45 Squared 26) BONNINGTON SQUARE, SW8
Borough of Lambeth, 80m×40m
As requested (thanks), we're off to the backstreets of Vauxhall. Bonnington Square is a dense terraced loop sandwiched midway between the station and the Oval Cricket Ground, tantalisingly close to both but impressively well screened. It has a similar neighbour called Vauxhall Grove which is both leafy and desirable, but Bonnington Square has evolved differently into a tightknit community and a true urban jungle. You sense it as you approach, the street alive with palms, fronds and banana trees where most would make do with planes and cherries, or nothing green at all.
These three-storey terraced houses were built for railwaymen in 1881, their facades enlivened by bands of gault brick and cast stone in Italian Gothic style. Local geography dictated only two access roads, one in the northwest corner and the other partway along an adjacent side, so it's always been more of a refuge than a cut-through. Normally you'd expect a central garden but here they filled the middle with two dozen more houses, a situation later remedied by the Luftwaffe who damaged seven beyond repair. This will be relevant later, hang in there.
In the 1972 the entire square was purchased by the council with the intention of replacing it with a new school. Its residents gradually decanted until one of the last remaining was successful with a legal challenge and halted the demolition. With the houses empty a succession of squatters moved in, becoming quite a cause celebre at the time, with certain properties doubling up as a bar, a wholefoods shop and a volunteer-run vegetarian café. Impressively the squatters then formed a housing cooperative and successfully negotiated the right to lease the buildings, and a few still live amongst the other residents to this day. Even the cafe is still in use, these days a deli called Italo with limited supplies of cheese unless you order the night before, also a cafe that spills out onto the street at well-frequented tables. If you had this where you live, chain coffee wouldn't get a look-in.
Guerilla gardening has been a thing here since collective days, thus trees, planters and street gardens have been crammed into every available space. On a grand circuit you'll see kerbsides sprouting, flowerboxes aplenty, overspilling tubs, a dustbin full of twigs and in the three dead-end corners special green enclaves with bushes, cycads and leafy foliage reaching for the sky. The cluttered pavement around Bonnington Square's not exactly accessible-friendly but the lack of traffic means it's perfectly fine to wheel down the road instead. Along one wall faded paint announces that the bed below is "Biggle's Garden 22.8.03", which I assume is the final resting place of a much-loved pet with a dubious apostrophe. The house with the leopardprint wheelie bin sets things off a treat.
The greening of the square began on the footprint of the seven bomb-damaged houses, a nettle-infested waste patiently transformed into The Pleasure Garden. This is a nod to the famous Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens which delighted Georgian Londoners very close to here, although this is much smaller with fewer hotair balloons and an intrinsically sub-tropical vibe. Enter beneath the helping hand sculpture (which for some reason is surmounted by a giant black beetle), then turn right for the swings or left for the memorial benches. The dense greenery includes a 60 foot walnut tree, a lime arbour, a bamboo stand and a birch grove, also at the far end a huge slip wheel rescued from a local marble factory during demolition. It's a lovely place to hide away with a good book, or to party under fairy lights on special communal evenings, and all the better for being shared with anyone who chooses to wander by.
For a taste of the squatter life here in the 1980s, check out Crispin Hughes' amazing photo exhibition reconstituted on his website along with the original interview text. And to see how the collective DIY attitude has continued to this day, why not drop into Bonnington Square for a walkaround, you're bound to be 10 minutes away at some point. If you've time maybe settle in the central garden or dine alfresco at Italo, although I'm not sure what bereted Lee and Bob who ran the original cafe would think of its sliced San Danielle ham and carnivorous supperclubs. Also I note that one floor of one of the original squats is currently up for sale for 'offers in excess of £1m', because capitalism is hard to hold back forever, although in this lush oasis they've done a far better job
than in most gentrified squares south of the river.
