45 Squared 30) CARRINGTON SQUARE, HA3
Borough of Harrow, 40m×15m
We've got to do this one so let's get it over and done with.
Officially, according to the National Street Gazetteer, there are only two squares in Harrow. One is private within the luxury gated enclave at Bentley Priory and the other is in Harrow Weald. So Carrington Square it is.
What we have here is a dense cul-de-sac of townhouses, all two-storeyed and white-windowed, squeezed into a rectangular plot. From the brickwork I'm guessing 1990 give or take a few years. There are 32 houses altogether, slightly staggered to create the illusion of non-uniformity. Everything underfoot is tiled, be that roadway, pavement or front garden, with two raised beds of shrubbery doing all the heavy lifting lookswise. Grass does not feature. A single access road connects to the adjacent dual carriageway, which is Uxbridge Road, with a couple of rows of garages tucked out of sight. Everyone faces out onto the central square/carpark so I imagine living here is a bit claustrophobic and curtain-twitchy.
There is nothing interesting about Carrington Square, as I shall now demonstrate with the following list
10 uninteresting things about Carrington Square
1) I have no idea why it's called Carrington Square, although it was built on the site of a former builder's yard and maybe they were called Carringtons. 2) The Green Belt begins just over the back fence. 3) The speed limit in Carrington Square is 30mph, although if you ever tried to drive at 30mph within the bounds of the square you would undoubtedly crash horribly. 4) Carrington Square is lit by four lampposts. 5) Harrow footpath number 30 passes the backs of the higher-numbered houses on Carrington Square on its way to Brooks Hill (via footpath number 28). 6) Carrington Square is 250 feet above sea level (about 76 metres), so is intrinsically safe from rising sea levels. 7) It felt a Neighbourhood Watchy kind of place, but thankfully I got lucky on my minute-long recce by slipping in just after two vaping dogwalkers had left and slipping out just before a stern-looking granny returned from her constitutional. 8) Carrington Square backs onto one of the new artificial sports pitches at the Bannister Sports Centre. This is named after Harrow-born miler Sir Roger Bannister (although he grew up miles away in West Harrow). 9) The nearest coffee outlet to Carrington Square is the Costa machine in the reception at Jurassic Golf, the dinosaur-packed attraction less than five minutes up the road. 10) Carrington Square is the only Carrington Square in England, there are no others.
