Squares in London

"Square" is a generic term for neat, planned or set aside urban open spaces larger than a verge or pavement overlooked by buildings. In London, elements of fields were set aside, a fact reflected in the name of the square London Fields and two later examples: Coram's Fields and Lincoln's Inn Fields. Some are not actually square, or even rectangular. One reason for this is the use of a local nickname for the street, park or garden in question. Another is that some older squares were irregularly shaped to begin with, or lost their original layout due to the city's many transformations, not least following the Great Fire of London and The Blitz.

The street naming (or streetnaming) authority of each London Borough and the City of London Corporation, by authority of an act of Parliament, the London Building Acts (Amendment) Act 1939 (2 & 3 Geo. 6. c. xcvii), imposes rules to authorise appropriate street names for new developments and for owners wishing to rename features.London Buildings Acts (Amendment) Act 1939, Part 2: Naming and Numbering of Streets and Buildings. Commercial building and retained historic names apart, new residential squares must in many boroughs be "for a square only" — considered not well elongated but rectangular and to some extent open.[https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/sites/default/files/atoms/files/New%20Application%20Pack.pdf Street Naming application pack] Example policy list from Kensington and Chelsea, replacing similar earlier rule. Retrieved 2018-03-12 Billiter Square, EC3 and Millennium Square, SE1 in districts dominated by retail, commerce and offices are among many modern buildings (not beside a visible rectangular open space) that include alternative, higher built density, square features to their design—such as a courtyard or a square footprint.

Some squares such as Granary Square are paved; others like Russell Square have grass and trees; many others have diverse communal gardens. Most of those that are actually square have the word in their name, and these are listed below. Others more flexibly identified do not. Such notable lists are commonly identified as list of garden squares or estate gardens, communal gardens, formal gardens, about which many books have been written. Increasingly, spaces are being constructed that are legally private, though in practice open to the public (Paternoster Square).

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea contains over a hundred garden squares whose use is restricted to residents, almost all share a name with their directly adjoining road. Residents may contract with private contractors or with the council, in which case the council charges those residents, typically at the same time as council tax.[http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/gardensquares/general/default.asp "Your garden square and you"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060711162431/http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/gardensquares/general/default.asp |date=2006-07-11 }}, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, UK. URL accessed 20 June 2006. One instance is a lens (pointed oval), The Boltons.

Toward the public end of the public/private continuum, London's growth has taken in village greens. A minority of these partly or wholly survive such as Newington Green to form council-run open spaces breaking up housing, road networks and/or retail streets. The categories of greens and garden squares become more well-visited where larger than an informal scale. These are mainly government-run, characteristic parks and open spaces in London. By subtle distinction their less urban equivalent amounts to London's 26 commons most of which were diminished in the period of legal inclosure and/or the city/county's 16 country parks.

The making of residential squares fell into decline in the early 20th century, one of the last notable such squares having been designed by Edwin Lutyens for Hampstead Garden Suburb. Numerous squares were in danger of filling in for further building. This was banned by the London Squares Preservation Act 1931 (21 & 22 Geo. 5. c. xciii).Camilla Phelps, "London opens its gates". The English Garden, June 2013, 97. In the last quarter of the 20th century a fashion for making office squares developed, a trend led by the Broadgate development. Developers such as London Square, Berkeley Homes and Taylor Wimpey (in the first two instances through their London subsidiaries) have built and set aside land in more than one of their 21st century London developments to create those of the residential type.[http://londonsquare.co.uk/developments/detail/fulham "Square"] Details of 21st century square, at Farm Lane, Fulham, London Square Group, 2018[http://londonsquare.co.uk/developments/detail/teddington "Square""] Details of 21st century square at Waldegrave Road, Teddington, London Square Group, 2018[http://www.berkeleygroup.co.uk/new-homes/london/orpington/brunswick-square "Brunswick Square, Orpington"] Berkeley Homes Group, 2018[https://www.berkeleygroup.co.uk/new-homes/london/kensington/royal-warwick-square "Royal Warwick Square, Kensington"], Berkeley Homes Group, 2018[http://www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/find-your-home/england/london/harrow/st-georges-square "St George's Square, Sudbury Hill, Harrow"] Taylor Wimpey, 2018[http://www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/find-your-home/england/london/surbiton/tolworth-square "Tolworth Square, Surbiton"] Taylor Wimpey, 2018 More broadly, mixed-use squares to give a focal area have become a resurgent planning design, reflected for instance in Times Square, Sutton and Canada Square, Canary Wharf.

{{See also|List of garden squares in London}}

Since 1998 many private squares (which term in that context takes in many other shapes of gardens between houses) temporarily open to the paying public: London's "Open Garden Squares Weekend", founded by Caroline Aldiss, takes place on the second weekend in June.Phelps, "London opens its gates". The English Garden, June 2013, 95–98. The event is organised by the London Parks and Garden Trust. In 2013 over 200 gardens took part, including the garden of the prime minister at 10 Downing Street and the Gardens of HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs. Other events in keynote squares coincide such as a World Archaeology Festival, Gordon Square, Bloomsbury run by UCL Institute of Archaeology.[http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/calendar/articles/20130608 "World Archaeology Festival 2013"], UCL.

The parks can be categorised as public garden squares, private garden squares or other squares.

