In Focus – Chester Square

Sloane Square tube station, London

Guided by Stephanie

 “Chester Square continues, deservedly, to be one of the most fashionable in London.”

Streets Ahead! More trail blazing by the best urban walking tour guides on the planet. In Focus walks are an extremely detailed look – “what I love about London Walks is the degree of granularity you get” (as that American visitor memorably put it) – at the most famous streets and squares of London. And their tributaries. This In Focus walk explores Chester Square, past and present. It’s the third volume of Stephanie’s fabulous In Focus triology on the three great squares of Belgravia. Everything about this walk is delightful. It’s revelation after revelation. Which house is the only one with a good private garden. The stylistic differences between “the two sides” of the square. That subset – that individually designed “terrace”  – within the larger whole. The “rate” of the houses and how they compare with, say, those in Eaton Square. That house that “turns its face away” – and why. And as for the “peopling” of Chester Square… biographical repasts don’t come much richer. Let’s start with a sprinkling of aristocrats – especially dowagers! To say nothing of Members of Parliament and administrators – because it’s so conveniently close to the Palace of Westminster. There’s Frankenstein (well, his creator, Mary Shelley). There’s the great Victorian poet Matthew Arnold, to say nothing of his younger predecessor, who popped at 36. There’s Harold Macmillan. And Margaret Thatcher of course. There’s John Osborne. There’s the Lord Lucan connection. And the attempted suicide. There’s Tony Curtis. There’s Yehudi Menuhin. There’s Sullvan of Gilbert & Sullivan. And the sculptor. And the writer of much loved books on London. And the New Zealand premier. And the surgeon who was also a geologist. And the architect, the philosopher, the Scottish nationalist, the wit and the fashion model. Well, can you imagine what their block parties were like? Anything else? I’m just at the point here of handing the baton to Stephanie but do allow me to mention that fluke of history – a rare instance of the Luftwaffe confining its attentions to the least attractive houses in a square. No pressure but you’d have to be mentally anaemic not to want to go on this walk.

LONDON WALKS REVIEWS

“I just had a most wonderful walk with Stephanie titled Chester Square. Last year at this time I did a special Earl’s Court [Classic London Mews & Hidden Passageways] with her, so the two walks prompted this email. She is a delight, and I hunge onto her every word. I have done another of your specialized street walks (In Focus – St. James’s Street) and the guide [Peter] was every bit as good as Stephanie. I look forward to more of these specialized walks.”  Lynn L. American Women’s Group, Paris

“London’s best walking tours” Travel & Leisure

“by far the most impressive series of walks that I have ever encountered are those offered by London Walks” Travel and Enjoy

“the unfailingly fascinating London Walks… If you can’t find one [of their tours] that captures your fancy, maybe you really are tired of life.” San Francisco Chronicle