51°29′41″N0°10′19″W / 51.49472°N 0.17194°W /51.49472; -0.17194
Thurloe Square is a traditionalgarden square inSouth Kensington, London, England.
There are privatecommunal gardens in the centre of the square for use by the local residents. TheVictoria and Albert Museum is close by to the north acrossThurloe Place andCromwell Gardens. The nearest tube station isSouth Kensington to the west alongThurloe Street.The house at 5 Thurloe Square is very narrow, wedge-shaped, and only six feet wide at one end.[1]
The square (and the adjacent streets) are named afterJohn Thurloe, an advisor ofOliver Cromwell, who owned the land in the 17th century. His descendant, Harris Brace, had a godson called John Alexander, who developed the area in the 1820s.George Basevi designed most of the houses.[2]
SirHenry Cole (1808–1892), the first director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, lived at 33 Thurloe Square just opposite the museum. The building is marked with ablue plaque and is now theKazakhstan Embassy.
The homeopathMargery Blackie lived and practised at no. 18 from 1929 to 1980. The building is marked with a blue plaque.[3]
On 22 March 1936, a reportedly peaceful anti-fascist protest of a few thousand people took place in Thurloe Square, addressed byJohn Strachey, against aBritish Union of Fascists rally atRoyal Albert Hall half a mile away, a distance required by police direction. After 50 minutes, this was broken up by a mounted police baton charge.[4][5] A critical commission of inquiry was conducted by the recently formedNational Council for Civil Liberties which contributed to the background to thePublic Order Act 1936.[6][7]
TheYalta Memorial Garden, which contains a memorial to those repatriated as a result of theYalta Conference following World War II,Twelve Responses to Tragedy, is situated at the north of the square between the square and the Cromwell Road.[8]
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