Confederacy of a Dunce - Canonbury Square

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

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The second picture in my quiz depicts north London's Canonbury Square. More specifically, 27 Canonbury Square, where George Orwell lived from 1944-48, after his St. John's Wood home was bombed. This period is described in much detail by Orwellologist Jackie Jura at Orwell Today, and with a collection of photos (including the interior) here. Orwell, however, was not the only prominent resident of this square. Evelyn Waugh lived at #17 from 1928-30 and wrote A Handful of Dust there after being cuckolded and divorced by his wife "She-Evelyn" (and Nancy Mitford apparently rented it from him in subsequent years). Samuel Phelps, perhaps best known for his work in traditional English theatre (putting on the works of Shakespeare in the days of melodrama) lived at #8 from 1844-67; Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant also lived there, although I am not sure exactly where or when (we non-subscribers are teased by the beginning of this History Today article).

As it turns out the date I listed for the construction of this square (1800) was not correct (although I am not alone in this error). According to british-history.ac.uk (perhaps a more definitive source than Evans Baker estate agency or londontourist.org), the square was not even laid out until 1805, so the date of building should perhaps be more like 1810-15. During the Waugh/Orwell period, much of the square was rented to *shudder* local tenants, but the situation changed after the war. Again according to british-history.ac.uk, "The new owners of part of the estate from 1952, Oriel Property Trust, stopped reletting to local tenants and began to rehabilitate Canonbury Square and its neighbourhood hoping to attract middle-class tenants. By 1961 Canonbury, the first area in Islington to be gentrified, had a higher concentration of professional and managerial residents than the rest of the borough."

Today it seems that some local tenants may be able to rent after all (findaproperty currently shows this property to let: 2 bedroom flat, partly furnished, and only £440 a week). Although I didn't find any properties for sale at the moment, the last 12 sales averaged £669,625 according to nethouseprices. This average is pulled down by some "cheap" flat sales: #1a, #2, First floor flat #4, Basement flat #11, #14b, #15a, #16a all sold for less than £400,000 (obviously the ghetto side of the square), while freehold terraced houses sold for £1.25m (#5), £1.5m (#46), £1.647m (#34) (all before 2003).

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Tuesday, May 17, 2005 10:07:33 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)