The History of Orange Square
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The History of Orange Square, also, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. . , The History of Orange Square , The junction of Pimlico Road and Ebury Street, known as "Orange Square" was improved by Westminster City Council with a financial contribution from the Grosvenor Estate, and provides a suitable setting for the statue of Mozart., The land adjacent to Ebury Street (formerly Five Fields Row) and Pimlico Road (formerly Strumbelo or Queen Street) was an area of open country and market gardens until its development in the nineteenth century., Other popular meeting places include Strumbelo House with its tea garden and fine fountain, identifiable today at the comer of Pimlico Road and Bloomfield Terrace and the famous Chelsea Bun House, located on the opposite side of Pimlico Road. The Bun House was popular with ruling monarchs (George II and George III) and London society. It is recorded that on occasions such as Good Friday, crowds of up to fifty thousand people were gathered at the fair held nearby on the Five Fields, as early as 8 a.m., Today's remaining link to this rural past is the Orange Brewery public house. The earliest reference to this building is found in the Grosvenor Estate archives where there is record of leasing in 1776 of the recently built Orange Coffee House and Tavern to one L. B. Eagles. The tavern stood on roughly the same site as today's building and when advertised for sale in 1790 was described thus:, "The premises are commodious, and comprise a good Billiard Room, large Dining Room, a Coffee Room, a Bar, Kitchen, Bedchambers, spacious dry cellars, Larder, Stable, various Out-buildings, and Garden.", The source of the name Orange is not known but is more likely to derive from the Prince of Orange, a common sign for taverns at that time, rather than any association with the fruit., In about 1829 the gardens of Strumbelo House were taken over by the Orange Coffee House and during 1831-32 the Royal Orange Theatre (see illustration below) was established as a playhouse for local theatricals., Horwood's plan of 1794, illustrated above, shows buildings occupying the site. The Orange Brewery public house was built in 1846, at which time the current configuration of the space bounded by Ebury Street and Pimlico Road took shape. The Church of St. Barnabas was consecrated in 1850, and the two blocks of "artisans' dwellings, Coleshill Buildings and Lumley Buildings, were completed in 1871 and 1875 respectively. They were built by the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company at the instigation of the Grosvenor Estate., William Amadeus Mozart , In 1991, the Mozart Bicentenary Statue Appeal was set up to commission a sculpture of the celebrated Austrian composer, who lived close to Orange Square for a limited but crucial stage in his short lifetime. The sculpture was paid for by public subscription and completed two centuries after Mozart's untimely death., The bronze statue of Mozart as a boy by Philip Jackson FRBS was unveiled on 21 September 1994 by Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret., Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, b. 1756, arrived in England in April 1764, together with his father Leopold and his sister Maria Anna. They took lodgings in Cecil Court, St. Martin's Lane, but when Leopold became seriously ill in July the family moved to the country air of Five Fields Row, now Ebury Street., They stayed for about seven weeks at the house of Dr. Randall, No. 180 Ebury Street, which was among the first residential properties built in the area. Not being able to practise because his father needed quiet, the eight year old prodigy spent his time composing, and is said to have produced his first two symphonies whilst here., The family may have decided to move here after the young Mozart gave his second London public concert at the nearby Ranelagh Gardens on 29 June 1764. An engraving of Mozart, aged seven, accompanying his father and sister on the piano. Advertisements for the event proclaimed:, "The celebrated and astonishing Master Mozart, lately arrived, a Child of 7 years of Age [he was actually eight], will perform several select pieces of his own Composition on the Harpsichord and on the Organ, which has already given the highest Pleasure, Delight and Surprize to the greatest Judges of Music in England or Italy, and is justly esteemed the most extraordinary Prodigy, the most amazing Genius that has appeared in any Age.",