{{Short description|English private garden square}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Cleveland Square''' is a private and gated garden square in the predominantly classically conserved Bayswater district of the City of Westminster, north of Central London's Hyde Park. The housing is in tall, tree-shaded rows, stuccoed and with pillared porches, with some discreet infilling of other housing behind.<ref name=austinandmontagu/> thumb|313x313px|Cleveland Square [[File:Slow,_slow,_quick,_quick,_slower_(67)_-_geograph.org.uk_-_4926489.jpg|thumb|Cleveland Square and Grade II listed Hallfield Estate in background]] thumb|Cleveland Square on an 1896 Ordnance Survey map showing the layout. The square was built in the 1850s along with Cleveland Gardens and Cleveland Terrace.
They are likely named after the speculator and development manager '''William Frederick Cleveland''' of Maida Vale who worked across the broader area of Paddington, particularly its formerly semi-independent farmstead (and reputed manor) of Bayswater.<ref>Bebbington, Gillian. (1972) ''London street names''. London: B.T. Batsford. p. 91. {{ISBN|0713401400}}</ref>
The homes and manicured, landscaped communal gardens were built around 1855, and were designed for short-term rental and long leases by the upper echelons of international society.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.clevelandsquare.org/|title=Cleveland Square|website=www.clevelandsquare.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://londongardenstrust.org/conservation/inventory/site-record/?ID=WST020a|title=Cleveland Square|website=www.londongardensonline.org.uk}}</ref> The small River Westbourne ran under the west end of the square.<ref>T F T Baker, Diane K Bolton and Patricia E C Croot, 'Paddington: Introduction', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9, Hampstead, Paddington, ed. C R Elrington (London, 1989), pp. 173-174. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol9/pp173-174 [accessed 16 January 2020].</ref>
The most lavish use of space of the overall area was in Cleveland Square, where the north side was made to be the only one not separated by the quiet road from the gardens, and enjoyed a further small green across its road to the north. Houses on the other sides were leased between 1852 and 1854 to Henry de Bruno Austin, a land-developer active in
Paddington and later in outer suburbs.<ref name="austinandmontagu">T F T Baker, Diane K Bolton and Patricia E C Croot, 'Paddington: Bayswater', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9, Hampstead, Paddington, ed. C R Elrington (London, 1989), pp. 204-212. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol9/pp204-212 [accessed 16 January 2020].</ref>
==Notable residents== * Sir Cusack Patrick Roney, managing director of the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada, died in Cleveland Square in 1868.<ref name=register>[https://books.google.com/books?id=MbFSAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA206 "Sir Cusack Patrick Roney"], ''The Register, and Magazine of Biography, &c.'', January 1869, pp. 206-207.</ref> * Samuel Montagu<ref name=austinandmontagu/> * Lionel Rothschild *George Tupou V, King of Tonga, lived at 25 Cleveland Square.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Tonga, the king, my father and I|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/tongafrenchpolynesia/10491539/Tonga-the-king-my-father-and-I.html|access-date=2021-05-26|website=www.telegraph.co.uk}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == {{commons category-inline|Cleveland Square, London}} {{Coord|51|30|53.16|N|0|10|56.99|W|scale:1563_region:GB|display=title}}
Category:Garden squares in London Category:Bayswater Category:Squares in the City of Westminster Category:Communal gardens