LONDON SQUARES

LIVING IN SQUARES

Dorothy Parker memorably wrote of how the Bloomsbury Group, ‘…lived in squares, painted in circles and loved in triangles…’ 

For the first time in Inscape’s 40 years, this autumn we offer a short course of ‘Face to Face’ study mornings in London squares, to be taken singly or as a whole. As was pointed out by the London Society in 1927, the city’s squares are the pride of London’s early speculators and builders, offering light, air, greenery, and opportunities for conversation, whether between neighbours or nannies. Aesthetically, they offer dignified architecture and sculpture, sensitive landscaping, and sometimes superlative ancient trees, while their social history is fascinating as we imagine encounters between the good and the great living around the square.

There is no equivalent elsewhere to London’s squares. Bologna and Rome have their ‘piazze’, Paris and Nance have their ‘places’, and Madrid and Barcelona their ‘plazas’, but no other city has such green squares, or so many, in such variety, as London. Their origin dates back to Covent Garden, the very first square in England designed for people to live in. Laid out in the 1630s for the Earl of Bedford by Inigo Jones, it is still lined with arcades centring on the same architect’s St Paul’s Church.

Soho Square was laid out in 1666, and was once called King Square after Charles II. It still has the statue of him that used to adorn its centre, which is now occupied by a half-timbered gardener’s hut that endearingly doubles as a disguise for an electricity substation. The square is lined by no fewer than 16 listed buildings.

St James’ Square was granted to the Earl of St Albans, who began to lay out the square in 1665. Convenient for the palaces of both St James’ and Whitehall, St James’ was particularly attractive to aristocrats: by the 1720s seven Dukes and seven Earls lived here in superb Georgian houses which in many cases still survive. By the 1830s it began to be the abode of gentlemen’s clubs, and now no fewer than four line the square, while by 1857 the London Library lent it a quite different kind of distinction.

Leicester Square is a different kettle of fish. The statue of Shakespeare now in its central garden gives the clue: this is the area of writers, artists like Hogarth and Reynolds, entertainers, and artisans like Chippendale whose workshops were on St Martins Lane. Its association with entertainment originates in the telescope erected here to spy on executions carried out at Temple Bar, and extends to only marginally less gory enjoyments in its very distinguished cinemas.

The development of Hanover Square began not surprisingly just after the accession of the Hanoverian monarch George I. It has been described by the distinguished architectural historian Sir John Summerson as ‘decidedly Whig and most decidedly military’ with no fewer than seven Generals from Marlborough’s Wars residing here and doubtless attending John James’ fine 1721 baroque church of St George’s that is 100 yards to the south.

Initially laid out by no less a figure than the architect William Kent, using the bottom end of the garden of Berkeley House on Piccadilly, Berkeley Square is full of architectural distinction with works by both William Kent himself and Robert Adam. The square has housed a splendid catalogue of distinguished residents: Horace Walpole the connoisseur, the Prime Ministers the Earl of Bute, Pitt the Younger and George Canning, Robert Clive of India, magnificent London plane trees dating back to the date of the French Revolution, and presumably a bevy of nightingales.

Russell Square and Gordon Square both belong to the Bedford Estates. Russell Square was developed by the Dukes of Bedford in the late 18c, but its eastern side is dominated by architecture of quite different pretensions: the magnificent late-Victorian Hotel Russell. Sir Thomas Lawrence the painter lived on the square, and also Philip Hardwick, architect of the original Euston station. T.S.Eliot worked here for Faber and Faber. But perhaps the greatest treasure of the Square is its garden, laid out by Humphrey Repton and restored to his design in 2002.

Nearby Gordon Square was developed by the great Regency builders the Cubitts in the 1820s. Now lined by the soaring church of Christ the King, the attractively Tudor Dr Williams Library, and other  buildings belonging to the University of London, the square is best known as the abode of the Bloomsburies: Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, John Maynard Keynes and Lytton Strachey all lived here, and with their visitors they did indeed live in squares, paint in circles and love in triangles.


Our short late summer course has been planned roughly chronologically, so that we can see how the concept of the London Square unfolded over nearly three hundred years. But you are welcome to take the course as a whole or as individual sessions, depending on what you can manage. Each morning begins in one square and ends in another, with a short and interesting walk between, so that we can make comparisons. The course has been designed around those squares open to the public, so that we can actually access the centre of each square, getting different angles and viewpoints on its various buildings, while enjoying the light, shade and air afforded by its greenery. A second group of squares will be offered in the spring of 2027. Do join us for these mornings in the square!

Booking Information

These study mornings ‘London Squares’, have been initiated, designed and developed by Louise Friend and will be presented by Nicholas Friend.  Cheques are not a viable option at this time. Instead, please make your payment to Friend&Friend Ltd by bank transfer to our account with Metrobank, bank sort code 23-05-80, account number 13291721 or via PayPal to nicholas@inscapetours.co.uk, or credit/debit card by phone to Henrietta on 07940 719 397. She is available by phone Tuesdays and Thursdays 2-5 pm.

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