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Manchester Square
Manchester Square is a Georgian garden square at the centre of the Portman Estate, developed between 1776 and 1788. Postcoded W1U, it takes its name from the 4th Duke of Manchester, who commissioned a shooting lodge on the north side of the square, reportedly drawn by the wildfowl on the marshy ground nearby. That building was later acquired by the 2nd Marquess of Hertford in 1797, who renamed it Hertford House and used it as his principal London residence.
Hertford House is the defining presence on the square today. Home to the Wallace Collection since 1900, the museum holds one of the most distinguished accumulations of fine and decorative arts in the country, built up by successive Marquesses of Hertford during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The collection passed to Sir Richard Wallace, the illegitimate son of the 4th Marquess, and was subsequently bequeathed to the nation by his widow in 1897. Entry is free and the 25 galleries contain important holdings of French furniture, Old Master paintings, armour, and Sevres porcelain.
The surrounding terraces are largely intact Georgian stock, with the garden at the centre remaining private. The square sits just off Manchester Street, which connects it southward to Wigmore Street, and the overall precinct retains a formal residential quality unusual this close to the commercial bustle of Baker Street and Oxford Street.
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