History
The area began to be developed in the industrial revolution. Northampton Square was first laid out for housing in 1832, taking its name from the local landowner, the Marquess of Northampton. A fountain in the square commemorates the 1885 restoration of the gardens by Shropshire magistrate Charles Walker, who had been born in Clerkenwell. Lady Margaret Georgiana Graham, daughter of William Compton, 4th Marquess of Northampton, opened the restored gardens on 8 July 1885.
The square has historically housed clockmakers, jewellers, silversmiths and other fine crafts. The print-maker George Baxter lived and worked at 11 Northampton Square from 1844-1860. The site is marked by a plaque on the modern building at that address. In 1878, Walter Thornbury reported that No. 35, Northampton Square was the home of the British Horological Institute, “for the cultivation of the science of horology, and its kindred arts and manufactures”.
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“We may pretend that we’re basically moral people who make mistakes, but the whole of history proves otherwise.”
—Terry Hands (b. 1941)
“Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of the prophets. He saw with an open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“As I am, so shall I associate, and so shall I act; Caesar’s history will paint out Caesar.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)