From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Obelisk at St George's Circus.

St George's Circus is a a major road junction in Southwark, London SE1. At its centre, which is now a traffic roundabout is a historic obelisk, built in 1771 to mark the completion of the new roads through St George's Fields during the tenure of Brass Crosby as Lord Mayor of London. In 1905, the obelisk was relocated to Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, in front of the Imperial War Museum close by, to accommodate a new clock tower. The clocktower was demolished as a "nuisance to traffic" in the 1930s, but the obelisk did not return to its original location until the late 1990s. At the base of the obelisk is the inscription Erected in XI year of the reign of King George MDCCLXXI.

The circus and obelisk provided a formal termination of Blackfriars Road, a mile long boulevard from the recently constructed Blackfriars Bridge. At the circus, Blackfriars Road intersected with new and existing highways to Lambeth, Newington, Westminster Bridge and The Borough at Southwark. An Act for Improving St George's Fields of 1812 required that all new building around the circus should have concave fronts and should be consistent with a minimum diameter across the Circus of 240 ft. It also specified that no houses “inferior to the 3rd building rate should be erected on the frontages of Borough Road and St. George’s Circus”.

Following the construction of Waterloo Bridge, Waterloo Road was also cut through to terminate nearby, but this was not part of the original formal layout. Following the growth of nearby industry, and the construction of a railway viaducts by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway in the 1860s bringing noise and smoke pollution, the area become less popular as a middle class residential suburb. The surrounding streets contain a number of social housing estates constructed by the Corporation of London and Peabody Trust, dating from the Victorian era to the 1950s.

To the north of St George's Circus is McLaren House, a hall of residence for students of London South Bank University. The building was opened in 1996 and holds around 600 students. This overscaled (ten storey) building replaced a derelict 1890s building that previously housed the Royal Eye Hospital.

The St George's Circus area now a conservation area, including a number of Georgian buildings that formed part of the original development, although many are in a poor state of repair, having been purchased by the London London South Bank University for redevelopment plans that were subsequently abandoned.

The south side of the circus was originally occupied by the School for the Indigent Blind. This was reconstructed and enlarged in the 1830s, but subsequently moved out of London. The site is now occupied by a brick building of 1901 on the same scale as the adjacent terraces. This conceals the subsurface depot for London Underground's Bakerloo Line.

From the north and clockwise, the following roads converge here:

• Blackfriars Road (A201), leading to Blackfriars Bridge
• Borough Road, leading to Borough High Street
• London Road (A201), leading to Elephant and Castle
• Lambeth Road (A3203), leading to Lambeth Bridge
• Westminster Bridge Road (A3202), leading to Westminster Bridge
• Waterloo Road (A301), leading to Waterloo Bridge

St George's Circus forms a hub in south-east central London, connecting roads leading to several bridges around a bend in the River Thames.

• St George's Fields, the historic name of the local district
• St George's Cathedral Southwark, close by to the south-west
• Elephant and Castle, to the south-east
• London South Bank University, adjacent to St George's Circus

• St George's Circus protected (July 2000) and Hotel plan for St George's Circus (August 2001), London SE1 Community website.
• History of the Obelisk.
• St George's Obelisk photograph at night.
• St George's Circus Conservation Area Appraisal LB Southwark 2005