Montagu Square
Encyclopedia
Marylebone
Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, located within the City of Westminster. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. It is situated a little north of Marble Arch
Marble Arch
Marble Arch is a white Carrara marble monument that now stands on a large traffic island at the junction of Oxford Street, Park Lane, and Edgware Road, almost directly opposite Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park in London, England...
. It is oriented on an axis approximately NNW on the same grid plan that extends eastwards as far as Portland Place
Portland Place
Portland Place is a street in the Marylebone district of central London, England.-History and topography:The street was laid out by the brothers Robert and James Adam for the Duke of Portland in the late 18th century and originally ran north from the gardens of a detached mansion called Foley House...
. 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
Portman Estate
The Portman Estate is a property estate in Marylebone, Central London. It lies between Oxford Street and Edgware Road, and includes Portman Square, Manchester Square, and some parts of Baker Street and Gloucester Place....
between 1810 and 1815 along with Bryanston Square
Bryanston Square
Bryanston Square is a square in Marylebone, Westminster, London, England. Named after its owner Henry William Portman's home village of Bryanston in Dorset, it was built as part of the Portman Estate between 1810 and 1815, along with Montagu Square a little to the east and Wyndham Place to its...
, 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
Elizabeth Montagu
Elizabeth Montagu was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, salonist, literary critic, and writer who helped organize and lead the bluestocking society...
. John Summerson
John Summerson
Sir John Newenham Summerson CH CBE was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century....
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 GrissellHenry GrissellHenry Grissell , sometimes known as "Iron Henry", was an English foundry-man who was responsible for the ironwork in a number of prestigious buildings in England, Russia, Austria and Egypt.-Early life and education:...
, 19th century foundryman of prestiguous and ornate ironworks. - Ringo StarrRingo StarrRichard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
kept a basement flat at 34 Montagu Square in the late 1960s. Jimi HendrixJimi HendrixJames Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
lived in the flat after Starr moved to Sunny HeightsSunny HeightsSunny Heights, in St George's Hill estate in Weybridge, Surrey, England, was the mid-1960s home of Ringo Starr, drummer of The Beatles.Starr purchased his home on 24 July 1965 after bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison had bought houses. Sunny Heights, along with its large house and grounds,...
. After Hendrix's departure, John LennonJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
's mother-in-law Lillian Powell stayed there occasionally, while Lennon himself moved there with Yoko OnoYoko Onois a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
, in the early months of their relationship. - Anthony TrollopeAnthony TrollopeAnthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
, prolific 19th Century author famous for his series of Barchester novels based on a fictious cathedral city lived here at number 39 from 1873.