Porchester Square is an archetypal-format, narrow

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

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. ...

Bayswater Bayswater is an area within the City of Westminster in West London. It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, and ...

on the cusp of inter-related Westbourne. It is lined with tall white Victorian

classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...

residential buildings. It is half of one large block south of the closing section of the

Great Western Main Line The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs westwards from London Paddington to . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. Opened in 1841, it was the or ...

that leads into

London Paddington station Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great We ...

History

Etymology

Successive heads of the Thistlewaites, whose seat was Porchester manor in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, were foremost of three to four co-trustees of the Bishop of London's majority landholding of

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

. This was throughout conversion from agricultural dominance to controlled urban housing: before 1750 until building began on this particular plot in 1850. Their manor was agreed as acceptable for three roads that survive and Porchester Square at the time.

Development

Eight building firms were used, resulting in slightly different exteriors of the large houses (now internally all converted into flats). Classical features are: *porticoed steps to the front doors *sash windows *first floor juliet balconies with wrought iron railings *multiple

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

s *roofline balustrades. The terrace of houses on the northern side of the square back onto the garden, without an intervening road, in the manner of at least three other nearby squares. As a consequence of this formation, these northern houses front a road with two names - Porchester Square on its southern side;

Gloucester Terrace Gloucester Terrace is a street in Central London in the vicinity of Paddington and Bayswater. Located in the City of Westminster, it runs northwards from Lancaster Terrace near to Lancaster Gate tube station and Hyde Park before curving round t ...

on its northern. The houses on the south side, keeping their

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

s and much of their internal structure, have been incorporated into an award-winning wider private development of flats and commercial premises since the mid-1970s, ''The Colonnades''. This development was one of the first major projects of architects whose status later grew,

Sir Terry Farrell Sir Terence Farrell (born 12 May 1938), known as Terry Farrell, is a British architect and urban designer. In 1980, after working for 15 years in partnership with Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, Farrell founded his own firm, Farrells. He garner ...

and

Sir Nicholas Grimshaw Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, CBE, PPRA (born 9 October 1939) is a prominent English architect, particularly noted for several modernist buildings, including London's Waterloo International railway station and the Eden Project in Cornwall. He was Pre ...

. The central gardens of the square which are open to the public. It has large, well-rooted, tall London Plane trees (''

Platanus x hispanica ''Platanus'' is a genus consisting of a small number of tree species native to the Northern Hemisphere. They are the sole living members of the family Platanaceae. All mature members of ''Platanus'' are tall, reaching in height. All except ...

''), flowering

cherry trees A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The na ...

, extensive lawns, colourful flower beds and a children's playground. Begun in 1850 and completed between 1855 and 1858, the square was one of the last areas of

and Westbourne built. The dominant architect was George Wyatt, but the final word on both the general layout and the architectural detail was with

George Gutch George Gutch (1790-1894) was a British architect and to four successive Bishops of London surveyor for much of the Diocese's southern strip of the parish of Paddington. Background Gutch was son of John Gutch, rector of St Clement's and regis ...

who in 1822 as surveyor of Bishop of London's then intrinsically Paddington lands reviewed and ratified all developments. At the outset of building the area was considered in the parish and soon the

Metropolitan Borough of Paddington Paddington was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Boar ...

. In 1965 the authority became the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...

which took the borough as its northern part, dissolving it. The architectural facades of the classical terrace, facing onto Porchester Square Garden, now incorporated into the Colonnades development, were carefully refurbished in 2020 by the freeholders.

Recognition with protection

In the mainstream, initial category for protection and recognition are the original two sides which survive. These are the north (№s9 to 31) and east (№s1 to 8).

Footnotes and citations

;Notes ;Citations

External links

* {{coord, 51.5177, -0.1872, display=title Garden squares in London Bayswater Squares in the City of Westminster