Bedford Square

“ If he interrupted those happy sojournings, as he did once, to make a call in Bedford Square, and on learning that no one was at home, solemnly to sign his name in the visitors’ book, it is not at all surprising that, wandering on and on, he should presently find himself again in Bedford Square, again inquire for his friends, again ask for the visitors’ book and be brought up short, on the point of signing it again, by his own name scarcely dry—as if, says Lamb, “a man should suddenly encounter his own duplicate.” He may have been a little mortified, I daresay, but—it was worth it. ”

“ The lease [757] granted on 20th November, 1777, of No. 45, Bedford Square, refers to that house’s eastern boundary as “a messuage lately erected.”
No. 46 forms the western half of the central feature on the southern side of the square. It will be noticed in the photograph (Plate 97) that an unusual expedient has been adopted by introducing a central pilaster.
The staircase is of stone, with wrought-iron balustrade of coupled plain bars, alternating with balusters of scroll work. The handrail is of mahogany, and the lighting is obtained by an oval-shaped lantern. ”

“ He became an architect and gradually acquired an extensive practice. His share in the design of houses in Bedford Square has already been noticed. [731]
Before settling at No. 13, Bedford Square, his chief residences seem to have been in Great Queen Street and Charlotte Street. [732] He died at the house in Bedford Square in 1824.
In the Council’s collection are:— Marble chimneypiece in front room on ground floor (photograph) .
[733] Ornamental plaster ceiling with painted panels in front room on first floor (photograph) .
164 LXXV.—No. 14, BEDFORD SQUARE. Ground landlord and lessee. ”

“ To inherit such a kingdom after five years of Gower Street and Bedford Square! For all things are relative, and everything depends upon the point of view. To the owner of Chatsworth (and to his gardeners) my beautiful French Garden would have seemed a small affair. ”

“ Thence, eastward still, and we find ourselves in the Bloomsbury and Bedford Square region, whose old houses, once occupied by rank and fashion, are mostly given over to lodgers like ourselves, while resident middle-class foreigners make their homes largely in the region around Leicester Square. ”

“ The weavers and butchers, the frequenters of bear-gardens and theatres, or sword-players, were continually falling into parties and ending the dispute by a general mêlée.
The aristocracy had evacuated the City-especially since the fire—and had located themselves along the Strand, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Bloomsbury, Soho, and all quarters tending towards Whitehall; others located themselves in Covent Garden; and in the fields now covered by the piles of Bedford Square and the British Museum stood the magnificent mansions of Bedford House and Montague House. ”

“ The Horseshoe Hotel can claim fairly ancient descent; it has been in existence as a tavern from 1623. It was called the Horseshoe from the shape of its first dining-room. A Consumption Hospital stands midway between North and South Crescent.
Bedford Square also falls within St. Giles's [Pg 98] parish, but it belongs by character and date to Bloomsbury. The Square was erected about the very end of the eighteenth century. Dobie says that "Bedford Square arose from a cow-yard to its present magnificent form ... ”

“ Gulp and his lady from Bloomsbury Square; old Mr. Frowser, the attorney, from Bedford Row, a very great man, and from his business, hand-in-glove with the "nobs at the West End"; old Colonel Livermore, of the Bombay Army, and Mrs. Livermore, from Upper Bedford Place; old Sergeant Toffy and Mrs. Toffy; and sometimes old Sir Thomas Coffin and Lady Coffin, from Bedford Square. Sir Thomas was celebrated as a hanging judge, and the particular tawny port was produced when he dined with Mr. Osborne.
These people and their like gave the pompous Russell Square merchant pompous dinners back again. ”

“ Bloomsbury square, Southampton street, Holborn. This square has been lately embellished with many goodhouses, and the grass plats in the middle surrounded with neat iron rails. The north side is entirely taken up with Bedford House, which is elegant, and was the design of Inigo Jones. Besides the body of the house, are two wings, and on each side the proper offices. ”

