Hereford Square map Ordnance Survey 1860s

Hereford Square is a

garden square A garden square is a type of communal garden in an urban area wholly or substantially surrounded by buildings; commonly, it continues to be applied to public and private parks formed after such a garden becomes accessible to the public at large. ...

South Kensington South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...

, London SW7. It lies to the west of Gloucester Road, which forms the east side of the square.

Wetherby Place Wetherby () is a market town and civil parish in the City of Leeds district, West Yorkshire, England, close to West Yorkshire county's border with North Yorkshire, and lies approximately from Leeds City Centre, from York and from Harrogat ...

is the western continuation, running off the north-west corner of the square. 10–23 and 27–35 Hereford Square have been listed Grade II on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

since November 1984. The private

communal gardens A communal garden (often used in the plural as communal gardens) is a (normally formal) garden for shared use by a number of local residents, typically in an urban setting. The term is especially used in the United Kingdom. The centre of many cit ...

in the centre of Hereford Square are in size. The garden was used as a

baseball field A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refers ...

during World War II by American soldiers.

History

Hereford Square was built by the architect Thomas Holmes from 1845 to 1850.

Notable buildings and residents

* George Crichton Wells (1914–1999), dermatologist *

George Borrow George Henry Borrow (5 July 1803 – 26 July 1881) was an English writer of novels and of travel based on personal experiences in Europe. His travels gave him a close affinity with the Romani people of Europe, who figure strongly in his work. Hi ...

(1803–1881), lived at No. 22. *

Frederick William Hulme Frederick William Hulme (22 October 1816 – 14 November 1884) was an English landscape painter and illustrator. Hulme was born in Swinton in Yorkshire, the son of Jesse Hulme and Elizabeth Trewolla. His mother was a porcelain painter and ...

(1816–1884), landscape painter and illustrator, lived at No. 4, according to the 1851 census. * John Arrowsmith, cartographer, lived at No. 35 from 1861 to 1873. *

Robert Nandor Berki Robert Nandor Berki (1936-1991), who published as R. N. Berki, was a Hungarian-British political scientist. Life Berki was born on 12 July 1936 in Budapest, and educated from 1941 to 1952 at the Catholic Piarista Convent School in Budapest. After ...

, political scientist, lived at No. 7 in the late 1950s. *

William Henry Brookfield William Henry Brookfield (31 August 1809 – 12 July 1874) was an Anglican priest, Inspector of Schools, and chaplain-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria.. His son was the playwright Charles Brookfield. Biography William Henry Brookfield was th ...

, clergyman, died at No. 16 in 1874. *

H. O. Arnold-Forster Hugh Oakeley Arnold-Forster PC (19 August 1855 – 12 March 1909), known as H. O. Arnold-Forster, was a British politician and writer. He notably served as Secretary of State for War from 1903 in Balfour's Conservative government until Decemb ...

, writer and politician, died at No. 27 in 1909. The artist

Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...

and his wife Ellen stayed at No. 10 Hereford Square in the autumn of 1890 with Ellen's sister,

Jane Cobden Emma Jane Catherine Cobden (28 April 1851 – 7 July 1947), known as Jane Cobden, was a British Liberal politician who was active in many radical causes. A daughter of the Victorian reformer and statesman Richard Cobden, she was an early ...

. The model and writer

Tara Moss Tara Rae Moss (born 2 October 1973) is a Canadian-Australian author, documentary maker and presenter, journalist, former model and UNICEF national ambassador for child survival. Biography Moss was born in Victoria, British Columbia, where she a ...

recalled living in a "freezing granny flat" of a mansion in Hereford Square while she worked as a babysitter during the early days of her modelling career in her 2014 memoir ''The Fictional Woman''. The writer and social activist

Frances Power Cobbe Frances Power Cobbe (4 December 1822 – 5 April 1904) was an Anglo-Irish writer, philosopher, religious thinker, social reformer, anti-vivisection activist and leading women's suffrage campaigner. She founded a number of animal advocacy group ...

lived with her partner, the sculptor Mary Lloyd, at No. 26 from 1862 to 1884.

Fictional references

The central character in

Iris Murdoch Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her fi ...

's ''

A Severed Head ''A Severed Head'' is a satirical, sometimes farcical 1961 novel by Iris Murdoch. It was Murdoch's fifth published novel. Primary themes include marriage, adultery, and incest within a group of civilised and educated people. Set in and around ...

'' lives in Hereford Square.

References

External links

1845 establishments in England Communal gardens Grade II listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Grade II listed houses in London Houses completed in the 19th century

Hereford Square Hereford Square is a garden square in South Kensington, London SW (postcode area), SW7. It lies to the west of Gloucester Road, London, Gloucester Road, which forms the east side of the square. Wetherby Place is the western continuation, running ...

Streets in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea {{London-road-stub