Oakley Square is a crescent-shaped garden square in Somers Town in

Central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...

, close to Mornington Crescent and

Camden Town Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as o ...

. It is located in the London Borough of Camden and runs roughly northeastwards from

Eversholt Street The A4200 is a major thoroughfare in central London. It runs between the A4 at Aldwych, to the A400 Hampstead Road/ Camden High Street, at Mornington Crescent tube station. Kingsway Kingsway is a major road in central London, desig ...

meeting with the southern end of Camden Street on its eastern side. It was originally part of the Bedford Estate belonging to the

Dukes of Bedford Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 and 1433 respectively, in favour of Henry IV of England, ...

, and takes its name from the village of Oakley in Bedfordshire which belonged to the family from the eighteenth century. It was laid out in the early Victorian era, later than nearby Mornington Crescent and Arlington Road and around the same time as Harrington Square. On the northern side some of the Victorian terraced housing still exists as well as the redbrick Working Men's College established in 1854. On the southern side the original buildings have been replaced by more recent developments. The Godwin Court

Council apartment block A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or na ...

was built on the east end of the square on a large bomb site, there was also a EWS (Emergency Water Supply) tank on the bomb site, Godwin Court was built after 1946. The white

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

Victorian lodge in the gardens is now

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

as are a number of the houses. From 1854 the square was home to the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

St Matthew's Church, designed by John Johnson, but this was later deconsecrated and finally demolished in 1977, although the old vicarage still survives, which is also now Grade II listed.

References

Bibliography

* Bebbington, Gillian. ''London Street Names''. Batsford, 1972. * Cockburn, J. S., King, H. P. F. & McDonnell, K. G. T. & ''A History of the County of Middlesex''. Institute of Historical Research, 1989. * Cherry, Bridget & Pevsner, Nikolaus. ''London 3: North West''. Yale University Press, 2002. * Drew, Alison. ''Between Empire and Revolution: A Life of Sidney Bunting, 1873-1936''. Routledge, 2015. Streets in the London Borough of Camden Camden Town Squares in the London Borough of Camden {{London-road-stub