ABSTRACT
Like many successful developers today, London’s seventeenth-, eighteenth-and nineteenth-century real estate speculators recognized that quality, status and amenities sell. Likewise, as the city grew westward and royal estates developed into residential enclaves, developers and designers used discrete residential squares as a primary selling feature (Rasmussen 1967: 177). As enclaves continued to expand across London, the demand for larger, more exclusive and distinct squares increased. This is clear in the early squares, such as Hanover Square (1714) and Cavendish Square (1717), compared to squares formed later, such as Park Crescent (1815) or Belgrave Square (1825) (Besant 1909: 219-226).
