![]() Early Georgian north side of the square with top of Victoria Tower of the Palace of Westminster beyond | |
(local authority since 1965) | |
Type | Garden square with concert hall dominating space |
---|---|
Length | 275 ft (84 m) |
Width | 240 feet (73 m) |
Area | Westminster |
Location | London |
Postal code | SW1P |
Nearest metro station | Westminster tube station |
Construction | |
Construction start | c. 1726 |
Other | |
Status | west end of the north side: large building: Grade I listed |
Smith Square is a square in Westminster, London, 250 metres south-southwest of the Palace of Westminster. Most of its garden interior is filled by St John's, Smith Square, a Baroque surplus church, the inside of which has been converted to a concert hall. Most adjoining buildings (thus sharing its address) are offices, with the focus on organisations lobbying or serving the government. In the mid-20th century, the square hosted the headquarters of the two largest parties of British politics, and it is now hosts much of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Local Government Association. It has a pedestrian or mixed approach to the four sides and another approach to the north.
The square was named after the Smith family: a family of bankers originally from Nottingham on whose land it was developed in the early eighteenth century. Its building up was arranged by Sir James Smith around 1726. №s 1 to 9, forming the north side, survive from this phase. [1]
Sir John Smith, who was Conservative M.P. for Cities of London and Westminster from 1965 to 1970, lived at № 1. The campaigning journalist William Thomas Stead lived at № 5 from 1904 until his death on board the Titanic in 1912. Another famous resident was Rab Butler, the Conservative Deputy Prime Minister.
№ 17 - Nobel House - cross-corner block built in 1928, for newly-formed Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). ICI leased it to the government in 1987, and it is currently headquarters for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Sharing the western part of the south side is Transport House which from 1928 to 1980 head-quartered the Labour Party then the TGWU until the 1990s. It is now the headquarters of the Local Government Association and is known as Local Government House.
№s 32-34 served as Conservative Central Office, the Conservative Party's headquarters between 1958 and 2003. [2] It stood empty until 2007 when it was sold for £30.5m to Harcourt Developments who planned to redevelop it as flats before the 2008 credit crunch hit. [3] It is now "Europe House".
№ 36 - Mulberry House - designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and constructed in 1911 for Reginald McKenna, a senior politician who later became chairman of the Midland Bank. It was later bought by Henry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett who, in conjunction with his wife, Gwen, commissioned an elaborate interior re-decoration by the architect Darcy Braddell. The result has been described as "one of the most important Art Deco interiors in London." [4] [5] It gained notoriety for the sculpture "Scandal", designed by Charles Sargeant Jagger which is now housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum. [6] The Grade II listed building went up for sale of £25 million in 2015. [7]
Pimlico is an area of Central London in the City of Westminster, built as a southern extension to neighbouring Belgravia. It is known for its garden squares and distinctive Regency architecture. Pimlico is demarcated to the north by Victoria Station, by the River Thames to the south, Vauxhall Bridge Road to the east and the former Grosvenor Canal to the west. At its heart is a grid of residential streets laid down by the planner Thomas Cubitt, beginning in 1825 and now protected as the Pimlico Conservation Area. The most prestigious are those on garden squares, with buildings decreasing in grandeur away from St George's Square, Warwick Square, Eccleston Square and the main thoroughfares of Belgrave Road and St. George's Drive. Additions have included the pre–World War II Dolphin Square and the Churchill Gardens and Lillington and Longmoore Gardens estates, now conservation areas in their own right. The area has over 350 Grade II listed buildings and several Grade II* listed churches. At the western edge of Pimlico, on the borders of Chelsea, Pimlico Road has become known in recent years for its interiors and design stores.
Marlborough House, a Grade I listed mansion on The Mall in St James's, City of Westminster, London, is the headquarters of the Commonwealth of Nations and the seat of the Commonwealth Secretariat. It is adjacent to St James's Palace.
Millbank is an area of central London in the City of Westminster. Millbank is located by the River Thames, east of Pimlico and south of Westminster. Millbank is known as the location of major government offices, Burberry headquarters, the Millbank Tower and prominent art institutions such as Tate Britain and the Chelsea College of Art and Design.
Lambeth Bridge is a road traffic and footbridge crossing the River Thames in an east–west direction in central London. The river flows north at the crossing point. Downstream, the next bridge is Westminster Bridge; upstream, the next bridge is Vauxhall Bridge.
Albertopolis is the nickname given to the area centred on Exhibition Road in London, named after Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria. It contains many educational and cultural sites. It lies in the former village of Brompton in Middlesex, renamed as South Kensington, split between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster, and the area bordered by Cromwell Road to the south and Kensington Road to the north.
Thames House is an office building in Millbank, London, on the north bank of the River Thames adjacent to Lambeth Bridge. Originally used as offices by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), it has served as the headquarters of the United Kingdom's internal Security Service since December 1994. It also served as the London headquarters of the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) until March 2013.
Norfolk House was the London residence of the Howard family headed by the Dukes of Norfolk, and as such more than one building has been given this name. The first was opposite Lambeth Palace, set in acres of garden and orchards on a site occupying what is now the Novotel London Waterloo on Lambeth Road.
