Addington Square

The square is named after the early 19th century prime minister Henry Addington. Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth (30 May 1757 – 15 February 1844) was a British Tory statesman who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1804 and as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1789 to 1801. Addington is best known for obtaining the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, an unfavourable peace with Napoleonic France which marked the end of the Second Coalition during the French Revolutionary Wars.

The square was built at the same time as the basin of the Surrey Canal which lies to its north, and named after Henry Addington, Prime Minister from 1801 to 1804. Development began in 1810, when Addington was no longer in office—he had been forced out in 1804, but the memory of his premiership remained politically current. Developers building residential squares in Camberwell named them after prominent national figures as a mark of respectability and permanence. Addington's name, though briefly in power, represented stability and the nation itself during wartime.

Construction of the square in the early 19th century came with the Grand Surrey Canal which terminated at Camberwell Wharf lying on the north side of the square. The first house in the square (now number 48) was completed by 1810 and owned by Nathaniel Simmons who was the engineer to the Grand Surrey Canal Company. Most of the rest of the square was built by 1827, and the square was complete by 1844.

The 1851 census showed 32 houses with 179 residents and 33 servants, an occupancy rate of 6.2 persons per house. This was solid upper-middle-class territory. It was completed as a private square in 1855. By 1897 the square had become derelict, but was renovated and opened for public use; the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association donated six seats in 1898. The nineteenth century saw the well-to-do move farther out of London, leaving Camberwell behind. But the square was rescued and maintained as public space, a democratic gesture that preserved its architecture for the generations that followed.

Addington Square is an unusually well-preserved conservation area with the houses that make up the east, south and west sides of the square listed Grade II. The architecture speaks to the confidence of the early nineteenth century—sash windows running floor to ceiling, arched ground-floor recesses, three storeys plus basement in the Georgian manner. Each house was built to last, and they have.

In 2008 it was used as the location for the electronic duo Goldfrapp's music video for their single "Happiness", which features on their fourth studio album, Seventh Tree. The video focused on a young man in a white suit joyfully jumping down the streets in Addington Square, and featured the duo in a variety of cameos. The square continues to attract filmmakers drawn to its period setting and traffic-free atmosphere, making it a working studio for contemporary media production.

In 1844, National Trust founder Robert Hunter was born at number 13. Hunter would go on to co-found the National Trust, the conservation organisation that today owns and preserves much of Britain’s heritage. His birth in this square of fine houses may have shaped his later conviction that beautiful places and buildings ought to be protected for the public good.

In the 1960s, the square was the base of the Richardson Gang, a south London rival to the Kray twins. They ran a private drinking club from the square, which had "Mad" Frankie Fraser and two dancing bears in residence. The genteel terraces became an unlikely headquarters for organised crime, a reminder that no street exists outside history or social conflict. Yet the square survived this era too, its architecture intact, its character resilient.

By the late twentieth century, Addington Square had begun to attract interest from conservationists and buyers seeking authentic period properties away from the busier streets of Southwark. The conservation area designation protected the buildings and ensured that any restoration work would respect the original fabric. Properties began to be carefully refurbished, with original sash windows and period details restored rather than replaced.

The square’s peaceful, traffic-free environment and Grade II listed status made it increasingly attractive to production companies. Its use in the Goldfrapp video in 2008 brought it wider cultural attention. Today, it remains a sought-after residential address and a location of choice for filmmakers seeking authentic Georgian and Regency London without the intrusion of modern streetscape.

Addington Square today is a rare thing: a complete picture of Georgian and Regency residential life, preserved almost intact into the twenty-first century. Because three sides of the square back onto Burgess Park and there is no through traffic, it is a peaceful space popular with lunchtime office workers. The garden itself is well-maintained, with mature trees and benches donated over more than a century ago. The north side, where the canal once terminated and industry once pushed into the square, is now home to a tennis club managed by Southwark.

Walking around Addington Square is to step into London’s past without pretence. The houses still have their original proportions and many their original windows. The iron railings survive. The street level has never been altered. No chain stores, no ground-floor conversions interrupt the sequence of front doors and basement areas. It is not a museum piece, but a lived square, and that quality—of being inhabited, maintained, used—is what makes it worth seeing and worth preserving.