West Square

Category: General

In the 18th century, the land here belonged to the Temple West family. The earliest surviving houses in the square date from 1794, when the garden was laid out. The garden now consists of four segments of lawn with three old mulberry trees and rose beds. It is surrounded by plane trees and enclosed by railings with entrance gates north and south and a through path.


John Newlands was born here on 26th November 1837. He was educated by his father at home rather than at school then studied for a year (1856) at the Royal College of Chemistry which is now part of Imperial College London. Later he worked at an agricultural college trying to find patterns of behaviour in organic chemistry. Four years later Mendeleev, unaware of Newlands' ideas, formulated an improved Periodic Table which gained acceptance, particularly because he left spaces for undiscovered elements, some of which were soon found with properties he predicted. As the Periodic Table became accepted, Newlands, understandably, claimed its first publication. However the Chemical Society disredited him until 1884 when he was invited to give a lecture on the Periodic Law. However its full recognition of his discovery waited until 1998, the centenary of his death, when the Royal Society of Chemistry oversaw the placing of a blue commemorative plaque on the wall of his birthplace.