(Photo: Colin Wing)
Brunswick Square was one of the gardens flanking the Foundling Hospital (now demolished), a charity set up in 1739 to cater for abandoned children. Work on the square began in 1795 and the gardens were originally laid out and railed in 1799. The grade II-listed square is named after Caroline of Brunswick, the Prince Regent's wife.
In Jane Austen's Emma, Mr and Mrs John Knightley make their home in Brunswick Square, then on the edge of London, commending its healthiness: ‘Our part of London is so very superior to most others. The neighbourhood of Brunswick Square is very different from almost all the rest. We are so remarkably airy!’ Virginia Woolf is one of several famous former residents of the square.
The original houses surrounding the square have been replaced by the University School of Pharmacy and the Foundling Museum to the north, the Brunswick shopping centre to the west and International Hall (a university hall of residence) to the south. The children's charities, Coram and Coram's Fields, are off the square. Mecklenburgh Square is a similar square to the east, linked by a path.
The square's large old London plane tree is recognised as one of the Great Trees of London.
