Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Statue in Hanover Square of William Pitt the Younger. First appointed
at the age of twenty-four, Pitt was the youngest-ever Prime Minister.
He died in 1806 having been in office throughout most of the wars with
France.
When Henry Mayhew was writing London Labour and the London Poor in the mid-
nineteenth century he quoted 'Billy' who was, for many years, a crossing sweeper in the
area. Billy had seen Queen Caroline, the estranged wife of George IV, pass through the
square after her trial. 'They took the horses out of her carriage and pulled her along. She
kept a-chucking money out of the carriage, and I went and scrambled for it, and I got five-
and-twenty shillin'.'
Leave Cavendish Square by Holles Street, cross Oxford Street and follow Harewood
Place to Hanover Square. In Sense and Sensibility Mrs Palmer, on hearing that the Dash-
wood sisters are not coming to Town, protests that she could have found them, 'the nicest
house in the world for you, next door to ours, in Hanover Square.'
St George's, Hanover Square. View along St George Street from the
south in 1812.
St George's, Hanover Square was a fashionable choice for weddings. In Mansfield Park
Mary Crawford hints at Fanny and Henry getting married here.
The interior looks much as it did at that time, although the box pews were changed in
the 1870s. Handel was a regular worshipper and the Earl of Jersey, whose wife was one
of the Patronesses of Almack's, was a churchwarden in 1794. Lady Jersey was nicknamed
'Silence' because of her never-ending chatter - perhaps she was quieter during services.
At the bottom of the road is Conduit Street where Sir John and Lady Middleton lived in
Sense and Sensibility . The Misses Steele stay with them and the Dashwood sisters spend
more time there than they would like.
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