Montagu Square

File:MontaguSquare.jpg

Montagu Square

Montagu Square is a square in Marylebone, London. It is situated a little north of Marble Arch. It is oriented on an axis approximately NNW on the same grid plan that extends eastwards as far as Portland Place. Montagu Place runs along the north end, George Street along the south end. It measures about 225m × 40m.

It was built as part of the Portman Estate between 1810 and 1815 along with Bryanston Square, a little to the west, and first leased to the builder David Porter. He named the square after his former mistress when he was a chimney sweep, Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu. John Summerson describes the square as "a plain, uniform regiment of brown brick houses", comparing it unfavourably with Bryanston Square. The architect of both was Joseph Parkinson.

Famous residents

• Henry Grissell, 19th century foundryman of prestigious and ornate ironworks.
• Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope, British socialite, adventurer and traveler.
• Ringo Starr kept a basement flat at 34 Montagu Square in the late 1960s. Jimi Hendrix lived in the flat after Starr moved to Sunny Heights. After Hendrix's departure, John Lennon's mother-in-law Lillian Powell stayed there occasionally, while Lennon himself moved there with Yoko Ono, in the early months of their relationship.
• Anthony Trollope, prolific 19th Century author famous for his series of Barchester novels based on a fictitious cathedral city lived here at number 39 from 1873.

External links

• LondonTown.com guide to Montagu Square