Soho Square Garden
The leases of houses in the square granted by
Richard Frith and William Pym contained clauses
charging the lessees with garden rents of ten
shillings per annum. The lease of No. 3, for
instance, which was granted in January 1680/1,
stated that the object of this rent was 'towards the
makeing and keeping in repaire the Rayles, Payles,
Fountaine and Garden in the middle of the said
Square'. (ref. 17) The statue of Charles II which stood
in the centre of the square was carved by Caius
Gabriel Cibber in 1681, (ref. 18) and it is therefore
probable that the garden had been laid out by
about that date.
The two early eighteenth-century engravings
reproduced on Plate 68 show that the garden
was fenced in with high palisades of wood, having
obelisk-terminated posts at each corner and flanking the gates in the middle of each side. Sutton
Nicholls shows a narrow border just inside the
palisades, separated by a wide path from the
grassed area which was divided into quarters by
paths meeting in a circle surrounding the basin
of Cibber's fountain, with its statue of Charles II
raised high above a pedestal. This pedestal is
recorded as having been ornamented with groups
symbolizing the rivers Thames, Severn, Tyne and
Humber. In both views the grass plots are shown
fringed with narrow borders of small trees and
flowers, and in each corner of the garden stood a
stone baluster supporting a faceted sphere.
The sculptor Joseph Nollekens 'often stood for
hours together, to see the water run out of the
jugs of the old river-gods, into the basin in the
middle of the Square; but . . . the water never
would run out of their jugs, but when the windmill was going round at the top of Rathboneplace'. (ref. 19) The windmill can be seen in both editions
of Sutton Nicholls's view of Soho Square.
According to Strype the garden was in 1720 'a
very large and open Place, enclosed with a high
Pallisado Pale, the Square within being neatly
kept, with Walks and Grass-plots, and in the
Midst is the Effigies of King Charles the Second,
neatly cut in Stone, to the Life, standing on a
Pedestal'. (ref. 16) In 1734, however, Ralph described
it as 'a little, contemptible garden . . . and a worse
statue, if it be possible in the middle of that. The
place, indeed is not so intirely neglected, as many
others of the same sort about town, and therefore
deserves the less censure, if it is not entitled to
praise'. (ref. 20)
The decline in the condition of the garden
which had evidently taken place by 1734 may
perhaps have been due to the breakdown of the
arrangements for its maintenance. The garden
rents included in the original leases of houses in
the square had been paid to Frith and Pym, both
of whom had ceased to have any connexion with
the square by the middle of the 1680's. It is not
known to whom these rents were subsequently
paid—if, indeed, they were paid at all. The reversionary leases which the second Earl (later first
Duke) of Portland began to grant in 1713 usually
imposed garden rents varying from ten shillings
to two pounds per annum per house, (ref. 21) but payment of these rents did not start until after the
expiry of the Crown lease to the Earl of St.
Albans in 1734.
By 1748 the fence and enclosure had become
'ruinous and decayed'. At a meeting of the
inhabitants and their landlord, the second Duke
of Portland, held at the Turk's Head tavern in
Greek Street on 19 May 1748, Robert Hardcastle,
mason, submitted a plan of proposed improvements and alterations. This involved changing the
shape of the existing enclosure to an octagon, the
erection of an iron railing and gates in place of the
old wooden palisade, and the fixture of lamp-irons
at the corner angles. In the following months,
however, a modified plan was accepted in place of
Hardcastle's more ambitious scheme. The new
design, prepared by Benjamin Wood, carpenter,
retained the existing shape of the garden and
provided for new railings and gates with eight
lamp-posts, one at each of the four corners and
one, to be supported by 'a strong handsome and
convenient Scroll of Iron Work', over each of the
gates.
A committee was appointed from amongst the
residents to supervise this scheme and to execute
the necessary contracts. Benjamin Wood was
retained as surveyor and Peter Vandercom and his
partner Edward Prestage, both masons, were
engaged to execute the building work. They
agreed to erect a set of iron rails with gates on a
brick base with a Portland stone kerb and to put
down a pavement outside of Kentish ragstone
at a cost of £698. Vandercom and Prestage were
eventually paid £720, while William Yates was
paid £29 for iron lamps and keys, George Gillingham, bricklayer, 36s. 6d., and Benjamin
Wood £23 for drawing up the plans, surveying
the work and settling the bills. (fn. a)
The erection of the new wall and railings was
complete by January 1748/9 and in February a
contract was made with Humphrey Tarry or
Terry for the improvement of the garden at a cost
of £52 10s. This involved the removal of all the
flower roots, grubbing up all the trees except for
the limes, which were allowed to remain, levelling and gravelling the paths but retaining and
resowing the four plots with grass seed and Dutch
clover. The statue and fountain and the four stone
pedestals remained in their previous positions.
