Cavendish Square, London

Cavendish Square is a public square in the West End of London, very close to Oxford Circus, where the two main shopping thoroughfares of Oxford Street and Regent Street meet. It is located at the eastern end of Wigmore Street, which connects it to Portman Square, part of the Portman Estate, to its west. One side is faced by the rear of the flagship John Lewis shop.

It was first laid out for the 2nd Earl of Oxford by architect John Prince, beginning in 1717 as the first development on the Earl's London estate. It was named after the Earl's wife Henrietta Cavendish-Holles, but the bursting of the South Sea Bubble delayed further work. It included various nobles' London residences, including the Duke of Portland, the Duke of Chandos (though his house on the square was never completed), Princess Amelia (in which house she died), and the Lane Baronets.

A blue plaque unveiled in 1951 commemorates H.H. Asquith, the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916, having owned and lived at 20 Cavendish Square. Another of the buildings on the square carries a blue plaque indicating that it was once the residence of Quintin Hogg, the founder of what is now the University of Westminster; the flagship building of the university backs on to Hogg's house. The Royal College of Nursing has its headquarters in Cavendish Square, and the West London Synagogue is also sited there. Near to Harley Street, the square is also noted as a site for medical practices such as those of James Paget. The artist Robert William Sievier lived on the square, and David Williams, founder of the Royal Literary Fund, ran a chapel there. Frances Fanshawe, wife of Rev. Dr. Abraham Blackborne, grandson of Richard Levett, Lord Mayor of London, died at her home on Margaret Street, Cavendish Square, in 1795 and was buried at Kew.

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