1882-1886
Cadogan and Hans Place Estate Company, Dev.
Col. Makins and Stevenson overall layout
W. H. Willis, builder (most on west side)
Stevenson, Devey, George, Street, Architects
Length Closure Ratio (B): 10.9:1
Width Closure Ratio (B): 4.3:1
Green: 150 ft. x 450 ft (45.7 x 137.2 m)
Ratio Width to Length (Face to Face): 1:2.5
Face to Face: Width: 263 ft. (80.2 m)
Face to Face: Length: 662 ft. (201.8 m)
Height A: 55 ft. (16.8 m)
Height B: 61 ft. (18.6)
Lennox Gardens
This was open land until the 1874 Cadogan and Hans Place Improvements Act was passed allowing improvements to this section of Henry Smith’s Charity Estate which adjoined Lord Cadogan’s holdings. A Limited Liability development company, one of the first in London, had been formed in 1875 for the purpose of developing the area, and Col. Makins, Chairman, and his architect, JJ Stevenson, laid out the overall development as a continuation of Holland’s Hans Town.
Cadogan Square to the east began first, and Lennox Gardens began five years later in the year 1882. A remarkably successful overall venture, the development LLC was dissolved in 1890 – 15 years from beginning.
Lennox Gardens is formed
1887 (Bacon's Map)
by two crescents facing a football shaped park. The late 1870’s had seen the expiration of the first 99 year leases in Hans Place, and somewhat obsolete pre Georgian residences were being redone in the popular Queen Anne style which was based on 17th century Flemish town homes. The development LLC demanded a red-brick and terracotta style that was coming in vogue – in sharp contrast to nearby squares that dated before 1860.
These townhomes were built for the speculative market, and instead of employing coordinated and similar facades, capitalized on an architecture that emphasized each
Lennox Gardens
individual townhome. The shape of the assemblage of Lennon Gardens capitalizes on the embracing quality of the crescent form, and devotes the minimum possible garden to maximum effect. The length of the green is approximately that of Pelham Crescent, but the width of the green at it apex is also that of Pelham, meaning that the area encompassed is considerably smaller than Pelham, though a similar effect is obtained. This fact of efficiency would be much more obvious when the two green are compared if the adjoining architecture and building heights were more similar. In fact, Lennox Gardens buildings are one third taller.
London Squares 