These improvements were complete by August
1749, except for sowing the grass which was left for
a more seasonable time. The changes are apparent
in the later edition of Sutton Nicholls's view of
Soho Square, published in 1754. The cost of the
works was met by a subscription raised from
amongst the residents of houses in the square,
with an additional £300 subscribed by the ground
landlord, the second Duke of Portland. (ref. 22)
The management of the garden remained in
the hands of the residents' committee. In about
1790 it was stated that the third Duke of Portland contributed £20 per annum and paid for
lighting the lamps. Most of the inhabitants paid
eight shillings a year, but 'several do not but the
neighbours make up the subscription to about £40
a year', from which the wages of the gardener, £31
per annum, were paid. (ref. 23)
In the 1790's the committee undertook a further improvement scheme. A double row of
quicksets was planted within the iron railing,
the gravel walks were altered and a number of
new trees and shrubs, possibly chosen by Sir
Joseph Banks, were planted. These included
almond, peach, cherry and rose trees, lilacs and
laburnums, honeysuckle, syringas and jessamine.
The nurseryman employed to carry out these
changes was William Malcolm of Stockwell. In
1796 James Alexander of Wardour Street was the
regular gardener. (ref. 23)
By 1803 the fountain was no longer working
and the basin had probably been filled in. (ref. 24) A
few years later the statue and its attendant figures
were described as being 'in a most wretched
mutilated state; and the inscriptions on the base
of the pedestal quite illegible'. (ref. 25) Between 1790
and 1805 the third Duke of Portland had sold
the freehold of all his houses in the square, (ref. 15) and
the decline in the condition of the garden in the
early nineteenth century was probably caused by
this withdrawal of the ground landlord, upon
whose contributions the maintenance of the
garden had considerably relied. It was probably
because the Dukes of Portland as ground landlords had hitherto taken an active share in the
upkeep of the garden that no Act of Parliament
such as those which governed the maintenance of
the gardens of St. James's Square (1726) and
Golden Square (1750) had been obtained for the
management of Soho Square. Now, with neither
a wealthy landlord nor an Act authorizing the
collection of a small garden rate, the residents of
Soho Square had to manage by themselves.
They could still have obtained an Act, as did the
inhabitants of Bryanston, Dorset and Montagu
Squares in the early nineteenth century, but they
never did so.
In 1869 a group of inhabitants unsuccessfully
attempted to persuade the fifth Duke of Portland
to convey his freehold rights to them (ref. 15) so that
they might open the garden to the general public.
'All attempts to gain either an interview on the
subject or the surrender of his lordship's rights
having proved futile', a meeting of the inhabitants
was convened in 1874, and a committee formed.
Shortly afterwards Albert Grant, who had lately
purchased and improved the garden of Leicester
Square and then handed it over to the Metropolitan Board of Works for public use (see page 439),
offered to spend £7,000 on the improvement of
the garden of Soho Square, and to provide an
endowment of £150 per annum for future
maintenance. (ref. 26) The Duke, an old man who
disliked change, refused to take any action, and
the residents themselves resented Grant's interference. (ref. 15)
Nevertheless, some alterations were made,
presumably at the expense of the residents.
In 1875–6 new railings were erected and the
ground inside was laid out with flower beds.
The statue of Charles II was removed to the
grounds of Frederick Goodall, R.A., at Harrow
Weald, and was replaced by the present timbered
structure, part tool-shed, part arbour (Plate 71d).
These improvements cost £1,200. The architect
responsible for the railings, and presumably also
for the tool-shed, was S. J. Thacker. (ref. 27) The garden still remained closed to the public, though
other unsuccessful attempts were made to open
it, notably in 1893 when Thomas Blackwell of
Nos. 20 and 21 Soho Square offered to provide
£5,000 for maintaining the garden for public
use. (ref. 28)
In February 1938 the statue of Charles II
was restored to the square, though not to the central position which it had previously occupied. (ref. 29)
So far as is known, the Portland family have never
relinquished the freehold of the garden, but in
April 1951 the Soho Square Garden Committee
leased the garden to the Westminster City Council
for twenty-one years. The air-raid shelters
which had been constructed there during the
war of 1939–45 still existed, and the garden was
not restored and opened to the public until April
1954. (ref. 30) The present iron railings and gates
were provided in 1959 by the Soho Square Garden
Committee with the assistance of the Westminster
City Council. (ref. 31)