Addington Square

Addington Square exists today because of a speculative engineering project from the early nineteenth century. It was built to serve as the grand western terminus of the Grand Surrey Canal, a waterway intended to stretch all the way to Portsmouth but which never made it past this very spot. The square’s first resident was Nathaniel Simmons, the canal’s chief engineer, who moved into the house at number 48 in 1810 just as the basin for the canal was completed.