Tag Archives: Leicester Square

Austerity, Car Parks and Concrete

Posted on 06/03/2021 by The Gardens Trust

I looked last week at the fate of London’s  squares during wartime, and one might have thought that things couldn’t get much worse.  Unfortunately, as in many other areas of post-war life they did.  There was no quick recovery and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Square at War

Posted on 27/02/2021 by The Gardens Trust

This post is another in my series about London squares and will look at what happened to them during  the war.  They were dug up for allotments and bomb shelters, used as bases for barrage balloons and most famously had … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Speculation and ‘the Rural Manner’

Posted on 03/10/2020 by The Gardens Trust

Last week I discussed the origins of London squares and looked at the earliest examples.   Today I’m going to look at what happened after the Great Fire of 1666  when the balance of the city’s population shifted to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Before the Square

Posted on 26/09/2020 by The Gardens Trust

  I’m often asked to talk about the history of London’s squares and I always wonder what causes this almost endless fascination.  Of course there’s no doubt that, as the London Gardens Trust says,  “squares are one of the defining … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Christmas in the Park…

Posted on 23/12/2017 by The Gardens Trust

I had planned to do another of my slightly off-beat approaches to a Christmas post –  and was looking at  Shirley Hibberd’s monograph on Ivy for inspiration – when into my inbox came a post from a fascinating botanical blog … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment