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Trevor Square is an elongated
garden square A garden square is a type of communal garden in an urban area wholly or substantially surrounded by buildings; commonly, it continues to be applied to public and private parks formed after such a garden becomes accessible to the public at large. ...
in
Knightsbridge Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End. Toponymy Knightsbridge is an ancient ...
,
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. It was designed in the 1810s chiefly by architect William Fuller Pocock, and the mid-rise, basemented houses fronting its two long sides, with slate mansard roofs are listed in the British protective and recognising scheme, and were built in the 1820s. The main stonemason employed was Lancelot Edward Wood after whom is named neighbouring street Lancelot Place (originally Petwin Place).


Location

It is in the west of Knightbridge, north of
Brompton Road Brompton Road is a street located in the southern part from Knightsbridge and in the eastern part from Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and partly the City of Westminster in London. It starts from Knightsbridge Und ...
, in Anglican terms it is in
South Kensington South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with t ...
but historically the parish near-equated to the detached part of
St Margaret's Westminster The Church of St Margaret, Westminster Abbey, is in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, London, England. It is dedicated to Margaret of Antioch, and forms part of a single World Heritage Site with the Palace of Westminst ...
, which explains the present borough. The nearest public transit station is
Knightsbridge tube station Knightsbridge is a London Underground station in Knightsbridge, London. It is on the Piccadilly line between South Kensington and Hyde Park Corner, and is in Travelcard Zone 1. History The station was opened on 15 December 1906 by the Great ...
.


History

The square was mainly detailed from 1810 by architect William Fuller Pocock and later, less so, by his son
William Willmer Pocock William Willmer Pocock (8 May 1813 – 18 September 1899) was a British architect. He was born in Knightsbridge in Middlesex, the son of the architect William Fuller Pocock (1779–1849) and his wife Fanny née Willmer. In 1865 he stood unsucce ...
.'Trevor Square Area: Development of the Estate', in Survey of London: Volume 45, Knightsbridge, ed. John Greenacombe (London, 2000), pp. 97-102 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol45/pp97-102 The blueprint was approved by fellow architect
Philip Hardwick Philip Hardwick (15 June 1792 in London – 28 December 1870) was an English architect, particularly associated with railway stations and warehouses in London and elsewhere. Hardwick is probably best known for London's demolished Euston Arch ...
. Arthur Hill-Trevor, 3rd Viscount Dungannon agreed to demolish his Powis House in 1811 to make way for the new development. The first houses were completed in 1820; most of them were completed by 1827. In 1816, John Morison established the Trevor Chapel, later known as the Trevor Congregational Church on the corner of Lancelot Place. This closed in 1902 to be replaced by a
Harrods Harrods Limited is a department store located on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It is currently owned by the state of Qatar via its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. The Harrods brand also applies to oth ...
showroom. By 1911, the minor, overarching legal interest ( reversion) of the square's garden and any buildings enjoyed on long leases (by others) belonged to
J. C. Humphreys ''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...
.


Layout and appearance

The square is open, at its north end, into a broad backstreet, Trevor Street, of similar house design and date, at an alike length as the square ending at a broad road then
Hyde Park Barracks, London The Hyde Park Barracks are in Knightsbridge in central London, on the southern edge of Hyde Park. They were often known as Knightsbridge Barracks and this name is still sometimes used informally. The barracks are from Buckingham Palace, enabli ...
, which are set against Hyde Park. A corner house to an adjacent street, Trevor Place, Hill House reflects the Hill-Trevor land ownership before the square was built. On the south side a fractionally recessed block takes up a small tapering block of buildings (№s 17-18) indented by a rear parking access. The square has an outlying set of numbering to the west alongside this, a very large building known as №s 19-22. The highest number is № 38, set across an access road on a north-west corner. The fronts of both very dominant (vast bulk of the rectangle) sides have with light-painted, quasi stone-clad in ashlar blocks ( rusticated) lower floors and yellow- or brown- brick upper floors. Decoration is given by black railings, broad steps, arched doorways, panelled sash windows in recessed, quite heavy white frames, window boxes, and entrance-floor-matching under-painted balconies supporting small mediterranean-style trees, among other classically graceful features. The gardens (at centre) are a private, communal, planted contrast to the skirting, backstreet road.


Listed buildings

All of the long sides (№s 1-16 and 23-38) are
listed Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...
(that is, in the initial mainstream category) on the
National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...
, giving statutory protection and recognition for architecture and/or age.


References


External links


Trevor Square at London Gardens Online
{{coord, 51.500479, -0.164751, type:landmark_region:GB-KEC, display=title Knightsbridge Squares in the City of Westminster Communal gardens Garden squares in London Grade II listed houses in the City of Westminster