45 Squared 17) DORSET SQUARE, NW1
Borough of Westminster, 100m×60m
Dorset Square is the greenspace you pass if you walk the backroads between Marylebone and Baker Street stations. It's rectangular, Georgian, semi-private and generally unsung, yet boasts a ridiculously important role in sporting history...
...because this terraced square, it turns out, is where Yorkshireman Thomas Lord leased some land and laid the first of three cricket pitches to bear his name. In 1787 this was the very edge of London where Marylebone melted into fields, thus the ideal spot for seven acres to be used by a cricket team looking to escape from rowdy Islington. However the price of land shot up with the building of the New Road, now Euston Road, so in 1810 Thomas was forced to move the games further out to a goods yard in St John's Wood. This was almost immediately acquired for the construction of the Regent's Canal, encouraging a final shift a short distance north to what's now Lord's Cricket Ground. The MCC's original pitch inevitably became housing, completed in 1830, and Dorset Square is believed to be named after the Duke of Dorset who was a big cricket fan at the time. Colin Cowdrey unveiled a plaque on the back of the gardener's shed to celebrate the site's bicentenary.
Dorset Square is still surrounded by yellowbrick terraces, generally four storeys high, with a stucco layer at ground level topped by a decorative balcony. These were once premier townhouses and still go for over a million on the open market, although these days you don't get a full property for that, merely a subdivided flat. They've also housed several famous folk hence the presence of three blue plaques, most notably that of Dodie Smith, author of The Hundred and One Dalmatians. A few houses further round is the former home of George Grossmith who co-wrote The Diary of a Nobody while living on Dorset Square, although its mundane protagonist lived in a plainer home in Holloway. The most incestuous plaque is that of Sir Laurence Gomme, the historian who persuaded the London County Council to instigate the blue plaque scheme in the first place and was rewarded with his own a century later.
The finest run of houses is along the northern side, which is also where the fortunate few get to park. The fact that most properties have an identical pair of potted bay trees on their porch step hints at the presence of an all-powerful management company behind the scenes. Another of their tasks is to supervise access to the central gardens, including organising a recent switch from physical keys to digital fobs for an £80 deposit. No pets, no barbecues, no roller blades, no smoking and strictly residents of numbers 1-40 only. A pristine hedge conceals most of the inner sanctum, but what can be squinted at through the gates looks splendid and can usually be experienced by mere plebs when London Open Gardens weekend comes round in June.
The most prestigious address in Dorset Square is currently number 8 which is home to the Embassy of El Salvador, although they only occupy the upper floors. The most cultural address is number 1 which belongs to the Alliance Française, the organisation charged with promoting the French language around the world, for whom this is their UK HQ. During WW2 it became their international HQ and also housed a branch of the Special Operations Executive. The square additionally boasts two hotels, one of which is the Dorset Square Hotel where Tim and Kit will do you a cooked breakfast in The Potting Shed for £30, so maybe not. But mostly this is a square for passing obliviously through, which I suspect is how the residents like it.
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45 Squared 18) DEVONSHIRE SQUARE, EC2
City of London, 40m×30m
And so to the City, northeastern flank, hidden away between Houndsditch and Petticoat Lane market. This time the closest mainline terminus is Liverpool Street, indeed tube trains between Liverpool Street and Aldgate pass directly under Devonshire Square. The name comes from the Duke of Devonshire who owned a Tudor townhouse on this site, demolished for redevelopment in 1675 although remains of its wall exist round the back where you can't see them. The oldest surviving houses on the square are the neoclassical pair at numbers 12 and 13, one of which is the smallest livery hall in the City of London, although The Worshipful Company of Coopers only bought it in 1957. They opened their doors for Open House for the first time last year so I have already seen their courtroom, mallet cabinet and ornamental barrel store.
Next oldest are the East India Company warehouse buildings built in the 1820s, later used by the Port of London Authority and now poorly-windowed offices. One of its lower arches contains a dry cleaner's backroom and a pair of shoeshine chairs used for polishing weekdays only. The opposite side of the square is late Victorian, this because the Metropolitan Railway's method of cut and cover was particularly destructive, as are pretty much all the buildings down Devonshire Row. The standout building is a branch of Sri Lanka's premier bank, still called Bank of Ceylon because why change a successful brand. And try not to look south because that huge brick building is an electricity substation, partly screened by trees and with the Gherkin poking over the top but still somewhat of an eyesore.
The centre of the square is covered by a very low dense canopy of trees, below which are benches where you can vape safely without the any risk of sunburn. It all looks terribly characterless. More striking are the linear gardens which stretch down towards Cutler Street, this officially a 70m extension to Devonshire Square and seemingly keeping a top topiary team in business. The most extraordinary feature is a metal statue of a knight on horseback representing the Cnihtengild, a mythical band supposedly granted this land by King Edgar in return for a series of unlikely duels. You can read that tale on the board underneath, and read the story of how a Scottish blacksmith assembled it for Standard Life in 1990 here. The statue wasn't originally here but the insurers moved out shortly afterwards so it was relocated from their courtyard to some lawn.
And then there's modern Devonshire Square, a massive and highly irregular office campus bumping up against the very edge of the City. Their marketing team describe it as "a vibrant multi-use site" and a "an eclectic 24-hour destination", but to me it feels like a misjudged commercial warren brimming with unlet co-working space and half-empty refreshment options. I bumped into more people laying tables for an alfresco wedding in the main courtyard than I did punters taking advantage of the other facilities, but that's Saturdays for you. Also it's not a street so even though it's branded Devonshire Square it's not officially Devonshire Square which is the peculiar combination of throwback Stuart quadrangle plus service road out front.
