Tredegar Square pronounced is a well-preserved Georgian square in

Mile End Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...

, and is in the

London Borough of Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London boroughs, London borough covering much of the traditional East End of London, East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropol ...

. The square has gardens in the centre with lawns and large trees.

Location

Tredegar Square is 90 metres north of main commercial thoroughfare of the district,

Mile End Road The A11 is a major trunk road in England. It runs roughly north east from London to Norwich, Norfolk, although after the M11 opened in the 1970s and then the A12 extension in 1999, a lengthy section has been downgraded between the suburbs o ...

. Six roads branch off the square including one sharing its name starting about 120 metres east of

Mile End tube station Mile End is a London Underground station in Mile End, London. It is served by the Hammersmith & City, District and Central lines. This station features a cross-platform interchange in both directions, District and Hammersmith & City lines stop ...

Architecture

In pale brown brick, three unbroken terraces line the square, with long continuous white cornices, sash windows, fanlights, railings in front of basements and bold, traditional single-colour doors. All windows are white framed and a stucco white frame fronts the central houses of one of these three rows. The north is the exception, with similar shaped houses or sets of subdivided houses; these have white,

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

-faced fronts or genuine large carved stone block facings, black railings on white-painted concrete and heavily porticoed, projecting and recessed features — for example, pediments above a feature window in the few recesses. The level of complex forms and white stone-like appearance resembles many of the blocks in

Belgravia Belgravia () is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of both the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period, and became a danger ...

and

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, an ...

History

The square takes its name from the landowner, Sir Charles Morgan, 2nd Baronet Tredegar, and his family estate

Tredegar House Tredegar House ( Welsh: ''Tŷ Tredegar'') is a 17th-century Charles II-era mansion on the southwestern edge of Newport, Wales. For over five hundred years it was home to the Morgan family, later Lords Tredegar; one of the most powerful and influ ...

near Newport, South Wales. One block north of the square is the ''

Lord Tredegar Baron Tredegar, of Tredegar in the County of Monmouth, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 16 April 1859 for the Welsh politician Sir Charles Morgan, 3rd Baronet, who had earlier represented Brecon in Parliame ...

'' public house and one block east ''The Morgan Arms'' on Morgan Street. The south and west sides of the square were completed in the 1830s, and the rest by 1847. The industrial town of

Tredegar Tredegar (pronounced , ) is a town and community situated on the banks of the Sirhowy River in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, in the southeast of Wales. Within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, it became an early centre of the In ...

in South Wales also takes its name from the Tredegar estate, following the establishment in the area of The Tredegar Iron Company in 1800, on land owned by the Morgan family.

Coborn School campus named after square

Prisca Coborn Prisca Coborn (1622-1701) was the wealthy widow of Thomas Coborn/Colbourne, a brewer in Bow who died in 1675 a couple of months after they married. In fact 1675 was an interesting year for that family. In January of that year Thomas' first wife d ...

(1622–1701), the widow of a Bow brewer, left property in Bow, Stratford, and Bocking (Essex) to maintain a school for not more than 50 poor children at Bow; the boys were to learn reading, writing, and accounts, and the girls reading, writing, and needlework. An expansion plan in 1873, to day-school 200 boys and 200 girls (in adjoining buildings) meant the Bocking estate was sold and part of the proceeds used to purchase and extend a building "in Tredegar Square", however clearly shown on the map as narrowly beyond its north-west corner, also known as Stepney Grammar School. The school did not prosper on its own in its new surroundings, and by 1884 was in financial difficulties; the girls' school temporarily closed and a merger took place within a decade. In 1898 Coborn School was moved to 29–31 Bow Road, where it remained until the move to Upminster in 1971, initial plans of which had been well advanced in 1963.

Restoration after damage in the London Blitz

The Tredegar Square Conservation Area was established in 1971, after the square had become neglected prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

; the area surrounding it was badly damaged by bombing during the war.

References

External links

{{commons category, Tredegar Square
Panoramic view of the Square

Squares in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Mile End