Foxes in Gloucester Square

It’s not just discerning city folk who seek out accomodation in Gloucester Square, foxes do too. This 1.6 acres of tranquility, surrounded by ample food supply in the neighbourhood, make the Square a venue of choice for resting and nesting foxes.

Foxes are highly territorial, which means the presence of one denning fox in an area will typically deter others, however removing that fox is largely pointless, as the free territory will quickly become occupied by a new fox.

The Garden’s policy is therefore one of management (deterring the foxes in certain areas of the garden, e.g. the playground, rather than wasting vast resources in the impossible pursuit of preventing them altogether.

A Nuisance Nevertheless

The presence of foxes in the Garden is nevertheless a nuisance; they:

  • Cause £100s of damage a year by chewing on the Garden’s irrigation features and electrics
  •  Drag food waste / rubbish into the Garden – inlcuding bags of fetid meat, etc
  • (Occassionally) Defecate on the Lawn
  • Nest under hard shelters (like the Shed)
Successive committees have taken advice on deterring foxes, with the latest report, compiled in 2011, available below.
2011 Fox Report

Unfortunately the only route to complete prevention of foxes would have been a more comprehensive fence around the Square. Indeed the original cast iron railings in Gloucester Square, removed during WW2, had Dog Pickets (an additional run of bars at a lower level) designed to deter foxes, though the effectiveness of such a feature is questionable, and would no doubt have been costly to (re)install.

The current Committee’s approach is 5-fold: