Vincent Square is a large grass-covered square in Westminster

City of Westminster

The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, covering 13 acres. It provides playing fields for Westminster School

Westminster School

The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...

, which privately owns it.

It was created by Dean Vincent, Headmaster of Westminster School, a few hundred yards away, who, on seeing that development was beginning to encroach on the wastelands of Tothill Fields (which was a former plague pit

Plague pit

A plague pit is the informal term used to refer to mass graves in which victims of the Black Death were buried. The term is most often used to describe pits located in Great Britain, but can be applied to any place where Bubonic plague victims were buried....

), paid for a bank and ditch to enclose a suitable playing area for the schoolboys .

After the Second World War, the School resisted the efforts of the local authority to make the Square available for public use .

The square contains a cricket pavilion http://www.flickr.com/photos/malcnhg/846533472/, four football pitches, several tennis courts, and the groundsman's house, and is used every weekday by Westminster Under School

Westminster Under School

Westminster Under School is a private preparatory school for boys aged 7 to 13 and is attached to Westminster School in London.The school was founded in 1943 in the precincts of Westminster School in Little Dean’s Yard, just behind Westminster Abbey. In 1951 the Under School relocated to its own...

 during breaks.

External links

• LondonTown.com information
• Vincent Square Playing Fields virtual tour (360° view)
• Cricket Pavilion, Vincent Square photograph on Flickr
  Flickr
  Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
  
  
• Vincent Square CivicWatch area information from City of Westminster
  City of Westminster
  The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...
  
  local government