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Our Garden

This award-winning garden was originally laid out as part of the Edwardes Estate in the 1870s, after the District Line reached West Brompton in 1869 and construction of the properties of Earl’s Court Square began. Though it was not one of the garden squares originally protected by the Kensington Improvement Act 1851 - so residents had no automatic right to use it - it was well-managed with professional gardeners until 1939. Then in the Second World War the original cast iron railings were removed and five emergency water tanks filled the southern half of the garden. It was much neglected in the post-war decades, though the owners of the garden, Matlodge, which also owned the freeholds of many of the houses, started to issue keys to residents for an annual fee of £5.25 in 1965.

In 1974, the recently formed Earl’s Court Square Residents’ Association, led by David Ware MBE (1913-2011), whose wife Jennifer (1932-2019) had grown up in Earl’s Court Square, coordinated the accession of the garden to the 1851 Kensington Improvement Act, which took effect on 1 April 1975. Landscape gardener and resident Christopher Fair designed the present layout and new iron railings were installed. A children’s playground was added in 1980. The mature London plane trees were pruned and maintained properly, but one on the south side was blown down in the October 1987 ‘hurricane’. We have several other mature varieties, including a sycamore on the east side. Sadly, a mature Wych Elm finally succumbed to disease in 2020 and had to be removed.

The garden hosts a selected number of neighbourhood social events, including an annual summer BBQ and Christmas tree lighting party, and has participated in the Open Gardens Weekend.

Our Square

The grand stuccoed terraces on two sides of the Square are complemented by the red-brick houses on the east and south sides, the latter ‘Dutch-style’ being Grade II* listed. Development of the Square started in 1872 when the Edwardes Estate leased land to Sir William Palliser, who became the first resident of 1 Earl’s Court Square, and master builder Edward Francis. Herbert Court Mansion was the last building facing the garden to be completed in in 1892. From the outset, many houses were subdivided as boarding houses and hotels and few survived as single family dwellings. The Square was designated a Conservation Area in 1975, when complete demolition of several houses was averted. The last remaining hotel-hostels, from the time when Earl’s Court was known as the ‘Kangaroo Valley’ home to young Australian migrants such as Germaine Greer and Clive James, were converted into flats by 2000.