Kensington Square

Kensington Square is a garden square in Kensington, London, W8. It was founded in 1685 and is the oldest such square in Kensington. The homes facing, split among №s 1–45 have statutory protection and recognition in the initial, mainstream category (they are listed Grade II for their architectural/historic merit).[2]

Kensington Square
Looking west across Kensington Square from the southeastern corner
Length0.2 mi[1] (0.3 km)
Postal codeW8
Coordinates51.5006°N 0.1900°W / 51.5006; -0.1900
Construction
Inauguration1685 (1685)

History

In 1685, Thomas Young, a woodcarver, acquired land in Kensington which he sought to develop, and as he later described it in 1701, "did sett out and appoint a considerable part thereof to be built into a large Square of large and substantial Houses fit for ye Habitacion of persons of good Worth and Quality, with Courts and Yards before and Gardens lying backwards".[3]

In London, St. James's Square, Soho Square and Golden Square are a few years older, but in contrast with these Kensington Square still retains its residential character.

Garden

The communal gardens were laid out in 1698 and are 0.36 hectares (0.89 acres) in size. The garden is private and not open to the public, though it has taken part in the annual Open Garden Squares Weekend.[2]

Heythrop College

№ 23 was Heythrop College, University of London until 2018, "the Specialist Philosophy and Theology College of the University of London," which included a library originally established in 1614 in Louvain (Leuven) by the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) for those studies.[4] [5]

Former residents
Blue plaque holders

The square includes the former homes of:

Other homes belonged to, or were rented as their family home by:

  • Lawyer and positivist Vernon Lushington at № 36. He introduced one of the foremost Pre-Raphaelites to another: E. Burne Jones (Burne-Jones) to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, at the Working Men's College. The Lushingtons and Parrys frequently visited each other.
  • Scholar and philanthropist Richard Buckley Litchfield (1832–1903) at № 31 with his wife
  • Henrietta Litchfield (1843–1927), who was Charles Darwin's daughter.
  • Their niece, artist Gwen Raverat, describes visits there in her memoir Period Piece.[6]

Between 1831 and 1896 (the) Kensington School occupied two sites: № 31, then №s 25–29. It is notable as one of the founders of the Football Association in 1863. The school built classrooms and fives courts in the gardens of the houses; all that remains is № 27a, the cottage or small house behind № 28.

In the 2016 film The Exception, protagonist Mieke de Jong coyly inscribes a copy of landmark philosophical work Beyond Good and Evil with:

For my ignorant friend.

15 Kensington square, London W.

See also

References
  1. "Driving directions to Kensington Square". Google. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  2. "Kensington Square". London Gardens Online. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  3. "Kensington Square and environs: Introduction". British History Online (BHO). Retrieved 18 February 2016.
  4. Heythrop College: About us
  5. Heythrop College: How to find us Archived 2010-02-23 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Raverat, Gwen (2013). Period Piece. London: Slightly Foxed. pp. 139–154. ISBN 978-1-906562-58-8. First published by Faber & Faber, 1952
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