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Chairs
New for 2024: Flexible Seating
Utilising this year’s seating budget, the Committee have introduced some long requested flexible seating and storage.
The seating is available to all residents providing the Terms of Use (detailed below) are abided to. Fines and access restrictions may regretably be applied to those residetns that do not abide by the terms of use.
Terms of Use
Gloucester Square deckchairs and tennis chairs are the property of the Gloucester Square Garden. They are available for the exclusive use of residents who are garden key holders providing they agree to and abide by the following Terms of Use:
All items of flexible furniture (‘chairs’) are to be returned to storage when not in active use, and should not be left unattended under any circumstances
Keyholders are responsible and assume full liability for the safe carrying and use of all garden chairs
All chairs must remain within the Gloucester Square Garden
Chairs may not to be reserved
Chairs are exclusively for sitting on and may not to be used for other activities (i.e. workouts, football, cricket, etc)
Chairs may not be positioned within the Play Area (delineated by Green Rubber Surfacing)
Chairs may not be carried through the Play Area
A maximum of four chairs may be used per keyholder
The Gloucester Square Committee reserve the right to issue fines and or remove privileges from keyholders who do not adhere to all the above rules
Assembly Instructions
Quick Links to Former Resident Profiles
Profiles of Former Residents (Directors Chairs)
Robert Stephson Hon FRSE, FRSA, DCL (Hon. causa) - (16 Oct 1803 – 12 Oct 1859)
Robert Stephenson was such a remarkable man that we have built a dedicated section for him on this website.
During the building of the Britannia Bridge, Stephenson recounted sleepless nights to his friend Mr Gooch:
Often at night I would lie tossing about, seeking sleep in vain. The tubes filled my head. I went to bed with them and got up with them. In the gray of morning, when I looked accross the Square, it seemed an immense distance accross to the houses on the opposite side. It was nearly the same length as the span of my Tubular Bridge”
Letter to Gooch quoted in the Lives of the Engineers by Samuel Smiles, Volume 5, page 336
Whilst Stephenson was known for hosting lavish parties at his Gloucester Square home, inviting the various members of high society including his peer Brunel, Stephenson’s time on Gloucester Square was also blighted by inventors and entrepreneurs frequently knocking on his door seeking his investment / backing.
It is for this reason he frequently escaped to his Yacht(s) called Titania, that he nicknamed “the House that has no knocker”. A tribute to Titania sits within the Gloucester Square Playground, sailing towards Stephenson’s former home (demolished in 1934/5).
Sir James Taylor Ingham (17 Jan 1805 - 5 Mar 1890)
Sir James Taylor Ingham, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, was one of the Square’s longest residents, living at no.40 (now 43) Gloucester Square from the 1940s until his death in 1890.
Sir James Kay Shuttleworth (20 Jul 1804 - 26 May 1877)
Sir James Kay Shuttleworth, born James Kay, is best remembered as one of the fathers of public (state) education, founding St John’s in Battersea in 1838, the country’s first training college for teachers.
Kay was also an accomplished Doctor, Statistician, and MP. It was nevertheless through his strong advocacy for universal education that he met his would be wife, Janet Shuttleworth (1817 – 1872), marrying into the wealth that would afford him the ability to be an initial resident on Gloucester Square.
Janet was the daughter of the wealthy Barrister and Landowner Robert Shuttleworth, of Gawthorpe Hall, Lancs. Her father died in 1818, and Janet was brought up with her half sisters (including Marianne North), her mother’s daughers by her second husband, Frederick North. Janet inherited her father’s estates in 1838 and applied herself dilligently to improving her houses and land, caring for her tenants, and providing for their education and religous well being. In this pursuit she sought Dr James Kay’s advice on appointing a schoolmaster, beginning an ongoing correspondese that would ultimately result in her stepfather reluctantly giving his consent to their marriage.
Unforutnately the Marriage would be an unhappy one, with Janet decided to live apart from her husband from 1864, having moved to San Remo, Italy, where a “Strada Shuttleworth” remains to this day.
Shortly after Janet’s death, James Kay-Shuttleworth would become a founding member of the Girl’s Public Days School Company, and remained a member of its council until shortly before his death.
Lady Violet Bonham Carter (15 Apr 1887 - 19 Feb 1969)
Lady Violet is perhaps best known as a close friend and politcal ally of Sir Winston Churchill, who like her friend, argued steadfastly against appeasement in years preceeding WW2. However this is just part of her remarkable life.
Daughter to H.H. Asquith, British Prime Minister from 1908 – 1916, Lady Violet married her father’s principal private secretary, Maurice Bonham-Carter in 1915. Some 20 years later the couple moved to 40 Gloucester Square with their 4 children, aged between 8 and 15. Shortly after moving in Lady Violet became actively involved in protecting Jewish refugees, particularly those in Czechoslovakia, from persecution. A snippet of this work was covered in the “Who Do You Think You Are” episode featuring Lady Violet’s grandaughter, Helena Bonham Carter.
Georgina Landemare (1882 - 1978)
Correction: The Deckchair inscription suggests, per the Imperial War Musuem Profile, that Georgina Landamere lived on Gloucester Square from 1901 – 1909, however this is contradicted by the more recent research of Biographer Annie Gray, suggesting a move away as early as 1904/5.
In 1901, Georgina came to 19 Gloucester Square to work as a live-in kitchen maid for Edward Dunbar Kilburn, co-owner of Schone, Kilburn & Co, which was one of the most important firms in British India. By this time Kilburn was in his 70s, and living at Gloucester Square with his wife, two adult daughters, and approximately 7 live in staff.
