Montpelier Square

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). 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).

Internally, excluding small porches, the square measures 260 feet (79 m) by 200 feet (61 m). Private communal gardens, to centre, measure 0.2 hectares (0.49 acres).

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 – all classical houses, whether internally converted to flats – facing it are listed buildings. 1–17, 17a–43 are listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England for their architectural merit. 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.