Squares have long been a feature of
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 ...
and come in numerous identifiable forms. The landscaping spectrum of squares stretches from those with more
hardscape, constituting
town squares (also known as city squares)—to those with
communal gardens, for which London is a major international exponent, known as
garden squares. London's largest privately-owned square is
Vincent Square, in
Westminster
Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...
, which comprises 13 acres.
A few in the capital of the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, such as
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster in Central London. It was established in the early-19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. Its name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, the Royal Navy, ...
, began as ''public'' open spaces in the same way as other city squares worldwide, typically a ''plaza'', ''piazza'' and a ''platz'' in Spain, Italy and Germany. Most, however, began as garden squares i.e. private communal gardens for the inhabitants of surrounding houses. All types of the space are more prevalent in parts of London with high (urban) density. Some of these gardens are now open to the public, while others, for example around
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a wikt:cosmopolitan, cosmopolitan and multiculturalism, multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting ...
, are railed (a form of fencing) and private.
The terminology has been loosely applied for over a century. Some "squares" are irregularly shaped—including five triangles, a pentagon, hexagon, octagon, and two ovals among those officially named ''Square''. Approbative and technical studies of garden squares commonly cover equivalent landscaped communal gardens not named as a ''Square'' many of which have become small public parks. A diversity of descriptive names features in
the list of London's "garden squares".
Name and shape
"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
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Wednesday 5 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old London Wall, Roman city wall, while also extendi ...
and
The Blitz
The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War.
Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...
.
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. 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. 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
Russell Square is a large garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, built predominantly by the firm of James Burton (property developer), James Burton. It is near the University of London's main buildings and the British Mus ...
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
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (often known by its initialism as RBKC) is an Inner London, Inner London borough with Royal borough, royal status. It is the List of English districts by area, smallest borough in London and the secon ...
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. One instance is a
lens
A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...
(pointed oval),
The Boltons.
Toward the public end of the public/private continuum, London's growth has taken in
village green
A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...
s. 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
The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons ...
most of which were diminished in the period of legal
inclosure and/or the city/county's 16 country parks.
History
Development of squares
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
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...
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. More broadly,
mixed-use squares to give a focal area have become a resurgent planning design, reflected for instance in Times Square,
Sutton
Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to:
Places
United Kingdom
England
In alphabetical order by county:
* Sutton, Bedfordshire
* Sutton, Berkshire, a List of United Kingdom locations: Stu-Sz#Su, location
* S ...
and
Canada Square,
Canary Wharf.
Viewings and events in private communal gardens
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. 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
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 ...
at
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street in London is the official residence and office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister of the United Kingdom. Colloquially known as Number 10, the building is located in Downing Street, off Whitehall in th ...
and the Gardens of
HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs. Other events in keynote squares coincide such as a World Archaeology Festival,
Gordon Square
Gordon Square is a public park square in Bloomsbury, London, England. It is part of the Bedford Estate and was designed as one of a pair with the nearby Tavistock Square. It is owned by the University of London.
History and buildings
The sq ...
, Bloomsbury run by
UCL Institute of Archaeology.
The parks can be categorised as public garden squares, private
garden squares or other squares.
Social importance

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
Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised town square, square in the West End of London, England, and is the centre of London's entertainment district. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leice ...
". "
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" is a romantic
hit of 1940 with lyrics by
Eric Maschwitz
Albert Eric Maschwitz Order of the British Empire, OBE (10 June 1901 – 27 October 1969), sometimes credited as Holt Marvell, was an English entertainer, writer, editor, broadcaster and broadcasting executive.
Life and work
Born in Edgbaston, ...
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
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...
., ''
Man Hunt''. In the 1956 song "Why Can't The English?" from the musical ''
My Fair Lady
''My Fair Lady'' is a musical theatre, musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story, based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion (play), Pygmalion'' and on the Pygmalion (1938 film), 1938 film ...
'', Professor Henry Higgins laments, "Hear them down in Soho Square/Dropping H's everywhere."
Drama most notably includes the high-audience
soap opera
A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...
broadcast by the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
running since 1985, ''
EastEnders
''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...
'' 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''.
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". The
Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th centu ...
album ''Elvis Lives On the Moon'' also includes a song named after that square.
Notable communal gardens surrounded by buildings
Most notable town squares
List of Greater London squares
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.
Centremost postcodes
Inner
North and northwest
West and southwest
South
East
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.
Outer
East
West
(the London Boroughs of Hillingdon, Hounslow and Ealing, exc. Harefield, Isleworth and Feltham)
South West
Royal/London Boroughs of Kingston upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth, excluding Battersea, Norwood, Clapham and Balham.
South East
Royal/London Boroughs of Greenwich, Lewisham, Bexley and Bromley (plus Norwood and Dulwich)
North
South
North West
Demolished
*Angel Square, EC1
*Billiter Square, EC3
*Holford Square
*Harewood Square
*Pancras Square
See also
*
List of garden squares in London
*
Parks and open spaces in London
Notes and references
;Notes
;References
External links
London squares
London Parks and Gardens TrustLondon Squares by 1799
{{London landmarks
Squares, London