West Square
Coordinates: 51°29′43″N 0°6′20″W / 51.49528°N 0.10556°W
West Square is a historic square in south London, England, just south from St George's Road. The square is within the London Borough of Southwark, but as it is located in postcode SE11, it is commonly said to be in Lambeth.
Immediately to the west is the Imperial War Museum (formerly the Bethlem Royal Hospital). To the south is the Imperial War Museum Annex (which used to be an orphans' home) in Austral Street.
The terraced houses in the square surround a communal garden that is open to the public during the day but locked at night. The square forms part of a larger conservation area.
History
The Temple West family originally owned the land here, hence the name. In 1791, the area was leased for house building, though it took some twenty or more years to complete the square, a fact reflected in the different styles of construction, with the four houses in the south-east corner of the square being built last. The garden in the centre of the square was completed by 1799.
In 1812, a tower was built by the Admiralty at 36 West Square for a telegraph using shutters. During the Napoleonic Wars, this transmitted messages between Whitehall and the Royal Navy in Kent. In the 1800s, the square was used to house some staff at the Bethlem Royal Hospital (now the Imperial War Museum).
J. A. R. Newlands (1837–1898), the Victorian chemist who discovered the Periodic Law for the chemical elements, was born and raised in a house at the south-west corner of the square. A blue plaque, installed by the Royal Society of Chemistry, commemorates Newlands on the front of the house.
In 1884–5, the Charlotte Sharman School was built on the north-west side, named after its founder the Christian philanthropist. It is still located there.[1]
As a young child, Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) lived at 39 West Square for a short period. He later recalled:[2]
- West Square! At the back of the Bedlam Lunatic Asylum. This is as far back as I can remember as a child. It was there, somewhere around the age of three, we lived in a large house.
At the end of the 19th century, the garden in the square was threatened with building development, but there was a campaign to keep it. In 1909, the freehold was bought for £3,500 by the London County Council and the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark. They enlarged and restored the garden, which was then opened for public use in 1910. The square was scheduled to protect it under the 1931 London Squares Preservation Act. However, after the Second World War, it was proposed that the buildings should be demolished and the area added to Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park. This was blocked by the Civic Amenities Act and instead the square became a conservation area. Following the War, the north-west corner of the square was demolished and prefab houses were built. These were eventually replaced by modern town houses designed to blend in with the original Georgian architecture. The west side of the square - designed as a single terrace - was also much-altered after the War, with pairs of houses being run together to create four lateral flats in each property. In 1997/98, and with the exception of numbers 10 and 11, the terrace was reconverted to single houses. Overall, the square remains largely intact and of historic interest, a fact reflected in the 1972 Grade II listing of the east, south and wide sides.
See also
- Lorrimore Square, also in Southwark
References
External links
- West Square conservation area 14 (PDF map)
- A Walk through Lambeth and Southwark
- A Short History of London's Garden Squares: 1900 to 1950