Golden Square

Golden Square lies in Soho, Westminster, a small raised garden surrounded by classical office buildings. Four straight paths meet at its corners, one hundred and twenty-five metres east of Regent Street and two hundred and fifty north-north-east of Piccadilly Circus. A retail street called Brewer Street runs along its southern edge. The square has few trees and low borders of shrubs. Its buildings now shelter media, advertising and public relations firms. In the late seventeenth century it became London’s political quarter, home to foreign embassies including the Portuguese legation. The first Viscount Bolingbroke’s town house stood here, and Queen Anne often visited. A statue of George II, bought for almost nothing at auction, still stands at the centre. William Pitt the Elder was born in the square in 1708. Writers from Dickens to Evelyn Waugh placed scenes here, and Neal Stephenson used it for part of his Baroque Cycle. Visitors find a quiet rectangle of lawn and gravel with benches beneath mature plane trees. The statue of George II, once thought to be Charles II, is surrounded by low iron railings. On summer evenings the air carries music from boarding-house pianos and violins. Boarders and lodgers occupy upper floors, while ground-floor offices belong to media companies. The square’s classical façades frame a pocket of London that has kept its eighteenth-century character despite the modern businesses inside.