Oakley Square

Oakley Square sits in the heart of Somers Town, a distinct pocket of London that feels worlds away from the nearby bustle of Camden. The square takes its name from Oakley House in Bedfordshire, a seat belonging to the Dukes of Bedford who once owned this land as part of their expansive estate. When it was laid out in the early Victorian era, it served as a fashionable residential address, anchored by the grand St Matthew's Church which stood here until its demolition in the late nineteen seventies. While much of the original southern side of the square was replaced by modern housing, the northern side retains a row of historic stucco-fronted townhouses that reflect the area's mid-nineteenth-century aspirations. Tucked among these homes, the former vicarage of that long-gone church still stands as a six-story Gothic revival building. Its dramatic turret and lancet windows have served as both a quiet ecclesiastical residence and, in recent years, the creative studio of the surrealist artist Nancy Fouts. This square also holds a place in history that reaches far beyond London's local politics. In November of nineteen eleven, the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin stayed at number six Oakley Square during one of his clandestine visits to the city. While he spent much of his time researching in the British Museum, this quiet residential address served as a temporary base for his work while he moved through the shadows of early twentieth-century London.