
Fitzroy Square is a
Georgian square
In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...
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 ...
, England. It is the only one in the
central London
Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning the City of London and several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local gove ...
area known as
Fitzrovia
Fitzrovia ( ) is a district of central London, England, near the West End. Its eastern part is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court, and was urbanised in ...
.
The square is one of the area's main features, this once led to the surrounding district to be known as Fitzroy Square or Fitzroy Town and latterly as Fitzrovia, though the nearby
Fitzroy Tavern
The Fitzroy Tavern is a public house situated at Charlotte Street in the Fitzrovia district of central London, England, owned by Samuel Smith Old Brewery.
It became famous during a period spanning the 1920s to the mid-1950s as a meeting place ...
is thought to have had as much influence on the name as Fitzroy Square.
History
The square, nearby Fitzroy Street, and the Fitzroy Tavern in
Charlotte Street
Charlotte Street is a street in Fitzrovia, historically part of the parish and borough of St Pancras, in central London. It has been described, together with its northern and southern extensions (Fitzroy Street and Rathbone Place), as the ' ...
have the family name of
Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, into whose ownership the land passed through his marriage. His descendant
Charles FitzRoy, 1st Baron Southampton developed the area during the late 18th and early 19th century.
Fitzroy Square was a speculative development intended to provide London residences for aristocratic families, and was built in four stages. Leases for the eastern and southern sides, designed by
Robert Adam
Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (architect), William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and train ...
, were granted in 1792; building began in 1794
and was completed in 1798 by Adam's brothers
James and William. These buildings are fronted in
Portland stone
Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...
brought by sea from
Dorset
Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...
.
The
Napoleonic Wars
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Napoleonic Wars
, partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
, image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg
, caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
and a slump in the London property market brought a temporary stop to construction of the square after the south and east sides were completed. According to the records of the Squares Frontagers' Committee, 1815 residents looked out on "vacant ground, the resort of the idle and profligate". Another contemporary account describes the incomplete square:
The houses are faced with stone, and have a greater proportion of architectural excellence and embellishment than most others in the metropolis. They were designed by the Adams, but the progress of the late war prevented the completion of the design. It is much to be regretted, that it remains in its present unfinished state.
The northern and western sides were subsequently constructed in 1827–29 and 1832–35 respectively, and are
stucco
Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
-fronted.
[
The south side suffered bomb damage during ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and was rebuilt with traditional facades to remain in keeping with the rest of the square.
Present day
The square was largely pedestrianised in the 1970s, as part of a scheme designed by Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe and undertaken as part of environmental improvement works. In 2008 the square was upgraded by relaying most of the surface at a single level, removing street clutter such as bollards, and further restricting vehicular access.
The square is at the heart of the Fitzrovia
Fitzrovia ( ) is a district of central London, England, near the West End. Its eastern part is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court, and was urbanised in ...
conservation area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...
and is the subject of the Fitzroy Square conservation area appraisal and management strategy adopted by the London Borough of Camden
The London Borough of Camden () is a London boroughs, borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former Metropolitan boroughs of the Cou ...
in March 2010.
Notable buildings
The square has a number of notable buildings, many with distinguished connections marked by blue plaques
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...
.
Numbers 1, 1A, 2–8 and 33–40 are grade I listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
s.
* No. 6 holds the office and library of The Georgian Group.
* No. 7 was the home of Sir Charles Eastlake, first director of the National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...
.
* No. 8 was the home of the painter James McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral a ...
.
* No. 9 was the home of chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann
August Wilhelm von Hofmann (8 April 18185 May 1892) was a German chemist who made considerable contributions to organic chemistry. His research on aniline helped lay the basis of the aniline-dye industry, and his research on coal tar laid the g ...
(1818–1892).
* No. 11 for varying lengths of time housed the offices of publishers Cresset Press
The Cresset Press was a publishing company in London, England, active as an independent press from 1927 for 40 years, and initially specializing in "expensively illustrated limited editions of classical works, like John Milton, Milton's ''Paradise ...
, Merlin Press, and Allison and Busby
Allison & Busby (A & B) is a publishing house based in London established by Clive Allison and Margaret Busby in 1967. The company has built up a reputation as a leading independent publisher.
Background
Launching as a publishing company in May ...
in the latter 1960s. Later it was the home of novelist Ian McEwan
Ian Russell McEwan (born 21 June 1948) is a British novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of the ...
