coming before the Starter. After a steady start the last lap turned out to be a ding-dong battle all the way with W. Price, Polytechnic Cycling Club getting the verdict by three yards from E.J. Willis, Finchley Harriers, with W.C. Jones, Polytechnic C.C. third, a further two yards back.

THE EVENTS were run under the new National Cyclists Union rules, and Mrs A.E. Beachcroft kindly presented the prizes.

THE FIRST SEASON was so successful as to amplify the remarks that had been made in "The Times" newspaper; the tennis courts were thronged; competition amongst local cricket clubs to secure pitches was very keen, and the cycling track acquired the reputation of being the best within easy reach of the City of London.

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