The Saturday StreetLondon WalksKarenTravel + LeisureThe World's Greatest Tour GuideOld WestminsterBritish Museumat the usual address
America Square EC1
Location: The City of London
“Can you pass along my request to Karen to know the derivation of America Square in London? Thanks!”
Karen replies…Hi Cathy. America Square in EC3 (near Fenchurch Street Station) is one of those streets that has the words “it is said” in its derivation – which always means the same thing… we’re not entirely sure of the derivation.
But it is said that it is named for merchants who lived here who were trading with America.
The square, while retaining more or less the geometrical proportions of a quadrilateral (it’s more rectangular than square), looks very different from the square laid out by George Dance the Younger from 1768. None of the original buildings survive , but you can see Dance’s fingerprints all over town – notably All Hallows-on-the-Wall church and The Guildhall. The railway reshaped the area in the 1830s; the Luftwaffe finished the job in 1941. Meyer de Rothschild once lived in the square and a section of the Roman Wall is preserved in the basement of No.1.
You’ve picked a storied little corner there, Cathy!
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