Courtenay Square, Kennington
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Courtenay Square, Kennington by Marathon as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
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Courtenay Square, Kennington
Image: © Marathon Taken: 23 Nov 2011
Owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, Courtenay Square looks as if it ought to be older than 1913 when it was actually built in the style of much of the surrounding early 19th century streets of Kennington. Ian Nairn says of Courtenay Square "This is the best Georgian square in London. It is neither here nor there that it was built just before the First World War for the Duchy of Cornwall, and that the delicate classical ornaments are cast in concrete and can be seen to be. An astonishing throwback has produced this dolls' forum, apparently fragile compared with the robust streets around, yet tough and compact. Alone among London squares, it has really accepted what is meant by a formal space: all the detail is directed towards the whole space, and the centre is not a lawn or a folly of flower-beds, but regular trees on gravel.." He then compares it somewhat unfavourably with the genuinely Georgian Cleaver Square nearby - see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2706489
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Image Location
Latitude
51.487653
Longitude
-0.113323