Eaton Square is a rectangular, residential garden square in London's Belgravia district. It is the largest square in London. It is one of the three squares built by the landowning Grosvenor family when they developed the main part of Belgravia in the 19th century that are named after places in Cheshire — in this case Eaton Hall, the Grosvenor country house. It is larger but less grand than the central feature of the district, Belgrave Square, and both larger and grander than Chester Square. The first block was laid out by Thomas Cubitt from 1827. In 2016 it was named as the "Most Expensive Place to Buy Property in Britain", with a full terraced house costing on average £17 million — many of such town houses have been converted, within the same, protected structures, into upmarket apartments.
The Buxton Memorial Fountain is a memorial and drinking fountain in London, the United Kingdom, that commemorates the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, and in particular, the role of British parliamentarians in the abolition campaign.
Sir George James Frampton, was a British sculptor. He was a leading member of the New Sculpture movement in his early career when he created sculptures with elements of Art Nouveau and Symbolism, often combining various materials such as marble and bronze in a single piece. While his later works were more traditional in style, Frampton had a prolific career in which he created many notable public monuments, including several statues of Queen Victoria and later, after World War I, a number of war memorials. These included the Edith Cavell Memorial in London, which, along with the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens are possibly Frampton's best known works.
St George's Road is a one-way road in Southwark, London running between Westminster Bridge Road to the northwest and Elephant and Castle to the southeast. The direction of the vehicular traffic is from Elephant and Castle to Westminster Bridge Road. Its name derives from its crossing of St George's Fields, being an open rural area of the parish of St George the Martyr, Southwark. The road was laid out as part of the communications improvements for Westminster Bridge, from the 1740s, connecting the Bridge to the Elephant and Castle junctions with New Kent Road, Walworth Road and Kennington Park Road.
Manchester Square is an 18th-century garden square in Marylebone, London. Centred 950 feet (290 m) north of Oxford Street it measures 300 feet (91 m) internally north-to-south, and 280 feet (85 m) across. It is a small Georgian predominantly 1770s-designed instance in central London; construction began around 1776. The north side has a central mansion, Hertford House, flanked by approach ways; its first name was Manchester House — its use is since 1897 as the Wallace Collection (gallery/museum) of fine and decorative arts sits alongside the Madame Tussauds museum and the Wigmore Hall concert rooms. The square forms part of west Marylebone, most of which sees minor but overarching property interests held by one owner among which many buildings have been recognised by statutory protection.
Henry Ludwig Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett was a British politician, industrialist and financier.
Imperial Chemical House is a Grade II listed building situated on Millbank, London, England, near the west end of Lambeth Bridge. It was designed by Sir Frank Baines in the neoclassical style of the inter-war years, and constructed between 1927 and 1929 as the headquarters for the newly created Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). Thames House, the next building south along Millbank, across Horseferry Road, was also designed by Baines and constructed at the same time.
Transport House was the headquarters of the Transport and General Workers' Union (T&G), and also originally of the Labour Party, the Trades Union Congress, and the Workers' Travel Association. The term "Transport House" was once a metonym for both Labour Party headquarters and the T&G.
Henry Poole was a British architectural sculptor.
Henrietta Place, originally known as Henrietta Street, is a street in Marylebone in the City of Westminster in central London that runs from Marylebone Lane in the east to Cavendish Square in the west. It is joined on the north side by Welbeck Street and Wimpole Street, and on the south side by Vere Street, Chapel Place, and Old Cavendish Street.
Great George Street is a street in Westminster, London, leading from Parliament Square to Birdcage Walk. The area of the current street was occupied by a number of small roads and yards housing inns and tenements. In the 1750s these were demolished and Great George Street laid out with "houses only as are fit for the habitation of persons of fortune and distinction". Part of the street was demolished in 1806 and is now part of Parliament Square. Between 1898 and 1915 the entire north side of the street was demolished for the construction of the Government Offices Great George Street. The street houses the headquarters of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, whose building includes the only surviving 1750s façade, and the Institution of Civil Engineers. The street formerly housed the National Portrait Gallery.
The Midland Bank, 27-35 Poultry stands on Poultry in the City of London. It was built between 1924 and 1929 as the headquarters offices of the Midland Bank. The architect was Edwin Lutyens. A Grade I listed building, its Historic England record describes it as one of Lutyens' "finest urban buildings". It is now a hotel, The Ned, named in Lutyens' honour.
Mulberry House, Number 36, Smith Square, is located in the City of Westminster, London. It was built in 1911 as a private house for Reginald McKenna, a politician and later Chairman of the Midland Bank. The architect was Edwin Lutyens. In 1930 the house was bought by Henry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett. In conjunction with his wife, Gwen, Melchett employed the architect Darcy Braddell to undertake a major internal remodeling and redecoration. Braddell engaged a number of painters and sculptors, including Charles Sargeant Jagger to create what has been described as "one of the most important Art Deco interiors in London." After a period of institutional use in the post-war period, the house was reconverted to a private residence in the early 21st century.