.
* Nos. 13–14 were home to St Luke's Hospital for the Clergy (1904–2009).
* Nos. 16-18 were formerly the headquarters of the charity Scope.
* No. 19 belonged to the architect James Lockyer who died in the house in 1875. It was then the base for the "International School" run by Louise Michel
Louise Michel (; 29 May 1830 – 9 January 1905) was a teacher and prominent figure during the Paris Commune. Following her penal transportation to New Caledonia she began to embrace anarchism, and upon her return to France she emerged as an im ...
in the 1890s. Later it was the home of Bloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group was a group of associated British writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the early 20th century. Among the people involved in the group were Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster, Vanessa Bell, a ...
artist Duncan Grant
Duncan James Corrowr Grant (21 January 1885 – 8 May 1978) was a Scottish painter and designer of textiles, pottery, theatre sets, and costumes. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group.
His father was Bartle Grant, a "poverty-stricken" major ...
(c. 1909).
* No. 20 is the headquarters of the Rugby League International Federation
The International Rugby League (IRL) is the global governing body for the sport of rugby league football. The IRL organises the Rugby League World Cup, the oldest international rugby World Cup, as well as the Women's and Wheelchair equivalen ...
.
* No. 21 was the home of English statesman and Prime Minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Lord Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (; 3 February 183022 August 1903), known as Lord Salisbury, was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United ...
. It is now occupied by the High Commission of Mozambique.
* No. 23 is the Embassy of Liberia.
* No. 25 was the site of a police raid in 1927 on the basement flat, rented by the gay dancer Bobby Britt, who was convicted of keeping a disorderly house and sentenced to 15 months' hard labour.
* No. 27 was the home of theatre critic and occasional Shaw collaborator William Archer.
* No. 28 was the headquarters of the Magistrates' Association
The Magistrates' Association is the membership organisation for Magistrates of England and Wales, magistrates in England and Wales. By virtue of its education and training functions it is a charitable organisation and is funded by its members to ...
until 2017.
* No. 29 was the home of George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...
from 1887 until his marriage in 1898; and later of Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device.
Vir ...
from 1907 to 1911.
* No. 33 housed Roger Fry
Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English painter and art critic, critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent ...
's Omega Workshop, creating avant-garde furniture from 1913 to 1919.
* No. 34–35, owned by Guy Ritchie
Guy Stuart Ritchie (born 10 September 1968) is an English film director, producer and screenwriter known primarily for British comedy gangster films and large-scale action-adventure films.
Ritchie left school at the age of 15, and worked in e ...
, was controversially squatted as the London Free School
The London Free School (LFS) was founded on 8 March 1966, principally by John Hopkins (political activist), John "Hoppy" Hopkins and Rhaune Laslett.
Description
The London Free School was a community action adult education project inspired b ...
in 2011.
* No. 37 was the home of the artist Sir William Quiller Orchardson from 1862, an address he shared for three years with John Pettie. Later it was the home of the artist Ford Madox Brown
Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often William Hogarth, Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his mos ...
and childhood home of his grandson, the writer Ford Madox Ford
Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review (1924), The Transatlant ...
.
Notable residents
In addition to those above:
*General Francisco de Miranda
Sebastián Francisco de Miranda y Rodríguez de Espinoza (28 March 1750 – 14 July 1816), commonly known as Francisco de Miranda (), was a Venezuelan military leader and revolutionary who fought in the American Revolutionary War, the French R ...
lived at nearby 58 Grafton Way (1802–10). On the corner of 40 Fitzroy Square is a statue of him, a copy of a work by the Venezuelan sculptor Rafael de la Cova.
*Epidemiologist William Farr
William Farr Order of the Bath, CB (30 November 1807 – 14 April 1883) was a British epidemiologist, regarded as one of the founders of medical statistics.
Early life
William Farr was born in Kenley, Shropshire, to poor parents. He was effec ...
(1807–1883) established his first medical practice in Fitzroy Square.
* William Nisbet (1759–1822), Scottish physician and medical writer, practised in Fitzroy Square after 1801.
* Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp
Gary James Kemp (born 16 October 1959) is an English songwriter, musician and actor, best known as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist, and principal songwriter for the new wave band Spandau Ballet.
