please empty your brain below
MDCCCCIV presumably

Malcolm of Kent | 09.01.25 - 11:23 a.m. | #

Yeah - I think they are 1804 and 1904, so presumably an anniversary commemoration?

Henry | 09.01.25 - 11:34 a.m. | #

With regards to the Roman numerals: the first number - MDCCCIV - is 1804, the date of the foundation of the RHS. The second - MCMIV - is 1904, the centenary of the RHS and the year that Lindley Hall (the first of the RHS Halls) was opened. There is no confusion about date format.

Mark | 09.01.25 - 11:39 a.m. | #

I'm glad others have noticed.

sheepdog | 09.01.25 - 12:28 p.m. | #

Yeah what an idiot.

David | 09.01.25 - 12:49 p.m. | #

Westminster School is unusual among leading independent schools in playing soccer rather than rugby - thus the football goals visible in the photo and the absence of "sticks" in Vincent Square.

Years ago the less able footballers *were* sent by coach, to Grove Park, to play because Vincent Square could not contain them all, but now the school seems to hire other pitches in inner London when needed.

Andrew | 09.01.25 - 3:48 p.m. | #

What a cracking start to this new feature!
I was part of a guided walk around there a couple of years ago. A little-known (to me) part of Victoria absolutely jam-packed with interest!
This post certainly ticked all the boxes.

Cornish Cockney | 09.01.25 - 4:42 p.m. | #

Surprised you did not spot, or comment on the ventilation shaft for the Victoria Line. (it is well landscaped)

dg writes: The Victoria line does not pass under Vincent Square

David Smith | 09.01.25 - 5:09 p.m. | #

Thank you for your adept error-trapping.

I have since rewritten the RHS and rugby-playing paragraphs, in case some of the above comments no longer make sense.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 09.01.25 - 5:45 p.m. | #

I'm one of your readers who has been in the green-fingered library

Noel | 09.01.25 - 10:36 p.m. | #

Vincent Square was the scene of one of the more memorable evenings of my adolescence. I had been visiting Sweden and my flight was delayed so I'd missed the last train home, but friends in London had agreed to put me up for the night on their sofa. Having navigated from Liverpool St station by following a list of street names I'd scribbled down on the back of an envelope – I'd never visited London on my own before and rather underestimated the scale – I got to the square to discover that their flat didn't exist. After some time going back and forth across the gap where it should have been I found a phone box and called them – it was about 3am at this point – to discover that I'd transposed the digits in their address...

Reading your post, I rather doubt that a young professional couple in their first jobs out of university would be able to afford to rent a (damp, basement) flat in Vincent Square these days, sadly.

RC | 10.01.25 - 9:02 a.m. | #

Definitely my favourite London Square - and just round the corner from the Regency Cafe, one of the finest in London

Johnny Topaz | 10.01.25 - 10:17 a.m. | #

Another trip down memory lane for me.
The Schoolboys' Own Exhibition in the "New" Horticultural Hall around 1952.
A semi organised outing as part of a group of enthusiastic grammar school boys from the home counties.
Different world!

Baldrick | 10.01.25 - 10:33 a.m. | #

Richard (Dick) Crossman, member of Wilson’s 1964 Cabinet wrote his seminal and pioneering Diaries while living in Vincent square.

David B | 10.01.25 - 5:32 p.m. | #











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