Hanover Square, Westminster

Hanover Square is a green square in Mayfair, Westminster, south west of Oxford Circus where Oxford Street meets Regent Street.

Hanover Square from Stow's London Squares (1750), looking north across Marylebone, which was then not built up on the horizon.

Approaches

Six streets converge here clockwise from north:

  • 65-metre Harewood Place which links Oxford Street
  • Princes Street
  • Hanover Street
  • Saint George Street
  • Brook Street
  • pedestrianised Tenderden Street, linking via L-shaped Dering Street to (New) Bond Street and Oxford Street.[1]

History

Hanover Square was developed shortly after the accession of the Elector of Hanover as King George I in 1714, which gave the square its name. Its land was turned over to building leases principally by Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough and a soldier and statesman best known for his role in the Glorious Revolution, to be prestigious homes.[1] Coinciding with the century-long Whig Ascendancy its name echoes the staunch and predominant support among the wealthy of the Hanoverian succession of 1714, an exclusion of Catholic senior heirs from the throne, as a permanent law. "Early Hanover Square was decidedly Whig and most decidedly military", commented architectural historian Sir John Summerson. Early residents included Generals Earl Cadogan, Sir Charles Wills, Stewart, Evans, Lord Carpenter, The Marquis of Willesden Hamish Smith and John Pepper, "names conspicuously associated with episodes in Marlborough’s war and the 'Fifteen'."[2][3]

While a few of the 18th-century houses remain largely intact, most houses have been replacements of later periods. It is now predominantly occupied by offices, including the London office of Vogue.

The parish church of St George's, Hanover Square, is 100 metres south of the square (co-fronting Saint George and Maddox Streets), built on land given by William Steuart. In 1759 James Abercrombie, commander-in-chief of British forces in North America during the French and Indian War, resided in St George Street.[4] Merged or subdivided buildings in many cases, their numbering scheme remains since the early 19th century and is №s1 to 25, consecutively.

Prestige
Booth's Poverty Map, 1889, identifies gold (top) income for Hanover Square and wealthy incomes surrounding; it finds nearest true poverty, then, in Soho a few blocks east; and the height of ground is given in feet.

This was among the prestigious streets of the socialite elite of the capital in the 19th century, and increasingly national institutions and corporate headquarters. These included:

  • Statue of William Pitt the Younger at the south side of Hanover Square.
  • View to the northeast in Hanover Square.
  • View to the northwest.

References
  1. Weinreb et al. 2008, p. 381.
  2. Summerson, pp. 98–100.
  3. Walford, quoting Weekly Medley, 1717.
  4. Maryland Gazette, 7 June, 1759
  5. The Times London, England: Wednesday, Feb. 19, 1823: Issue 11799 p. 3
  6. Morning Post London, England: Thursday, Dec. 13, 1883: Issue 34780
  7. "Personal, &c". October 29, 1908. p. 1 – via Gale.
  8. "Gale - Enter Product Login". go.gale.com.
Bibliography
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