Kemp wrote the lyrics and music for all 2 ...
lives there.
* The thriller writer Reg Gadney
Reginald Bernard John Gadney (20 January 1941 – 1 May 2018) was a painter, thriller-writer and an occasional screenwriter or screenplay adaptor. Gadney was also an officer in the Coldstream Guards in the 1960s and later wrote the biopic s ...
lived there with his restaurant critic wife Fay Maschler.
* Until recently the clothing designer Linda Bennett
Linda Kristin Bennett (born 8 September 1962) is an English clothing designer and entrepreneur, best known for founding the fashion retailer L.K.Bennett.
Early life
Born in London, Bennett is the daughter of a London-based fashion retail entr ...
owned a Grade I listed house in the Square.
* The Welsh comedian, writer and television personality Griff Rhys Jones
Griffith Rhys Jones (born 16 November 1953) is a Welsh actor, comedian, writer and television presenter. He starred in a number of television series with his comedy partner, Mel Smith. He and Smith came to national attention in the 1980s for ...
is a resident.
* Chad Gould, English-Filipino footballer, lives there.
Culture and media
The square is described in William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray ( ; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his Satire, satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel ''Vanity Fair (novel), Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portra ...
's '' Vanity Fair'' as the "Anglo-Indian
Anglo-Indian people are a distinct minority group, minority community of mixed-race British and Indian ancestry. During the colonial period, their ancestry was defined as British paternal and Indian maternal heritage; post-independence, "Angl ...
district", where many retired officials of the civil service in India resided.
It was a filming location for the BBC's 2009 adaptation of Jane Austen
Jane Austen ( ; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for #List of works, her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century ...
's novel '' Emma''.
C. R. W. Nevinson painted a view of Fitzroy Square from the window of society hostess Mrs Aria, evidently looking east from the Conway Street corner of the square.
On the south-west side of the square's central gardens is a fibreglass sculpture created by Naomi Blake to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
’s Silver Jubilee
Silver Jubilee marks a 25th anniversary. The anniversary celebrations can be of a wedding anniversary, the 25th year of a monarch's reign or anything that has completed or is entering a 25-year mark.
Royal Silver Jubilees since 1750
Note: This ...
in 1977.
Until April 2011, No. 11 was the long-term home of author Ian McEwan
Ian Russell McEwan (born 21 June 1948) is a British novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of the ...
, who set much of his 2005 novel ''Saturday
Saturday is the day of the week between Friday and Sunday. No later than the 2nd century, the Romans named Saturday ("Saturn's Day") for the god Saturn. His planet, Saturn, controlled the first hour of that day, according to Vettius Valens. T ...
'', and the home of its leading character, brain surgeon Henry Perowne, in the square.
Novelist Jacqueline Winspear
Jacqueline Winspear (born 30 April 1955) is a mystery writer, author of the '' Maisie Dobbs'' series of books exploring the aftermath of World War I. She has won several mystery writing awards for books in this popular series.
Personal life an ...
gives her 1920s detective Maisie Dobbs an office in Fitzroy Square.
The TARDIS
The TARDIS (; acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space") is a fictional hybrid of a time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and its various spin-offs. While a TARDI ...
stands in Fitzroy Square for the duration of the 1966 ''Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
'' series ''The War Machines
''The War Machines'' is the tenth and final serial of the third season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in 4 weekly parts from 25 June to 16 July 1966.
The serial is set in London in th ...
''.
The Monty Python
Monty Python, also known as the Pythons, were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy ser ...
team had an office at No. 20 between 1973 and 1974.
The 2017 film '' Phantom Thread'' was set and filmed primarily in a home on Fitzroy Square.
In March 2023, scenes of the film ''Back to Black
''Back to Black'' is the second and final studio album by English singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse, released on 27 October 2006 by Island Records. Winehouse predominantly based the album on her tumultuous relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil, ...
'' were filmed in Fitzroy Square.
See also
* List of eponymous roads in London
* Squares in London
References
External links
* A 360 degree view from Urban7
Fitzroy Square, Fitzrovia, London 360º panorama
{{Coord, 51, 31, 22.61, N, 00, 08, 24.37, W, type:landmark, display=title
Squares in the London Borough of Camden
Grade I listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden
Grade I listed houses in London
Fitzrovia
Garden squares in London
Communal gardens
Bloomsbury Group locations