Open Squares Weekend 2019: house prices on London's garden squares and where to find the best value green spaces in the capital

This weekend, normally private gardens — from residents’ squares to community gardens, roof gardens and even urban farms — will be open to the public.
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Ruth Bloomfield6 June 2019

For this weekend only, many of London's hidden garden squares are opening their doors to the public for Open Garden Squares Weekend 2019.

London’s garden squares can roughly be divided into three price brackets: the quite expensive, the very expensive, and ouch!

And new research by Hamptons International has revealed the average price of a home on 65 of these treasured oases in the city.

They include Arnold Circus on the Boundary Estate, dating from 1897 and considered London’s first council estate.

Flats on this Shoreditch estate now cost an average £660,000, which, while it would have been an unimaginably vast sum to its earliest, Victorian inhabitants, pales into insignificance compared to the most expensive option, Carlton House Terrace Gardens in St James’s Park.

Here, an average home costs almost £8.3 million but it is possible to spend far more on a really fabulous property.

Earlier this year, for example, in what promises to be one of the prime deals of the year, hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, 50, paid a reported £95 million for a 25,000sq ft Georgian mansion in Carlton Gardens.

Part of the reason for this amazing price tag is that homes on London’s garden squares command a premium.

Brendan Roberts, a director of Aylesford International, estimates that on average a home on a central London square costs 20 per cent more than a similar property in one of its surrounding streets.

Greenery in EC2: the vegetable garden on the rooftop of an eco-award-winning building, the London base of global law firm Eversheds Sutherland

For those who can only dream of living on a garden square but would like a glimpse of what they are missing, Open Garden Squares Weekend will see the opening up of scores of normally private gardens — from residents’ squares to community gardens, roof gardens and even urban farms.

Top buys: London’s best value garden squares with an average property price up to £1 million

The best-value square included in the study is the inspiring Winsford Gardens in Penge, south-east London, with an average property price of £368,590.

It is also a perfect example of how, although generally clustered in central London, it is possible to discover a scattering of little-known squares right across the capital.

Winsford Gardens, originally the private garden of a local mansion house, was taken over by Bromley council and turned into a small public park in the Seventies.

Winsford Gardens in Penge: the best-value garden square in London
Geograph/ Peter Trimming

It is surrounded not by the white stucco townhouses of traditional London garden square fantasy, but by post-war blocks of flats and modest Thirties semis.

In 2011 a group of local residents got together to restore and transform the neglected gardens into a delightful, suburban oasis for the local community to enjoy — and they have won awards with their efforts.

Elsewhere, London’s most affordable traditional garden squares are more likely to be found in Bloomsbury and Islington.

Options include Brunswick Square, with an average property price of £606,000; Ridgmount Gardens at £753,000 and Thornhill Square, £932,000.

In Bloomsbury, Rod Heffernan, an associate director at Winkworth, says the less expensive squares tend to be those that aren’t private.

While squares such as Brunswick are still sought after, they don’t attract quite such a price premium as gated squares including Mecklenburgh Square, where average prices just top £1 million.

“I have got clients who only want Mecklenburgh Square,” he adds. “You don’t need a garden if you live there because you have got two or three acres of immaculately kept gardens which are beautiful to look over and good for the soul.”

The demand for homes on garden squares, along with a limited supply, has helped insulate this property micro market from the malaise afflicting the capital’s wider housing market, Heffernan believes. “Prices have fallen, but not as much as the rest of the market,” he says.

Middle market: London garden squares with an average property price of £1 million to £2 million

Average prices cover a multitude of detail, and in the case of central London’s garden squares, the key missing factor is that the majority of homes are flats, either purpose-built mansion block homes or period conversions.

The other issue is that within each of the capital’s squares is a strict property pecking order.

“For nearer £2 million you could get your premium flat — on the first floor with a balcony and facing south or west,” explains Aylesford’s Brendan Roberts.

“The second choice would be the ground floor, where you get high ceilings and grand proportions, although some people feel it could be noisy being on the street and beside the main front door.”

Buyers looking for more bang for their buck need to look higher up. Most buildings on squares don’t have a lift, and many are four or five storeys high, so the upper flats are less sought after and thus less expensive.

“Unless you are 21 or super-fit, it is quite a daunting climb,” observes Roberts.

Top drawer: London garden squares with an average property price of £2 million or more

At the top end of the garden square market, the gorgeous squares of Kensington, Belgravia and Notting Hill are some of the most expensive addresses in London.

This is partly because of their picture-perfect looks and prestigious locations, and partly because buyers are more likely to find a whole house for sale in one of these squares, boosting average prices.

Buyers in London’s prime squares are an international crew. “We’ve got three properties on Hans Place, just behind Harrods, under offer at the moment,” says Jake Irwin-Brown of Harrods Estates. “One buyer is Turkish, one is Middle Eastern and one is British.”

For Irwin-Brown the appeal of a square is largely the rare chance directly to overlook green space.“ And they tend to be quieter streets, which also gives a bit more privacy. There is probably also an element of kudos.”

Whatever the precise reason that buyers will pay an average of £5.7 million to live on Eaton Square, or £4.7 million to live on Belgrave Square, both in Belgravia.

Irwin-Brown notes that in prime central London, where prices have fallen by about 20 per cent since their 2014 peak, squares have also suffered: “They are selling better than other properties, but [all kinds of property] have been affected in price terms.”

This year’s Open Garden Squares Weekend is on June 8-9.

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