It is unclear quite how long Georgina Landamere stayed in Gloucester Square, though by 1905, at the age of 23, she had moved to work for the Ian and Jean Hamilton, who were close friends and frequently dined with Churchill, though had moved on again by 1907 to work for Robert Allatini, and at this point was number 1 in the domestic kitchen.
Arguably the most influential move of Georgina’s life was, in 1909, to marry the french Chef of the Ritz, Paul Landamere, a widower some 23 years her senior (older than her father) with 5 children. French male chefs were considered the unassailble masters of cuisine at the time, with few households able to afford their services. Following their marrigage Paul and Georgina worked as independent caterers, with Georgina learning the art of French cooking.
When Paul died in 1932, Georgina went solo, and found no difficulty in building on her impressive client list. From 1933, that list included Winston and Celmentine Churchil.
As Annie Gray later writes, “At the outbreak of the Second World War, the Churchills were in particularly straightened times, having seriously considered selling Chartwell the previous year. It is therefore unsurprising that when, in early 1940, Mrs. Landemare offered her services as a permanent cook, the Churchills—or rather Clementine, since she masterminded domestic matters—leapt at the opportunity. For Mrs. Landemare it meant steady work instead of the freelance jobs she had been relying upon and which would certainly dry up during the war.”
Profiles of Former Residents (Deckchairs)
Francis Leopold Mond
Francis grew up at 22 Hyde Park Square, the square house on the South West Corner of what forms the building 21 Hyde Park Square (including the main entrance). Francis’ life, untimely death over the Somme, and the dedication of his mother who speant some 5 years searching his remains, have been immortalised in the book “Missing: The need for Closure after the Great War”, by Richard Van Emden, the bestselling World War One Author.
On May 15th 1918 a RAF Bomber, named “Caesear”, flown by Capt Francis Mond, accompanied by his observer Lt Edgar Martyn, had bombed German Ammunition Dumps at Bapaume and was subsequently shot down by a German plane. It crashed in No Mans Land just south of the Somme River in front of the 31st Battalion (Australian Infrantry) lines. The aerial fight and crash was witnessed by Lt Bert Hill, a Sheerer from New South Wales, who ventured out into No Mans Land under enemy fire, extricated and identified the bodies before arranging for them to be transported back to BHQ. Lt Hill arranged for the personal effects to be sent to Capt Mond’s parents. [2]
Francis parents, wished to give their son a proper burial, though the remains of Francis and Edgar had gone missing after the initial recovery. Francis’ mother, Angela, would spend the intervening years talking to people and visiting ceremonies trying to find her son’s grave. She was meticulous in her research and by March 1923 had convinced the Imperial War Graves Commission that two of the graves in Doullens had been mis-identified. In the presence of Mr Aspinall and Mrs Mond the body of Captain John Aspinall RAF was exhumed and found to be that of Francis Mond. Having proved that half of her theory was correct a second exhumation was carried out on the adjacent grave and this turned out to be Edgar Martyn. [3]
The Mond’s purchased the area of land where their son’s airfraft had come down, and a momunment in the form of a broken column erected.
William Haviside Tyser (1845 - 1908)
Whilst not that notable in his own right, William Tyser, a Ship Owner, provided a £500 surety for his close friend John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry, after his arrest following accusations of libel by Oscar Wilde.
In February 1895, angered by the apparent ongoing homosexual relationship between his son Alfred and Oscar Wilde, Queensberry left a calling card reading “For Oscar Wilde, posing Somdomite [sic]” at Wilde’s club.[15] Wilde sued for criminal libel, leading to Queensberry’s arrest, whereby he called on Tyser, a shipowner, to post bail for him.
It is therefore likely Queenberry visited or perhaps even stayed at Tyser’s home, 13 Gloucester Square, whilst preparing his defence. He was not keeping a London home at the time, and at the time of his arrest had been residing at Carter’s Hotel on Dover St.
Having been shunned by most legal professionals, a 31 year old solictior, Charles Russel (whose firm would form part of Charles Russel Speechleys), agreed to act for Queenberry, and gathered compelling/embarressing evidence to support his claims, causing Wilde to drop the case.
Queensberry subsequently won a counterclaim against Wilde, leaving Wilde bankrupt and his assets frozen. Queensberry then handed his evidence to Scotland Yard, that would ultimately lead to the imprisonment, excile, and untimely death of Oscar Wilde.
Despite his controversial life, Queensberry left a great legacy to boxing and implemented modern rules, such as the three-minute rounds, the 10-second counts for falls, better quality gloves, and weight divisions – known now as the “Queensberry Rules”.
Tyser himself kept out of the limelight, though was likely a driving force behind G. D. Tyser and Co, originally founded by his father as Tyser & Haviside, a shipping Company operating routers to New York, Austrailia and the West Indies.
Samuel Harvey Twining (1820 - 1900)
Samuel Harvey Twining was one of the leading members of the Twinings Tea Family, and a banker in addition to his inherited role as Tea Mechant. Samuel and took the position as Governor of St Clement Danes School off the Strand, a long standing tradition among the family whose flagship store has gone on to become the Strand’s longest running shop.
Gregory Peck (April 5 1916 – June 12 2003)
Gregory Peck, the Academy Award winning actor rented a house on Gloucester Square when filming his first oversees venture, the 1951 Movie Horatio Hornblower. His wife, Greta, and children accompanied Greg to live in Gloucester Square. The house came complete with “Irish Girls to wait upon them”.
Of the House Greg Remarked “It’s all very fine – except the cooking. But the girls are such nice rosy girls that I don’t have the heart to release them”.
William H Smith, FRS (24 June 1825 - 6 October 1891)
Whilst better known for his longer-term residence on 12 Hyde Park Street, William Henry Smith (of WHSmith fame) appears to have briefly lived at no.27 Gloucester Square in 1847, ahead of his move to Hyde Park Street.