Russell Square

Russell Square began as a massive speculative development in the early nineteenth century, commissioned by the fifth Duke of Bedford to transform what were once rural fields into an elite residential district. The project was spearheaded by the builder James Burton, who laid out a space so expansive it was designed to be larger than any other square in London at the time. To give the area its distinctive character, the Duke hired the renowned landscape designer Humphry Repton, who created what he called an outdoor room. Repton used thick perimeter plantings to shield the residents inside from the noise and sights of the city, intending for the garden to remain a private, tranquil sanctuary for the upper-middle-class families living in the surrounding townhouses.