DEDICATED (BY GRACIOus permissiON) ΤΟ H.R.H. THE PRINCESS ROYAL DUCHESS OF FIFE THE ONLY MEMBER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY OF LONDON M PREFACE Y aim in the writing of this book has been to give the history of the various Squares dealt with in as concise a form as possible, together with, in some cases, short accounts of past interesting inhabitants and anecdotes bearing on them or the localities in which they lived. It has been obviously impossible to be exhaustive in the treatment of the different Squares, I mean, to trace the history of each house and its successive owners from the earliest days of their dual history, for had I attempted any such feat, my work would have been well-nigh endless, and I fear the volumes, like the valley of bones, would have been very many and very dry. I have, however, consulted many Rate Books to confirm a date, or with the hope of discovering fresh names of interest, and my search has, I am glad to think, not always been unprofitable. If I attempted to tender my individual thanks to every one who has given me help, during the writing of this book, my task would be a pleasant, but it would also be a lengthy, one. Not only have very many of the present residents in the various Squares of London afforded me every assistance in their power, but the Rectors and Vicars of churches which in many instances stand in the precincts of the Squares, have also given me help on matters in which their knowledge is extensive and peculiar. There are, however, some to whom my indebtedness cannot be discharged by a mere general line of thanks, and their names should rightly be found here, even if their claims on my gratitude are not specifically stated; but under the general heading of direct information, loans of books, &c., and researches on behalf of this work, the following, among many others who have shown interest in its progress, it gives me pleasure to particularly thank: Mrs. Richmond Ritchie; Lady Burne-Jones; Mrs. J. R. Green; Mrs. Godfrey Clark; the Marquis of Lansdowne; the Earl of Kerry; Lord Carew; the Archdeacon of Westminster; C. B. B. McLaren, Esq., K.C., M.P.; G. Harland Peck, Esq.; the Hon. Percy Wyndham ; Godfrey Hamilton, Esq.; W. T. Boodle, Esq.; H. J. Fielding, Esq.; Sir Howard Vincent; John B. Chubb, Esq., F.R.I.B.A.; Weedon Grossmith, Esq.; Walter P. Daniell, Esq.; Lord Haversham; Graham Vivian, Esq.; the Earl of Powis; A. Rhuvon Guest, Esq.; A. S. Sadler, Esq.; H. E. Hamilton-King, Esq.; Robert Birkbeck, Esq.; J. H. Yoxall, Esq., M.P.; G. P. Willoughby, Esq.; Francis Ricardo, Esq.; Halsey Ricardo, Esq.; Herbert C. Gibbs, Esq.; W. Harris, Esq.; L. L. Berman, Esq.; T. F. Blackwell, Esq.; A. R. O. Stutfield, Esq.; F. W. Hunt, Esq.; J. Mackintosh, Esq.; besides many others who have taken an interest in the work during its progress, and have helped with advice and encouragement. To these sources of information must be added both that of the offices of the various ground-landlords, as well as the Rate Books. From the heads of the former and the custodians of the latter I have received every courtesy, which I here most gratefully acknowledge. To speak in any detail of the books I have consulted-historical, biographical, and topographical—is unnecessary; but had I not had the splendid piece of work which Mr. Arthur Dasent has done in his History of St. James's Square, or the excellent account of Leicester Square by Tom Taylor (the only two books, so far as I know, dealing specifically with Squares), my chapters on those two places would have been far less adequate, than, thanks to them, I hope I have made them. Of a more embracing nature, I need hardly say how much I owe to Mr. H. B. Wheatley's great amplification of Cunningham's Handbook of London, under the title of London Past and Present, a monumental work which combines the various labours of those who have more amply dealt with particular districts, whose individual works have also laid me under deep obligations; to which Mr. Harrison's Memorable London Houses and Mr. Hutton's Literary Landmarks must be added, as affording those short cuts to information which might otherwise have been easily overlooked. To all these, and to how many others, I can but say, in Hamlet's words "Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you.' 29 ELM PARK GARDENS, S.W. E. B. C. T INTRODUCTION "London! thou comprehensive word, What joys thy streets and squares afford." LUTTRELL, Advice to Julia. HE "Square" as we know it, that is, as a residential quarter, is essentially an English institution. It is neither exactly analogous to the French Place, the Italian Piazza, or the German Platz; nor do we find on the Continent, to take but this quarter of the globe, any collocation of private houses, the inhabitants of which have a sort of prescriptive right over the ground on which their residences abut, as have those in the residential Squares of London; for such as Trafalgar and Sloane Squares, which have much in common with the Places of Paris, are not included in the perambulation which we are about to undertake.1 Those which I have dealt with in this volume, are practically all the residential Squares in London; their number is a larger one than many people would at first imagine, and their characteristics are curiously diverse. As Charles Lamb speaks of certain books which are no books, so I may well describe certain Squares as being "no Squares"; and by this is not meant merely that their form logically precludes the appropriateness of such a designation, for were this so, this book would be a small one, as it is a curious fact that hardly any of the Squares of London are, in form, square at all; there are some which are triangles, some with only three, and many with unequal sides, and a few mere wedges and excrescences from adjoining thoroughfares; but by "no Squares" are meant such curious survivals of a past time, as, to take an instance, Gough Square, which contains one house of great interest and a few other buildings of little or none. Then, the diverse characteristics of London Squares will be found in the antithesis of those in the east, to those in the west, end of the City. The former, once important in their buildings and their past residents, but now fallen from their high estate to merely commercial and Neither are the Squares belonging to the various Inns of Court dealt with, as being in their character sui generis; and requiring for their adequate treatment, a volume to themselves. |