Kensington
Edwardes Square
Edwardes Square is one of the largest squares in Kensington and is just south of Earls Terrace in Kensington High Street. The central communal garden is one of the largest garden squares in Central London and is considered by many to be the most beautiful garden square in Kensington and Chelsea. There is also the building known as ‘the Temple’ at the side, from which you get an excellent view of the central communal gardens. It is built like a small Greek temple and one side has a very large greenhouse, giving it a very rural feel. The central garden is beautifully kept with many lawns, mature trees, flowerbeds and shrubs. The garden itself spreads to several acres and is well worth a visit when it opens to the public every Summer on Open Gardens day.
The square is surrounded by terraces on all side. On the east side there are Victorian three-storey houses with facades stuccoed up to first floor level. The south side has some contrasting architecture, including a very attractive mansion block in the south east corner and some old, artists studios. These are mainly red brick. The west side of Edwardes Square has similar houses to the east side with small attractive front gardens. The north side is slightly different in that it consists of the back entrances to the gardens of Earls Terrace.
In the south east corner of the square is the famous Scarsdale Tavern which is considered by many to be one of the nicest pubs in Kensington. It has a delightful area at the front – nice for sitting out on a hot Summer’s evening.
Edwardes Square was part of the Edwardes Estate.
Edwardes was the family name of Lord Kensington who owned the land. In 1811 he entered into an agreement with a French immigrant, Louis Leon Changeur, to build houses on 11 acres of his land to the south of Kensington High Street (as it is now called). Changeur described himself as an architect, but he’d had something of a chequered history – in 1804 he spent 6 months in Fleet Prison. Memory of the French connection to the square led to a later myth that the square was built to house French officers of Napoleon’s army when he conquered England.
Edwardes Square was an odd design – in fact one not designed to maximise profit – because a very large part was devoted to the garden in the middle and the surrounding houses were really quite small. Most of the houses on the two sides of the square were built with just 3 storeys above basements, although those nearest Kensington High Street had 4 storeys above basements. Many of the houses had frontages of only 20 ft. and a depth of as little as 25 ft. Extra wings at the rear were added much later. So the houses were small even by the standards of the age – but as a result better suited that in many later squares for today’s families. Generally the façades of the houses were plain brick but with stuccoed ground floor and basement.
Between the gardens and Kensington High Street a row of 25 houses set back from the main road were constructed, called Earls Terrace. At each end there were two shorter rows, which became Leonard Place and Edwardes Place.
Running along the east side of the gardens, on the other side of what is now Pembroke Villas, was to be a terrace of 25 houses facing the square. (In fact, the plots for the last four were converted into plots for two houses (Nos. 22 and 23). So there were 23 houses on that side (Nos. 1-23).
On the west side there were initially going to be 26 houses facing the square over what is now Pembroke Gardens. But again, the last two plots were converted into a single house (No. 24) so that this terrace consisted of 25 houses (Nos. 24-48).
The south side was built as stables and servants cottages but has been substantially rebuilt since.
Unfortunately for Changeur, there was a dip in the property market between 1811 and 1817 and in 1813 Changeur was bankrupt, with many of the houses unfinished. In 1814 Nos. 14-17 were sold as complete houses, ready to occupy. Nos. 18-23 were sold as carcasses. They were bought by John Robins, who had lent money to Changeur for the development. By 1817 he had completed and sold them. It was he who turned the four planned houses into Nos. 22 and 23, because he was building to the requirements of buyers who set up girls boarding schools there.
Changeur has also borrowed heavily from William Allen, a Bloomsbury lawyer, and Daniel Sutton, a carpet manufacturer in Wilton. They were both caught up in Changeur’s bankruptcy. Both Changeur and Allen fled to France to avoid Debtors Prison. Sutton survived, took over many of the houses which had been allocated to Changeur and later to Allen. In 1812 he took leases of Nos. 1-5 Leonard Place and Nos. 1-10 Earls Terrace. In 1815 he took Nos. 11-25 Earls Terrace and many of the other plots and carcasses.
By 1821 the whole square had been successfully built and sold or let.
On the south side of the square, stables were built in the late 19th Century, as well as a block of studios.
The garden itself was laid out by Agostino Aglio an Italian artist who lived at No. 15 Edwardes Square from 1814 – 1820. A temple was built on the south side of the garden square, which was part of Changeur’s original plan. Trustees were set up to manage it. They were given power to exclude anyone from the garden who might be deemed offensive to the other inhabitants. Automatically offensive persons included, in particular, anyone living in a house or apartment worth less than £30 per annum in rent. The original oil lamps were replaced by gas lights in 1835. The garden was the subject of a landmark court case in 1910. The freehold land of the square was bought by Amalgamated Estates Limited, who then wanted to build on it. They took steps to barricade the garden and padlock the gates. But the garden trustees took the matter to court. It eventually went to the House of Lords who decided that, although the lease had come to an end, an Act of Parliament of 1819 which had created the right of the residents to manage the gardens had in fact given them that right in perpetuity. This ruling then prevented many other garden squares in London being built on.
Residents of Edwardes Square have included:-
No. 1 - G.K. Chesterton 1901
No. 23 - Sir Henry Newbolt 1898-1907
No. 32 - Leigh Hunt 1840-51