File:Was that a dream by Cedric Le Borgne.jpg as part of Lumiere London 2018, an art festival. The sculpture and the accompanying soundtrack A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square formed an art installation titled 'Was that a dream?' by a French artist Cédric Le Borgne.{{cite web|title=Cédric Le Borgne: Was That a Dream?|url=https://www.visitlondon.com/lumiere/installation/46121800-was-that-a-dream#IY6Wbe9wPZIJvO6C.97|website=visitlondon.com|language=en}}]]

The local proliferation relative to other UK cities coupled with, since the early 20th century, their widespread opening up has similarly made squares broadly cited in portrayals of London. Initially cultural use was mainly confined to novels and, to a lesser degree, fine art.

"It's a Long Way to Tipperary" is a 1910s song featuring the line "Farewell Leicester Square". "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" is a romantic hit of 1940 with lyrics by Eric Maschwitz and music by Manning Sherwin, sang that year separately by Ray Noble and Vera Lynn and a theme of a film the next year, by Fritz Lang., Man Hunt. In the 1956 song "Why Can't The English?" from the musical My Fair Lady, Professor Henry Higgins laments, "Hear them down in Soho Square/Dropping H's everywhere."

Drama most notably includes the high-audience soap opera broadcast by the BBC running since 1985, EastEnders based on a semi-permanent set north of London's border, Albert Square. It had pre-release titles Square Dance, Round the Square, Round the Houses, London Pride and East 8.{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=Rupert|title=EastEnders: 20 Years in Albert Square|publisher=BBC Books|year=2005|isbn=978-0-563-52165-5|page=15}}

Soho Square garden contains a bench that commemorates the singer Kirsty MacColl, who wrote the song "Soho Square" for her album Titanic Days. After her death in 2000, fans bought a memorial bench in her honour, inscribing the lyrics: "One day I'll be waiting there / No empty bench in Soho Square".{{cite web|url=http://kirstymaccoll.com/information/memorial/bench/index.htm |title=Bench in Soho Square |publisher=Kirsty MacColl |date=2001-08-12 |access-date=2011-02-03}} The Lindisfarne album Elvis Lives On the Moon also includes a song named after that square.{{cite web| url = http://www.lindisfarne.co.uk/discography/elvis-lives-on-the-moon.htm| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140325041921/http://www.lindisfarne.co.uk/discography/elvis-lives-on-the-moon.htm| archive-date = 2014-03-25| title = Elvis Lives On the Moon (1993) {{!}} discography {{!}} Lindisfarne - the official website}}

{{main|List of garden squares in London}}

{{columns-list|colwidth=15em|

• Arundel Gardens
• Bedford Square
• Belgrave Square
• Berkeley Square
• Clapton Square
• Egerton Gardens
• Finsbury Circus
• Golden Square
• Grosvenor Square
• Hans Place
• Harrington Gardens
• Kensington Square
• Kensington Park Gardens
• Lennox Gardens, London
• Park Crescent
• Royal Crescent
• Russell Square
• St George's Square
• St. James's Square
• Sloane Square
• Soho Square
• The Boltons
• Wilton Crescent

}}

{{columns-list|colwidth=15em|

• Trafalgar Square
• Leicester Square
• Parliament Square

}}

This list comprises places bearing the word Square. The tables state if each has an open-air space exceeding a double-size pavement or the provision of parking spaces. Those marked mainly (due to a building, typically a church, school or community hall in the space) or yes have a clear, open space. Those marked No include streets of any shape including those with vestigial names (throwbacks) to open spaces that lay there (or adjacent) before.

Demolished squares are listed in a table at the end of this section.

Approximate area, in square metres, includes hardscapes and roads.

London's squares are arranged by postcode, see the map below of postcodes.

File:LONDON post town map.svg

|-

|Butterfield||E6||No|| ||0{{refn|group=n|name=kdroad|}}

|}

Renamed squares note:

• Albert Gardens
• Trafalgar Gardens

These two 19th century built Squares are officially renamed as shown. This avoids confusion with other squares in London.

(the London Boroughs of Hillingdon, Hounslow and Ealing, exc. Harefield, Isleworth and Feltham)

Royal/London Boroughs of Kingston upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth, excluding Battersea, Norwood, Clapham and Balham.

Royal/London Boroughs of Greenwich, Lewisham, Bexley and Bromley (plus Norwood and Dulwich)

• Angel Square, EC1
• Billiter Square, EC3
• Holford Square{{efn|became Bevin Court, north of Percy Circus, Pentonville}}
• Harewood Square{{efn|became forecourt zone between overground and underground Marylebone stations}}
• Pancras Square{{efn|A very small square.}}

{{notelist}}

• List of garden squares in London
• Parks and open spaces in London

;Notes

{{reflist|group=n}}

;References

{{Reflist}}

{{commons category|Urban squares in London}}

• [http://www.gardenvisit.com/landscape/london/lguide/london-squares.htm London squares] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012053330/http://www.gardenvisit.com/landscape/london/lguide/london-squares.htm |date=2007-10-12 }}
• [http://www.londongardenstrust.org/ London Parks and Gardens Trust]
• [http://www.mediaarchitecture.at/architekturtheorie/unique_city/2007_google_london_en.shtml London Squares by 1799]

{{London landmarks}}

Squares, London