Smith Square
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Smith Square is a square located in Westminster, part of the City of Westminster in London, which is notable for St John's, Smith Square, the church in the middle of the square now used as a concert hall. The square is notable in political history as the location of Conservative Central Office, the Conservative Party's headquarters since 1958 (shortly to be sold), and Transport House - now the headquarters of the Local Government Association but from 1928 to 1980 the headquarters of the Labour Party.
At No. 17 is Nobel House, built in 1928 for the newly formed Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). ICI leased it to the government in 1987, and it is currently headquarters for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
The campaigning journalist William Thomas Stead lived at No. 5 from 1904 until his death on board the Titanic in 1912.
The square was named after the Smith family, on whose land it was developed in the early eighteenth century. The original development of the square was carried out by Sir James Smith around 1726. Numbers one to nine are part of this original development.[1] Sir John Smith, who was Conservative MP for Cities of London and Westminster from 1965 to 1970, lives at no. 1.
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