Arriving at Paddington a few days ago by a train
which got in at 7.5 p.m. I walked the not inconsiderable distance from the far arrival platform to the dining-room a long way down on No. 1 departure platform, with the idea of getting a light dinner before going home. But British Railways is having none of that. On the door was posted a notice to the effect that the dining-room was closed at 7 p.m., but that dinner could be obtained after that hour at the Station Hotel. I did not want a set hotel dinner at all ; I did not want to spare the time it would take, nor to pay the price it would cost. Nor, I have no doubt at all, do nine-tenths of the travellers who expect to find dinner available in a station dining- room. It is, no doubt, possible to get a sausage-roll or something similar in one of the crowded refreshment rooms (I could not see a single table vacant), but that one of the great London termini should confine its provision after 7 p.m. to sustenance .of that order is something that would dissolve Paris in astonishment and New York in derision. Anyhow this will teach Festival of Britain visitors what's what.
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