“ Oakley Square owes its title to Oakley House, near Bedford; and Ampthill Square to Ampthill Park, in Bedfordshire, the names of two seats of the Bedfords; while Harrington Square was denominated after the Earl of Harrington, one of whose daughters became the wife of the seventh Duke of Bedford. Mornington Crescent and Mornington Place were named in honour of the Earl of Mornington, Governor-General of India, the brother of the Duke of Wellington; and Granby Street after John Manners, the popular Marquis of Granby. Eden Street covers the site of the old “Adam and Eve” Tea Gardens. ”

“ London contains in the West End many squares surrounded by handsome residences, among them probably the best known being Belgrave, Russell, Bedford, Grosvenor, Hanover, and Cavendish Squares. Eaton Square is said to be the largest of these, Grosvenor Square the most fashionable, and Cavendish Square the most salubrious and best cultivated. The line of streets leading by Oxford Street to the Marble Arch entrance to Hyde Park is London's most fashionable route of city travel, and on Tottenham Court Road, which starts northward from Oxford Street, is the "Bell Inn" at Edmonton. ”

“ Beside the parks and gardens, London has an infinity of squares, commons, and crescents, which are surrounded by private residences and inclosed by railings and walls—such as Trafalgar Square (public) , Bedford, Cavendish, St. George's, Grosvenor, Leicester, Soho, Belgrave, Euston, Finsbury, Fitzroy, Portman, Russell, Wellclose, Hanover, Brunswick, Eaton, Berkeley, Golden, Mecklenburg, Red Lion, Tavistock, and a great number of other squares which I do not now call to mind. ”

“ The houses are mainly uniform in type—square, substantial, plaster-fronted structures, which give an aspect of monotony to the whole district. [Pg 61]
Belgrave Square, 10 acres in extent, is 684 feet long by 637 feet wide, and was designed by Basevi and built by Cubitt in 1825-28. The detached houses in the corners are by Philip Hardwick, R.A., and H. E. Kendall (west side) . An enclosed garden occupies the centre.
Inhabitants: No. 5, General Sir George Murray, d. 1846, Earl of Shaftesbury, d. 1886; 15, Duke of Bedford ”

“ However, he had to ascertain what the attitude of the archaeologist was to be.
"See here, doctor, I want to do the square thing, but you can't stand up for this man. He's perjured himself in court and he's got to explain it. Of course, I can't scrap you and your men—for these Germans will stand by you—but what I can and will do is to go back to Melindi and send the district commissioner up here for Jenson. If you persist in sticking up for him you'll get into hot water, that's all."
Krausz looked at him calmly.
"Do not get excited, Mr. Hammer! I am not sticking up for anyone ”

“ Do you know Abingdon Square? It is a small, irregularly shaped triangle of asphalt situated on the lower West Side, and at the intersecting-point of Eighth Avenue and Hudson Street. The houses that front upon it have seen better days. Many of them are now the quarters of cheap political clubs or centres of foreign revolutionary propaganda. It is a neighborhood that has finally lost all semblance to gentility and has become frankly and unreservedly shabby. A square, mind you, and not a park, for there is neither blade of grass nor tree in all of its dreary expanse. ”

“ And let not those whose eyes have been accustomed to the aristocratic gravity of Grosvenor Square and Hanover Square, the dowager barrenness and frigidity of Fitzroy Square, or the gravel walks and garden seats of the Squares of Russell and Euston, suppose that the affections of Tim Linkinwater, or the inferior lovers of this particular locality, had been awakened and kept alive by any refreshing associations with leaves however dingy, or grass, however bare and thin. The City square has no inclosure, save the lamp-post in the middle, and no grass but the weeds which spring up round its base. ”

“ I say, that I hope we shall not all be brought to judgment for all the rejoicings of our youth; for the assize would surely be too black, and shuddering Mercy would tear the calendar.
In 1732 there must have been “high jinks” on foot from time to time at the Bedford Coffee House, Covent Garden. Now, where was the Bedford Coffee House? Was it at that Bedford Hotel, under the piazza, so unceremoniously elbowed by that monstrous glasshouse called the “Floral Hall”—the Bedford of which Mrs. Warner is so urbane a hostess? ”

