Lennox Gardens 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. ...

in the

Knightsbridge Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End of London, West End. ...

district of London SW1X. It is one of the most exclusive garden squares in Knightsbridge, and houses on the square are valued at up to £40 million. The houses surrounding the gardens were built around 1886 as part of the development of Smith's Charity Estate. Nos 1, 3 and 5, and 2, 4 and 6, at the northern end of Lennox Gardens on opposite sides of the junction with Walton Street are 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 ...

as is No 8 opposite the rear of St Columba's Church. The east side of the church faces the entrance to Lennox Gardens from

Pont Street Pont Street is a fashionable street in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, traversing the areas of Knightsbridge and Belgravia. The street is not far from the Knightsbridge department store Harrods to its north-west. The street ...

. 17–43 Lennox Gardens on the east side and of the gardens and No 52 (Lennox Lodge) at the left side of the entrance from

Milner Street Milner Street is a street in Chelsea, London, England. It runs roughly west from Cadogan Square, crossing Ovington Street, Lennox Gardens, and Clabon Mews. St Simon Zelotes is a grade II listed church in Milner Street, built in 1858–59, de ...

are also listed Grade II. 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 Lennox Gardens are in size. The gardens are laid out on the pitch of the late 19th-century

Prince's Club The Prince's Club was a socially exclusive gentlemen's multisports club in London, England. The original 'Prince's Club' was founded in 1853 in Chelsea by George and James Prince and its main sports were rackets and real tennis. Cricket, croquet ...

's former

Prince's Cricket Ground Prince's Cricket Ground in Chelsea, London was a cricket ground, created by the brothers George and James Prince as part of the Prince's Club, on which 37 first-class matches were played between 1872 and 1878. The ground was built on in 1883. The ...

, which itself had been laid out on Cattleugh's nursery gardens. Count Edward Raczynski (5097000905)

John Dunbar and his wife

Marianne Faithfull Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an English singer and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single " As Tears Go By" and became one of the lead female artists during the British I ...

lived in a flat in Lennox Gardens in the late 1960s, as did the American writer

Anne Edwards Anne Edwards (born August 20, 1927) is an American writer best known for her biographies of celebrities that include Princess Diana, Maria Callas, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, Vivien Leigh, Margaret Mitchell, Ronald Reagan, Barbra Streisand ...

and her husband Leon. James Gilbey, a scion of the Gilbey gin family, owned an apartment in Lennox Gardens and it was here that he would meet

Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

during their romance from the summer of 1989. Their relationship was later captured in the Squidgygate tapes. Section 2 of the American poet Charles Wright's 1983 poem ''A Journal of English Days'' is set during a rainy afternoon in Lennox Gardens where the narrator imagines the Greek ferryman of the underworld,

Charon In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon (; grc, Χάρων) is a psychopomp, the ferryman of Hades, the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the wo ...

crossing the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

in the rain. Section 4 of the poem depicts a walk around the area immediately surrounding Lennox Gardens.

Lord Wakehurst Baron Wakehurst, of Ardingly in the County of Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 29 June 1934 for the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician Gerald Loder, 1st Baron Wakehurst, Gerald Loder, fift ...

and his family lived in a house in Lennox Gardens in the 1950s, his son, the future businessman and art collector

Robert Loder Robert Beauclerk Loder, (24 April 1934 – 22 July 2017) was an English businessman and art collector. He was particularly concerned in developing contemporary African art. Biography Loder was the son of John Loder, 2nd Baron Wakehurst and his ...

let his friend

Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy (17 May 1933 – 16 July 2019) was a British author, known for biographies, including one of Alfred Kinsey, and books of social history on the British nanny and public school system. For his autobiography, ''Half an Arc ...

stay in a flat on the top floor of their property. Gathorne-Hardy recalled living in Lennox Gardens in his 2004 memoir, ''Half an Arch''. George Devey's design for a house for Samuel Juler Wyand at 25 Lennox Gardens is in the collection of the British Architectural Library. The average price of a property in Lennox Gardens was £2.2 million in 2018.

References

{{Coord, 51, 29, 44.07, N, 0, 9, 47.39, W, scale:3125_region:GB, display=title 1886 in London Communal gardens Garden squares in London Grade II listed houses in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Houses completed in the 19th century

Lennox Gardens, London Lennox Gardens is a garden square in the Knightsbridge district of London SW1X. It is one of the most exclusive garden squares in Knightsbridge, and houses on the square are valued at up to £40 million. The houses surrounding the gardens were ...

Knightsbridge Cricket grounds in London