Paultons Square


Paultons Square is a Georgian terraced garden square in Chelsea, London, SW3. It was built in 1836–40 on the site of a former market garden, land previously owned by Sir Thomas More and Sir John Danvers. The square features a central lawn enclosed by metal railings; the houses surrounding it are listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England.
The author Gavin Maxwell is a notable former resident of the square – he lived at number 9 from 1961–65 – and it is often visited by admirers of his work. The novelist and short-story writer Jean Rhys lived in Flat 22 in Paulton House in the square from 1936–38 and the winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize for Literature, Samuel Beckett, lived at number 48 Paulton Square from 1933–34. The winner of the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physics Patrick Blackett, also lived at No. 48. Other residents include the painters Augustus John at No.45, and Paul Nash at No.19, the poet Kathleen Raine at No.47, and lexicographer Henry Watson Fowler, at No.14. Beckett, Blackett, Rhys, Fowler and Maxwell all have blue plaques.
The garden is in size and was redesigned for the third millennium in 2000. It is not open to the public and accessible only by local residents.