America Square is a street and small square in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, off

Crosswall Crosswall is a street in the City of London. At its western end, the street begins at a junction with Crutched Friars and Cooper's Row. At its eastern end, the street is a turn off Minories. It is home to America Square, the City of London Me ...

and located near

Minories Minories ( ) is the name of a small former administrative unit, and also of a street in the Aldgate area of the City of London. Both the street and the former administrative area take their name from the Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare w ...

. The square was built in about 1760 and dedicated to the American colonies. America Square was developed as part of Square, Crescent and Circus under plans by

George Dance the Younger George Dance the Younger RA (1 April 1741 – 14 January 1825) was an English architect and surveyor as well as a portraitist. The fifth and youngest son of the architect George Dance the Elder, he came from a family of architects, artist ...

in 1768–1774. The Crescent was built at the expense of Sir Benjamin Hammet, who is commemorated by the name of another street in the area. He was a partner in the City bank of William Esdaile and was also alderman for the ward of

Portsoken Portsoken, traditionally referred to with the definite article as the Portsoken, is one of the City of London, England's 25 ancient wards, which are still used for local elections. Historically an extra-mural ward, lying east of the former Lond ...

Nathan Meyer Rothschild Nathan Mayer Rothschild (16 September 1777 – 28 July 1836), also known as Baron Nathan Mayer Rothschild, was a British-German banker, businessman and financier. Born in Frankfurt am Main, he was the third of the five sons of Mayer Amschel Ro ...

lived at No. 14 in the 19th century. The square was bombed in 1941, and Rothschild's house was demolished. Today, America Square is occupied by offices, restaurants and a gymnasium. The nearest

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

stations are

Tower Hill Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher gro ...

(to the south) and

Aldgate Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. The gate gave its name to ''Aldgate High Street'', the first stretch of the A11 road, that takes that name as it passes through the ancient, extramural Portsoken ...

(to the north), and the nearest

Docklands Light Railway The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated medium-capacity rail system, light metro system primarily serving the redeveloped London Docklands, Docklands area of London and providing a direct connection between London's two major financi ...

station is Tower Gateway, on Minories. Also nearby is Fenchurch Street station, a mainline railway terminus with services towards east London and south Essex.

References

Streets in the City of London {{London-road-stub