Pembroke Square, including Rassells of Kensington

Pembroke Square was developed in the first period of development of Lord Kensington's Edwardes Estate and followed the building of Edwardes Square and Earls Terrace (q.q.v.) that commenced from 1811. Dowley and Tuck, who were also working on behalf of Lord Kensington on the Kensington Canal, began building Pembroke Square financed by various speculators, but in 1826 were declared bankrupt with only a few of the houses completed. The square was eventually completed on behalf of the creditors holding or subsequently obtaining the building leases, the north and south sides by 1827 and the west by 1831.

At the east end of the square fronting onto what was then Earls Court Lane, now Earl’s Court Road, was a small building, 'The Lodge', which by the latter part of the C19th was in use as a florist. In 1897 the lease of this building was purchased from Lord Kensington by Charles Rassell, who established his florist's shop here, later purchasing the freehold and part of the garden enclosure. Charles' father Henry Rassell had established his gardening business in 1870, and was drawn to London from West Sussex by the opportunities provided by the property boom and prosperous residential classes keen to augment their gardens and homes. The business still flourishes as Rassells of Kensington, whose nursery garden fills a large portion of Pembroke Square.

In 1928 the Report of the Royal Commission on London Squares describes the garden enclosure in mixed ownership, as it remains today. The Prudential Assurance Company Ltd then owned 69 ft of the western end of the garden for the freeholders of the houses, leasing 59 ft to Messrs Vernon Bros. (Garden Architects) at a nominal rent, on which a sunken rock garden had been laid out, accessible to the residents. The remaining 10 ft of this area was leased to Charles Rassell, who also by now owned the remainder of the garden area, some 210 ft, at that time laid out as tennis courts only accessible to Mr Rassell and people authorised by him. All but around 35 ft of the portion in Rassell’s ownership to the east were restricted against building by covenants with the freeholders of the houses in the square, who by 1928 had spent £3,500 on obtaining these covenants. The Report states that: ‘The freeholders of the houses in the square think it of the greatest importance to the health of the district to preserve the square in perpetuity as an open space.’

The garden square today reflects this situation and consists of the private communal garden at the west, to the east of which is a tennis court, and beyond this Rassell's garden centre extending to Earl’s Court Road.

The private sunken garden is surrounded by low brick beds with shrubs and flowers to the railings, with a couple of steps leading down first to a paved terrace with seating, from this terrace further short flights of steps lead to the neat square of lawn surrounded by shallow brick flower beds to the height of the terrace. Just inside the west boundary railing of the gardens is a beehive and a notice board established in 1981 that gives information about the daily weather conditions of the garden with recordings of temperature, humidity, rainfall, and pressure. The garden is partly protected under the 1851 Garden Square Act.