Wednesday, 14 April 2010

Sloane Square

Sloane Square is a small hard-landscaped square on the boundaries of the fashionable London districts of Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Chelsea, located 2.1 miles (3.4 km) southwest of Charing Cross. The square is part of the Hans Town area designed in 1771 by Henry Holland Snr. and Henry Holland Jnr. Both the town and square were named after Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), whose heirs owned the land at the time.

The square lies at the east end of the trendy Kings Road and at the south end of the more conventionally smart Sloane Street linking to Knightsbridge. In the early 1980s, it lent its name to the "Sloane Rangers", the young underemployed, often snooty and ostentatiously well-off members of the upper classes. The Square has two notable buildings: Peter Jones department store and the Royal Court Theatre. The River Westbourne is carried over the tube station in a large iron pipe.