Berkeley Square


 * This article refers to a town square in London. For other meanings of Berkeley or Berkeley Square, see Berkeley (disambiguation).



Berkeley Square is a town square in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. It was originally laid out in the mid 18th century by architect William Kent. The square is named after the noble Gloucestershire family of the same name whose London home, Berkeley House, had stood nearby until 1733, and had served as their London residence when they were away from their ancestral Gloucestershire home Berkeley Castle.

Description
Whilst Berkeley Square was originally a mostly residential area, there now remains only one residential block on the square - number 48. A residence in Berkeley Square is highly sought after, and residences do not come up on the market very often. The limited supply and great demand has created a market where a residence in Berkeley Square commands higher prices on the property market than similar residences in equivalently affluent neighbourhoods.

The square features a sculptural fountain by Alexander Munro, a Pre-Raphaelite sculptor, made in 1865. The surrounding London Plane trees are among the oldest in central London, planted in 1789. Gunter's Tea Shop, founded under a different name in 1757, is also located here.

The buildings around the square include several by other notable architects including Robert Adam, who designed Lansdowne House (since 1935 home of the Lansdowne Club) in the southwest corner of the square on Fitzmaurice Place.

28 Berkeley Square is home to one of London's most exclusive private member's clubs, Morton's Club. Membership is by having a proposer invite you (and that is a current member) in addition to your form being sent to the Membership committee for approval.

50 Berkeley Square is the most infamous allegedly "haunted house" in London. The house is currently occupied by Maggs Brothers Antiquarian Booksellers.

Famous residents
Residents of Berkeley Square have included:


 * John Byng (1741), Vice-Admiral, Royal Navy. Byng's home was decorated by architect Isaac Ware.
 * Horace Walpole lived at no. 11 1779 until his death in 1797.
 * George Canning, UK Prime Minister (1827) — at no. 50
 * Winston Churchill lived at no. 48 as a child
 * Robert Clive of India — bought no. 45 in 1761 and committed suicide there in 1774.
 * Sarah Child Villiers, Countess of Jersey (Lady Jersey), one of the famous patronesses of Almack's and leaders of the ton during the Regency era; heiress to the Child & Co. banking fortune — at no. 38.

Fictional residents

 * A famous fictional resident of Berkeley Square is P.G. Wodehouse's character Bertie Wooster, who lives in a flat there along with his valet Jeeves, not far from the Drones Club.
 * Harry Flashman, the vicious bully of Tom Brown and anti-hero of the Flashman Papers, had a marital home here with his wife Elsperth.
 * Cathy Lane, Patty Lane's "identical cousin", is said to have lived here in the theme song to The Patty Duke Show.
 * Tomlinson, of Rudyard Kipling's poem of the same name, owns a house on Berkeley Square.
 * Peter Standish, a character from the play Berkeley Square written by John Balderston, about a Yankee who lives in a house on the square and is transported back to the 18th century. The play was produced as a movie in 1933, with Leslie Howard, and 1951 and on television in 1959.
 * In the 1949 comedy film Kind Hearts and Coronets, Lady Agatha D'Ascogne is made to fall to her death in Berkeley Square to accommodate a clever poetic parody.
 * Lady Emily Ashton, created by author Tasha Alexander, lives primarily in her Berkeley Square residence during the Victorian period.
 * Tomlinson, the fictional character who was the subject of a satirical poem by the same name that was written by Rudyard Kipling in 1891.

Business
John Aspinall's Clermont Club was located in Berkeley Square.

Current businesses include:
 * AlianceBernstein
 * ArcelorMittal
 * Banares Restaurant
 * Brothers Services London Ltd
 * Carlyle Group
 * City Office
 * David Aaron Ancient Art
 * Hatton Corporation
 * Jack Barclay
 * Mercer Pasqua Property & Sales
 * Rolls Royce

Transport
Berkeley Square can be easily reached from Green Park tube station on the Piccadilly, Jubilee and Victoria lines, and Bond Street tube station on the Central and Jubilee lines. London Buses route C2 also passes through the square.

Berkeley Square is also one of the most popular locations for the Elektrobay charging points supplied by Elektromotive, with requests for additional charging points to be installed.