Golden Square

This article is about the square in central London. For other uses, see Golden Square (disambiguation).

Golden Square, Soho. The central statue is one of only two public statues of George II in the capital. In the background, the sculpture of a reclining man is Catafalque by Sean Henry.

Looking north on Golden Square

Golden Square, Soho, London in the City of Westminster is one of the historic squares of Central London. The square is just east of Regent Street and north of Piccadilly Circus.

Most likely laid down according to plans by Sir Christopher Wren, this west London square was brought into being from the 1670s onwards. It very rapidly became the political and ambassadorial district of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, housing the Portuguese embassy among others.

The town house of the first Viscount Bolingbroke, much favoured by Queen Anne, was situated on the square. The statue of George II is believed to have come from Cannons House. William Pitt the Elder was born in the Square in 1708.

The square features, albeit in a fictional context, in the third part of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, The System of the World. An important scene in A Handful of Dust, by Evelyn Waugh, takes place in a nightclub in the fictional Sink Street, off Golden Square.

Golden Square also features in Charles Dickens' The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, as the square where Ralph Nickleby lives in a spacious house and has his "establishment". Dickens describes the square thus

Although a few members of the graver professions live about Golden Square, it is not exactly in anybody's way to or from anywhere. It is one of the squares that have been; a quarter of the town that has gone down in the world, and taken to letting lodgings. Many of its first and second floors are let, furnished, to single gentlemen; and it takes boarders besides. It is a great resort of foreigners. The dark-complexioned men who wear large rings, and heavy watch-guards, and bushy whiskers, and who congregate under the Opera Colonnade, and about the box-office in the season, between four and five in the afternoon, when they give away the orders,--all live in Golden Square, or within a street of it. Two or three violins and a wind instrument from the Opera band reside within its precincts. Its boarding-houses are musical, and the notes of pianos and harps float in the evening time round the head of the mournful statue, the guardian genius of a little wilderness of shrubs, in the centre of the square. On a summer's night, windows are thrown open, and groups of swarthy moustached men are seen by the passer-by, lounging at the casements, and smoking fearfully. Sounds of gruff voices practising vocal music invade the evening's silence; and the fumes of choice tobacco scent the air. There, snuff and cigars, and German pipes and flutes, and violins and violoncellos, divide the supremacy between them. It is the region of song and smoke. Street bands are on their mettle in Golden Square; and itinerant glee- singers quaver involuntarily as they raise their voices within its boundaries.

Current residents

Absolute Radio is based at No. 1 Golden Square and the square is also the home to the London office of M & C Saatchi Group and its subsidiary companies including M&C Saatchi, M&C Saatchi Mobile, M&C Saatchi Export, LIDA, TALK PR, Play*, Studio 36 and 5th Element. Both Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd are located at 25 Golden Square.

Digital Cinema Media (DCM) and the Cinema Advertising Association (CAA) are both located at 12 Golden Square. Most of the cinema advertising in Britain is controlled from this beautiful building.

Monmouth Dean occupy a very contemporary office on the 1st floor of 10 Golden Square which is notable by its very large picture window. Through which one can always witness a hive of activity and its office agents broking deals for new offices in the west end for professional and Media companies. Monmouth Dean, started in 2009, is the largest firm of Chartered Surveyors in Soho. In 2011 Monmouth Dean completed several significant deals including a letting of 25,000 sq ft of offices to LVMH, 20,000 sq ft to Sony and acquired 25,000 sq ft for Orient Express and 30,000 sq ft for Poker Stars. The Founders of Monmouth dean were Jason Hanley, Ray Walker, Rhys Evans and Paul Dart.

References

• Golden Square Area (from the Survey of London: volumes 31 and 32)