Chester Square, Belgravia

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Four early 19th century garden squares established as part of the town-planning scheme for Belgravia by Thomas Cubitt and his associates.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Belgravia lies in central London, to the south of Hyde Park (qv), west and south of Green Park (qv), east of Kensington, and north of the River Thames. A single road connects all the squares registered here and runs south-east from the west side of Wilton Crescent to Belgrave Square, through Eaton Square as Belgrave Place, and then through Chester Square as Eccleston Street. This main axis is orientated north-west to south-east. At Ebury Street, c 60m south-east of Chester Square, the axis shifts slightly to the east and then crosses Buckingham Palace Road before entering Pimlico and running along the north-east sides of Eccleston Square (qv) and then Warwick Square (qv) as Belgrave Road.

Belgrave Square is located in Belgravia, to the west of Buckingham Palace (qv), to the south of Hyde Park, and c 600m to the north-west of Victoria Station. It is bounded on all four sides by the roads and houses of Belgrave Square. The railings around the 2ha site were removed during the Second World War and, in the 1970s, new railings of a more modern design were installed. Memorial sculptures are positioned in the gardens on the east corner (Simon Bolivar, erected 1974), the south corner (Christopher Columbus, erected 1993), the north corner (San Martin, liberator of Argentina, erected 1994), and the west corner (Prince Henry the Navigator, erected 2002). These necessitated alterations to the railings and the boundary plantings. The mainly level site has a raised area in the middle which survives from c 1894. There are four entrances to the garden from Belgrave Square, one on each side of the site, all leading to the perimeter gravel path. The terraced houses around the square are of five or six storeys, including attic and basement. The north and east sides have a six-column centre, the centre on the south-side has eight columns, and that on the west centre has four. Houses Nos 1-36 and 38-48 are listed grade I, Nos 37 and 49 are listed grade II*.

Chester Square is located in Belgravia, c 75m to the south-east of Eaton Square, c 400m to the south-east of Belgrave Square, and c 300m to the west of Victoria Station. The two rectangular gardens of the square are laid out on level ground and are enclosed by railings which were reinstated to the original design in the 1970s. The c 0.4ha gardens are bounded to the north and south by Chester Square. Eccleston Street runs through the centre. There are entrances through simple gates in the north and south sides of the gardens, four to the west garden and two to the east garden, as pairs on the opposite sides. There are terraces of stuccoed houses by Thomas Cubitt (1835, mostly listed grade II) to the north, south, and at the east end. There are no houses along Eccleston Street which separates the gardens. The west end of the square is terminated by St Michael's church (Thomas Cundy 1844, listed grade II).

Eaton Square is located in Belgravia, c 600m to the west of Buckingham Palace, c 700m north of Victoria Station, and c 250m south-east of Belgrave Square. The six rectangular gardens that form the square fill a 6ha rectangular site, which runs north-east/south-west for c 473m, enclosed by the roads of Eaton Square, bisected north-east/south-west by King's Road, and further crossed north-west/south-east by Eccleston Street and Lyall Street. The streets effectively divide the area into six related rectangles, the middle pair being the largest. All the gardens are on level ground and are enclosed by railings which were reinstated in the 1970s. The individual gardens are all entered from the Eaton Square side; the larger two gardens have two entrances, the other four have one centrally placed entrance, positioned as recorded on the 2nd edition OS map of 1894. The houses of Eaton Square were developed by Cubitt and Seth-Smith who erected three blocks of houses on each side. The middle ones have the most pronounced motifs. Those on the north-west side of Eaton Square (listed grade II*) were built by Cubitt between 1826 and the end of the 1840s. The houses on the south-east side (the majority of which are also listed grade II*) were built by Seth-Smith c 1825-30. The stucco houses, most converted into flats in the 1950s, are of four storeys with basement and attic, and most have projecting Doric porches. All are an intergral part of Eaton Square's planned layout for which the gardens were made. The row of stuccoed houses to the south (listed grade II) dates to the mid C19; all the houses have five storeys and a basement, with a balustraded first-floor balcony and projecting Doric porches. The C19 St Peter's church (listed grade II*) is situated in the north-east corner of Eaton Square.

