The History of the London Square
David Marsh
- Region:
- Anywhere
- Notice Period:
- Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
- Type:
- Professional/academic/Hobby/Rotary/sometimes charity
- Fee:
- Paid: 100 for online, but more if travelling depending on distance etc
- Category:
- History
- Updated:
- 30th January 2023
- Tagged:
- Gardens | History | London | Architecture
Squares are one of the defining features of London. Like other European cities, London has its grand civic spaces – the likes of the Mall, Whitehall, Trtafgalgar Square, but no other city has developed the garden square in quite the same way.
SO…where did the idea for a square come from and how did they start…
From the lawyers of Lincolns Inn protecting the neighbouring fields from building development and the the Earls of Bedford laying out Covent Garden in the early 17thc, to the great aristocrat’s leasing their suburban fields to speculative builders, and spreading the city out in every direction, the square has transformed London’s residential architecture.
We tend to think of squares as well planted green spaces full of trees but the earliest ones were rubbish dumps, or just open gravelled areas. Architectural unity and well-planted and designed gardens are later innovations. More recently wartime damage, underground car parks and unsympathetic redevelopment schemes have often drastically altered their appearance but somehow the “spirit” of the square lives on. New ones are being built and older ones restored, although others are still under threat and need our help and protection.
This talk looks at the rise of the square, and at the threats and challenges they have faced over the past 400 years and at ideas for their future.
Views: 494 | Enquiries: 0About David Marsh
I've been lecturing "live" and on-line about every aspect of the history of gardens, landscapes, as well as plant hunting /plants/botany for more than 25 years to gardens clubs, U3A groups, and to museums like the V&A & across higher education. I discovered the subject because after a career as a head teacher I took very early retirement and went back into education full time on my own account. I did a four year diploma course in Garden History which led on to an MA in Historical Research and then a PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London on The Gardens and Gardeners of Later Stuart London.
I was a trustee of The Gardens Trust, the national campaigning body for the protection and support of our historic parks, gardens and designed landscapes and chaired their education committee from 2016 until 2023. I also write a weekly blog for them which you can find at thegardenstrust.blog
I've run courses on the history of gardens [and many other things] at Birkbeck and City Lit. I'm currently an honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham and run a Masters Course in Garden History as well as offering supervision to PhD students.
If all that sounds posh - rest assured I'm not!
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by David Marsh
- The Little Men in Red Hats
- Castles for Cows & Palaces for Poultry
- What Made Your Garden Grow?
- The Joys [and Problems!] of Making a Garden in France
- Plants on Paper: A Potted History of Botanical Art
- The Opposite of Chelsea: The Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire
- The National Botanic Gardens of Burma
- Humphry Repton: Britain’s First Landscape Gardener
- Tools of the Trade
- Puzzle Pictures
- The Elephant in the Garden
- The History of the Cottage Garden
- The Tradescants
- The palaces of Tudor London and their gardens...and their beasts!
- The Great Geranium Robbery
- An Introduction to Tudor and Stuart Gardens
- The Loudons
- The Picturesque
- Moorfields: The Story of London's First Public Park
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