Friday, March 14, 2025
45 Squared
45
10) TREDEGAR SQUARE, E3
Borough of Tower Hamlets, 90m×80m
Bow's finest square is a Georgian* masterpiece, a large quadrangle of unbroken terraces with a fine garden in the centre. You expect this kind of thing in Bloomsbury or Kensington but not tucked off the Mile End Road behind a wall of council flats.
* I can't find a precise date for the square being built but it doesn't appear on a map dated 1830 and does appear on a map dated 1831 so you can draw your own conclusions from that. I can however confirm it's definitely Georgian, even given George IV died midway in June 1830, because the subsequent reign of William IV is officially bolted into that architectural definition.
200 years ago all this was fields under the ownership of Sir Charles Morgan, a Welsh baronet based near Newport whose sidehustle was being MP for Monmouth. In 1824 an Act of Parliament granted him "power to grant building leases of copyhold lands held of the manor of Stepney", i.e. permission to put up dwellings, and these spread inexorably back from the main road. As well as Tredegar Square you'll also find Aberavon Road, Rhondda Grove and Morgan Street in the vicinity, confirming the Welsh association, and they have some pretty stunning old houses too. Two pubs called The Lord Tredegar and the Morgan Arms are close by.
Three sides of Tredegar Square look like this, i.e. rather splendid. These are three-storey terraced houses built from plain stock brick, each with a basement, sash windows and a classical doorway accessed up a set of five steps. At least half are as yet undivided into flats, so really quite the family home, and with a price tag currently hovering around the £2m mark. On each side the four central houses are picked out in stucco and the middle two topped by a white gable, adding just a little variation to the frontage. As the heart of the local conservation area the council are fairly strict about what you can and can't add outside, although I see they've turned a blind eye to the large Save our NHS banner tied to the railings on the south side.
The northern side of Tredegar Square is different, more full-on mansions, this time all stucco and a bit more Belgravia in style. Number 26 is the finest of the lot, indeed Grade II* listed, not just for its "ionic columns in antis under deep cornice" but more specifically for the exceptionally rare painted decoration in its first floor front room, including acanthus motifs, gold stencil frames and floral swags. This particular house last sold for £3.9m, so your best chance of seeing the ornamental goldfish bowl design is to get invited to a party. I'm unconvinced the bins out front add to the general architectural ambience, but maybe that's because I made the mistake of turning up on collection day.
At the northwest corner of the square is a marvellous hexagonal pillar box, although alas it's only a replica rather than proper Victorian. Other peculiarities around the perimeter include classical lampposts, Shell-sponsored charging points and posters advertising 1 hour 1-to-1 boxing training sessions for £35. In the southeast corner is a cul-de-sac, also part of Tredegar Square, which used to continue onto the main Mile End Road before a block of postwar flats sealed it off. A tiny gate leads to 1a Tredegar Square, a screamingly modern house confected inside a former warehouse whose current owners appear to be selling up, enabling a tantalising glimpse inside (ketchup-toned fitted kitchen, distressed dining table, books arranged by colour).
But what you'll mostly notice if you visit Tredegar Square is the garden in the middle. For the first 100 years it was private but residents then came up against the egalitarian politics of the East End and lost. The opening ceremony on 25 April 1931 was performed by no less a figure than Clement Attlee, and the local newspaper's report of proceedings referred to the gardens as "London's little lungs". Within a decade the railings had been removed to fund the war effort, then after the war public toilets were added in one corner and a playground in the middle, also since erased. My hunch is that the last significant layout changes were in 1986 because that's the date on the litter bins.
You can't walk round the edge any more because the outer path has been usurped by a central spine and various ornamental dead-end twiddles. But it sure looks pretty, especially at this time of year with daffs, crocuses and hyacinths in bloom because Tower Hamlets' municipal gardeners are doing a fine job. That said one of the central trees is so large its roots are about to have the tarmac up and I'm not quite sure what the point of the central paved crescent is. Come summer the lawns will be a more attractive feature, but judging by the number of dogs being exercised here I'd check carefully under your picnic blanket before laying it down.
And all of this is still here because Stepney council chose to retain these old streets following wartime bombardment whereas Poplar council, two roads distant, plumped for full-on replacement by blocks of flats instead. Local residents and estate agents remain very grateful.
