The only equinoctial square in London, indeed the only street called Equinox Something, is Equinox Square in Poplar. It's quite recent, quite bland and tells us a lot about the direction of inner London housing.
A quick history of the site:Originally bounded by Charles Street and Cordelia Street (part of a dense grid of Victorian terraced houses). During WW2, half-destroyed by bomb damage. After WW2, Charles Street was renamed Scurr Street (after a former Mayor of Poplar and MP for Mile End). In the 1950s, just north of the Lansbury neighbourhood (much celebrated at the Festival of Britain). In the 1960s, the remaining houses were levelled and replaced by a sparse horseshoe of two-storey flats. In 2012, demolished by Poplar Harca to be replaced by a new highrise development called Equinox.
Tell us about Equinox: A Bellway Homes project. 273 apartments split across four buildings – Eclipse, Pisces, Jupiter and Kepler. The tallest block has 13 storeys. Includes a row of a dozen townhouses. A mixed tenure of market value, shared ownership and social rented flats. Prices ranged from £233,950 to £352,950. Described on the hoardings as A New Dawn In London Living. Everyone got an open plan kitchen with a Zanussi Stainless steel electric oven. And then the marketing suite packed up and left.
12 years later the development is firmly embedded in the local urbanscape. Folk stare in fron the bus stop opposite or wander through the alleyway beside the dental practice. Someone's dumped a freezer, bed and chest of drawers on the pavement beneath the car park enforcement sign. Chairs and washing are spread across umpteen glass-fronted balconies. A tabby cat sits on the front windowsill at number 6 above the scrap of front garden. You'll look in vain for a streetsign because the Equinox name lives on only above the communal keypads. The paltry fenced-off playground must have ticked sufficient boxes in the initial planning application. The only item of architectural interest, admittedly a cracker, is a ribbed concrete wall left over from the postwar flats, originally part of the staircase to the upper walkway.
Many residents of Equinox Square currently have an excellent view of Canary Wharf across the development site that used to mark the northern fringe of Chrisp Street Market. That'll be disappearing soon as yet more flats go up, the cycle of densification and upthrust continuing, maybe even another micro-square around some central courtyard.
And this is why Tower Hamlets has far more Squares than any other London borough, almost 50 more than second-placed Westminster.
Harr
2
Barn
20
Enf
8
Hari
6
WFor
7
Redb
10
Hav
6
Hill
11
Eal
9
Bren
5
Cam
53
Isl
50
Hack
35
B&D
11
Hou
12
H&F
22
K&C
45
West
66
City
23
Tow
114
New
32
Rich
11
Wan
32
Lam
25
Sou
61
Lew
12
Grn
26
Bex
9
King
14
Sut
4
Mer
7
Cro
7
Bro
15
It's all down to modern private developments. Over 75% of Tower Hamlets' Squares are private streets "not maintainable at public expense", whereas in Westminster it's 40% and in old-school Kensington & Chelsea more like 20%. A lot of new estates include segmented spaces or gated courtyards with road access only for residents, and many of these get called Squares despite not traditionally being such. The fastest-growing borough in the country continues to expand, and Squares are a fine way to pack them in.
