{{Short description|Square in London, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Use British English|date=March 2025}} Many of the houses along the northern side of the square and the face of one of an adjoining street|thumb '''Montpelier Square''' is a residential garden square in Knightsbridge, London, and is administratively in the City of Westminster. The homes were built in the 19th century and are of brick construction, partly covered with stucco. All of the buildings facing inwards are listed grade II (the mainstream, initial category) in the heritage listing scheme used in England.

==History, extent, listing details and value== From a point in Plantagenet England until 1955, Kensington's eastern spur was thinner, amounting to Brompton (a forlorn term for a wedge of Knightsbridge to the south).<ref>[http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10086462/boundary Limits of South Kensington Civil and of Ancient Parish] Vision of Britain. The University of Portsmouth and others.</ref> Instead these easterly fields of Kensington Gore reaching north to nearly the Serpentine and going past its hamlet hub to the fence of the Palace (formerly royal manor) then from 1901 to Kensington Church Street) presented the largest exclave within Ossulstone (the Kensington Gore detached part of St Margaret Westminster).<ref>[http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10164412/boundary Limits of Westminster St Margaret Civil and of Ancient Parish] Vision of Britain. The University of Portsmouth and others.</ref>

Internally, excluding small porches, the square measures {{convert|260|ft}} by {{convert|200|ft}}. Private communal gardens, to centre, measure {{convert|0.2|ha|acre|abbr=off}}.<ref name='LPGT'>{{cite web|title=Montpelier Square|url=https://londongardenstrust.org/conservation/inventory/site-record/?ID=WST066|work=London Gardens Online – Montpelier Square|publisher=London Parks & Gardens Trust|access-date=29 January 2019}}</ref>

Grade II listing of 44 Montpelier Street, one of two southern approach ways, means that all houses within two-house-fronts of directly facing the square plus those &ndash; all classical houses, whether internally converted to flats &ndash; facing it are listed buildings.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1223456|desc=44 Montpelier Street}}</ref> 1–17, 17a–43 are listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England for their architectural merit.<ref name="NHLE1-7">{{NHLE|num=1223388|desc=1–7 Montpelier Square|access-date=29 January 2019|mode=cs2}}</ref><ref name="NHLE8-16">{{NHLE|num=1223344|desc=8–16 Montpelier Square|access-date=29 January 2019|mode=cs2}}</ref><ref name="NHLE17a">{{NHLE|num=1223400|desc=17a Montpelier Square|access-date=29 January 2019|mode=cs2}}</ref><ref name="NHLE17-25">{{NHLE|num=1223409|desc=17–25 Montpelier Square|access-date=29 January 2019|mode=cs2}}</ref><ref name="NHLE26">{{NHLE|num=1223410|desc=26 Montpelier Square|access-date=29 January 2019|mode=cs2}}</ref><ref name="NHLE27-35">{{NHLE|num=1267311|desc=27–35 Montpelier Square|access-date=29 January 2019|mode=cs2}}</ref><ref name="NHLE36-43">{{NHLE|num=1223412|desc=36–43 Montpelier Square|access-date=29 January 2019|mode=cs2}}</ref> No.s 44 to 47, forming the eastern approach way (there is also a fourth approach way which is to the west) are not listed.

Average full houses, on long leases, of the square cost £8.2 million in 2018.<ref name='Zoopla'>{{cite web|title= House prices in Montpelier Square, London SW7|url=https://www.zoopla.co.uk/house-prices/london/montpelier-square/ |publisher=Zoopla|accessdate=29 January 2019}}</ref>

In 2007, the ''Evening Standard'' saw the square a strong 'street of success' where 'the capital's corporate power brokers choose to make their homes'. The square ranked equally, 36th, as to declared housing of directors of companies with a turnover of more than £10 million.<ref name=ES07>{{cite news|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/where-the-highest-fliers-love-to-live-6619836.html|title=Where the highest fliers love to live|date=2 November 2007|author=Hugo Duncan|work=The Evening Standard|accessdate=29 January 2019}}</ref>

==Notable residents== *Writer Robert S. Hitchens in 1891, and was later home to the Hungarian writer Arthur Koestler and his third wife, Cynthia. Koestler and his wife committed suicide at the house in 1983 - No.8.<ref name='LPGT'/> *Joyce Grenfell (née Phipps) was born at No.29 on 10 February 1910.<ref>London, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1923 for Joyce Irene Phipps</ref> *Actress and dancer Leslie Caron (with theatre director, her husband Peter Hall and children) in the 1960s. Her home was mapped in an April 1966 article in ''TIME'' magazine that popularised the phrase the 'swinging Sixties' - No.31.<ref name='LPGT'/> *Actor Walter Lacey and his wife, also an actor between 1852 and 1860 - No.38.<ref name='LPGT'/> *Architect Matthew Digby Wyatt in 1851 - at No.40.<ref name='LPGT'/> *In 1856 members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood who edited ''The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine'', founded by William Morris. It was the home of Wilfred Heeley, whose visitors included Edward Burne-Jones and William Fulford; they met and lodged at "20" (now No.18).<ref name='LPGT'/>

Helen Cecelia Black visited Mrs. Lovett Cameron at her such home for her book ''Notable Women Authors of the Day: Biographical sketches'' and described the rich interior of Cameron's house.<ref name="Black1972">{{cite book|author=Helen C. Black|title=Notable Women Authors of the Day: Biographical Sketches|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PkSpo5funNEC|year=1972|publisher=Library of Alexandria|isbn=978-1-4655-1855-2|page=79}}</ref>

Victor Lownes lived at No.&nbsp;3 in the 1960s; Christine Keeler attended a party there in 1966 where she was spiked with LSD. Roman Polanski and Stuart Whitman were also guests at the party.<ref name="KeelerThompson2014">{{cite book|author1=Christine Keeler|author2=Douglas Thompson|title=Secrets and Lies – The Real Story of Political Scandal That Mesmerised the World – The Profumo Affair|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yH_wAgAAQBAJ|date=3 March 2014|publisher=John Blake Publishing|isbn=978-1-78219-961-8|page=224}}</ref> The Beatles also went to parties at Lownes's house.<ref name="SchreudersLewisohn2008">{{cite book|author1=Piet Schreuders|author2=Mark Lewisohn|author3=Adam Smith|title=Beatles London: The Ultimate Guide to Over 400 Beatles Sites in and Around London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2N53-a3FafQC|date=25 March 2008|publisher=Pavilion Books|isbn=978-1-906032-26-5}}</ref>

The dancer Michael Flatley sold his house for £7.2 million in 2015.<ref name=ITVJune15>{{cite news|url=https://www.itv.com/news/london/2015-06-05/dancing-all-the-way-to-the-bank-michael-flatley-sells-london-home-for-bumper-profit/|title=Dancing all the way to the bank: Michael Flatley sells London home for bumper profit|date=7 June 2015|work=ITV News|accessdate=4 February 2019}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category|Montpelier Square, London}} *[https://www.montpeliersquare.org.uk/ Montpelier Square Garden Committee]

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Category:Grade II listed buildings in the City of Westminster Category:Grade II listed houses in London Category:Brompton, London Category:Squares in the City of Westminster Category:Knightsbridge Category:Garden squares in London Category:Communal gardens