“ Last year another portion of the Piazza—that behind Bow Street—was levelled, and with it that quaint specimen of the old London hotel, the Bedford, with its coffee-room, curved old-fashioned windows, entresols, bar, etc., to say nothing of its air of snugness and comfort. A few years ago another section, the one that touches “the old Evans’s,” or Cave of Harmony, was taken down, but was rebuilt. Thus out of the four sections there is now left to us but one, whose grace and proportions all amateurs must admire. It is said that Inigo Jones intended to imitate the Piazzas he had seen in Italy ”

“ Let me confess at once that we are a bit supercilious in our attitude toward the sister Square far to our West, across the Alps of Broadway. Our Square was an established center of the social respectabilities when the foot of Fifth Avenue was still frequented by the occasional cow whose wanderings are responsible for the street-plan of Greenwich Village. Our Square remains true to the ancient and simple traditions, whereas Washington Square has grown long hair, smeared its fingers with paint and its lips with free verse, and gone into debt for its inconsiderable laundry bills. ”

“ The tiny, narrow streets are lined with boozing dens, the doorways know blowsy, beckoning women; here are money-changers and pallid, furtive-eyed men with faces of preying birds, and worse. This town is a center for many things—sea-trade, traffic with America and England, the coast resorts lying all around—and is on the line between Paris and London and New York. Havre in the west, like Marseilles in the south, has its finger on the very pulse of France.
“Why not?” Ogilvy laughed suddenly. ”

“ Giles, through the neighbourhood of Drury Lane, and also through one of the very worst portions of London—the district called Bedfordbury—but which I hope honourable members will not connect with the name of the Duke of Bedford, whose property is of a very different character. I could not describe to the House the full details of what I saw in the course of my visit to those localities. Honourable members in taking short cuts through the town, as, for instance, in the neighbourhood of Lincoln's Inn, may, perhaps, see places in which they would be very sorry to have to reside ”

“ Matting is used in the lining of halls and staircases; it is easy to keep clean, and does not gather or send forth dust every time a door is opened, as is often the case with paper. Tiles are also much employed, which are also easy to keep clean; and although stained glass is used, it is as a decorative casement, and is not allowed to impede the light, which can never be spared in England.
What at once impresses the intelligent visitor to Bedford Park is the fact that the beauty which has been admittedly secured is not fictitious. ”

“ James Street is picturesque, with eighteenth-century doorways and carved brackets; the tenants of the houses are nearly all solicitors. Little St. James Street is insignificant and diversified by mews. In Strype's [Pg 78] plan the rectangle formed by these two streets is marked "Bowling Green"; in one corner is "the Cockpitt."
Bedford Row is a very quiet, broad thoroughfare lined by eighteenth-century houses of considerable height and size, which for the most part still retain their noble staircases and well-proportioned rooms. ”

“ There is scarcely a plot of ground below Fourteenth Street without its story and its associations, its motley company of memories and spectres both good and bad, its imperishably adventurous savour of the past, imprisoned in the dry prose of registries and records. Let us just take a glance, a bird's-eye view as it were, of that region which we now know as Washington Square, as it was when the city of New York bought it for a Potter's Field. ”

“ There is no house that can claim beauty, and yet the Square, as a whole, has a fine charm, something that age and colour, haphazard adventure, space and quiet have all helped towards.
There is, perhaps, no square in London that clings so tenaciously to any sign or symbol of old London that motor-cars and the increase of speed have not utterly destroyed. All the oldest London mendicants find their way, at different hours of the week, up and down the Square. There is, I believe, no other square in London where musicians are permitted. ”

“ Houses of similar architecture have in recent years been built here and there in London and other cities, but they have probably cost their owners a third more than they have cost here, because the large number of families which agreed to buy or rent houses enabled the landlord and founder of Bedford Park to make large, therefore comparatively cheap, arrangements for the supply of materials and labor, elsewhere special or exceptional. ”