Welcome to our Grosvenor Square history section. You can skip to subsequent pages using the links below or simply continue reading to start at the beginning.
"Had I but plenty of money, money enough and to spare,
The house for me, no doubt, were a house in the city square.
Ah, such a life, such a life, as one leads at the window there." - Browning.
Grosvenor Square is a large garden square in London's exclusive Mayfair district. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Dukes of Westminster, and takes its name from their surname, "Grosvenor".
Grosvenor Square may fittingly be described as one of the great squares of London in terms of both in size and importance. Indeed, when formed, it was intended to eclipse all other then existing squares, and Malcolm descibed the square as "the very focus of feudal grandeur, fashion, taste, and hospitality."
In a work published in 1786, it was mentioned with Lincoln's Inn Fields as one of the sights of London, while a writer in 1805 styled it "the most magnificent square in the Metropolis."
Until the Second World War it was essentially the fashionable centre that Soho Square was during the better part of the eighteenth century, and in both extent and grandeur of its houses it leaves that old world, now almost forgotten, locality far behind it.