Berkeley Square

This article is about the town square in London. For other uses, see Berkeley Square (disambiguation).
Berkeley Square in 1830.
Berkeley Square, 2005
Berkeley Square, 2007
Berkeley Square

Berkeley Square /ˈbɑːrkl/ is a town square in Mayfair in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. It was originally laid out in the mid 18th century by architect William Kent.

The gardens in the centre are open to the public, and their very large London Plane trees are among the oldest in central London, planted in 1789.

Description

Whilst Berkeley Square was originally a mostly residential area, there now remains only one residential block on the square – number 48. The square is mostly offices, including a number of hedge funds and wealth management businesses.

The square features a sculptural fountain by Alexander Munro, a Pre-Raphaelite sculptor, made in 1865.

The buildings around the square include several by other notable architects including Robert Adam, who designed Lansdowne House (since 1935 home of the Lansdowne Club) in the southwest corner of the square on Fitzmaurice Place. The daring staircase-hall of No. 44 is sometimes considered William Kent's masterpiece.[1] Gunter's Tea Shop, founded under a different name in 1757, is also located here.

50 Berkeley Square is allegedly haunted; it is currently occupied by Maggs Brothers Antiquarian Booksellers.[2]

There are several roads leading off the square including Curzon Street and Hill Street.

History

The square is something of an accident; in 1696, Berkeley House on Piccadilly became Devonshire House when John Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley of Stratton sold it to William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire. As part of the agreement, Lord Berkeley undertook not to build on that part of the land he retained that lay directly behind the house, so keeping the Duke's view. This agreement was continued when the Berkeley land was developed after 1730, and the gardens of Berkeley Square are the termination of that undeveloped strip; to the south the gardens of Lansdowne House were originally also part of it;[3] they were replaced by the current south side of the square.

Famous residents

Residents of Berkeley Square have included:

Famous former owners or residents of Lansdowne House include:

Fictional residents

Transport

Berkeley Square can be easily reached from Green Park tube station on the Piccadilly, Jubilee and Victoria lines, and Bond Street tube station on the Central and Jubilee lines. London Buses route C2 also passes through the square.

Berkeley Square is also one of the most popular locations for the Elektrobay charging points supplied by Elektromotive, with requests for additional charging points to be installed.

See also

References

  1. Sykes, 104–111
  2. walksoflondon.co.uk — 50 Berkeley Square, The Most Haunted House In London, accessed 2008-02-08.
  3. 'Berkeley Square, North Side,' in Survey of London: Volume 40, the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings), ed. F H W Sheppard (London: London County Council, 1980), 64–67, accessed November 21, 2015, online
Sources

External links

Media related to Berkeley Square at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 51°30′35″N 0°8′45″W / 51.50972°N 0.14583°W / 51.50972; -0.14583

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 29, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.