Wilton Crescent is situated in Belgravia, c 800m west of Buckingham Palace, c 100m north-west of Belgrave Square, and c 900m north-west of Victoria Station. The c 0.2ha crescent-shaped garden is bounded by C20 railings and has entrances on the east side of the straight south-east side and on the central part of the curve. The houses on Wilton Crescent (mostly listed grade II) surrounding the gardens were built in 1827 by Seth-Smith and Cubitt. Those on the curving north-west to north side are divided into two terraces by Wilton Place which runs off the centre of the curving side of the Crescent. These terraces were refaced in stone in the 1900s by Balfour and Turner. The houses along the south-east side are stuccoed.

GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS

The garden of Belgrave Square is screened from the road by evergreen shrubberies much as shown on the OS maps of 1864 and 1897, although the C19 grass verges have gone. The paths have recently (late C20) been renovated and restored to their original layout. From the gravel perimeter path a series of serpentine paths leads to a circular inner path. The ground between the outer and inner paths is laid to grass and shrubberies similar to the C19 design. The entrance to the inner circle of the garden is controlled by a C20 chain-link fence and oak entrance gates. This innermost area of the inner circle is raised above the rest of the garden and supported first a single tree, then, in 1867, a seat, which is not shown on the next available map of 1894. A hard tennis court, screened from the rest of the garden by an evergreen hedge, was made on the south-west side of the mound in 1928, formalising the late C19 tradition of lawn tennis in the garden. A C20 children's playground is situated to the north-east of the mound. The circular inner gravel path has four C19 Classical-style shelters situated at regular intervals alongside the path. The shelters, painted with four Doric columns, and a plain entablature with pediment (2002), had by 1894 replaced seats shown on the 1867 plan. A late C20 wooden pergola with trellis sides has been erected on the south side of the inner circle and there is an enclosed garden in the south-west corner of the square. A number of mature plane trees survive on the lawns and in the shrub beds. Within the garden there is a statue of the Homage to Vitruvian Man by Plazzotta and a bust of George Basevi, architect of Belgrave Square. There is also a statue of Robert Grosvenor, first Marquess of Westminster, in the northern corner of the square, opposite the sculpture of San Martin.

The western of the two gardens of Chester Square was originally two gardens but by the late C19 (OS 1894), the central and western gardens (both west of Eccleston Street) had been joined together. In the space that was formally occupied by a road separating the two parts there is now (late C20) a formal garden hedged in yew. The east garden, and the two original areas of the present west garden (to the west and east of the formal garden) all follow the simple layout shown on the 1st edition OS map (1869) with an open lawn, bounded by a perimeter path and shrubbery, with mature trees. In the centre of each lawn is a very large plane tree.

The gardens of Eaton Square are screened from the roads by evergreen shrubberies, very much as shown on the OS maps of 1897. The entrances from Eaton Square lead to gravel perimeter paths which encircle central lawns and, like the entrances, these reflect the late C19 design. There are slight variations to the layout of the individual gardens, but plane trees and shrubberies, and in some instances cross-paths reinstated in the 1950s, remain a constant feature from the late C19 design. The south-west garden retains the height added in 1867, but the central garden to the east has been substantially altered to accommodate an air-raid shelter and the needs of tenants, with an early C20 tennis court at the southern end, and a timber-clad shed and formal planted area over the former air-raid shelter.

The garden of Wilton Crescent is laid out simply and is little altered from the design shown on the 1st edition OS map (1869). A paved path runs around the perimeter of the garden, which is bordered by a shrubbery with mature planes. A lawn occupies the centre of the garden, which has a centrally positioned stone urn.

REFERENCES

E B Chancellor, The History of the Squares of London (1907), pp 333, 335, 338-341

E Cecil, London Parks and Gardens (1907), p 239

Royal Commission Report on London Squares (1928)

London Squares Preservation Act (1931)

Hermione Hobhouse, Thomas Cubitt, Master Builder (1971)

B Cherry and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London 1 The Cities of London and Westminster (3rd edn 1973), pp 553-558, 635

London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust, London Squares (conference proceedings, June 1995)

Maps

J Rocque, Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster and Borough of Southwark and the country near ten miles around, surveyed 1741-1745, published 1746

R Horwood, Map of London, 1792-1799, 2nd edition 1813 by William Faden

Christopher and John Greenwood, Map of London, 1827

Thomas Cubitt, Plan of Pimlico, 1830, 1840, 1860

Bacon, Map of London, 1888

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1869

2nd edition published 1894

3rd edition published 1916

OS 60" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1867

2nd edition published 1894

Description written: April 1998

Amended: December 2001, November 2002, April 2003

Edited: August 2003