Bonnington Square should have been a traditional London square with houses facing a central communal garden. However, the original developers decided to build over what would have been the garden. The sqaure is not a through route and thus has a quiet and intimate character.

The Italian Gothic style terraced houses were built in of 1881.

During the 1960s, the by the run down properties were let at peppercorn rents to groups collectively known as the Bonnington Housing Cooperative. In the early 1990s the Bonnington Square Garden Association began planting street trees, vines and creating small community gardens in the surrounding area which have since matured to great effect.

In the late 1970s, Bonnington Square was compulsorily purchased by the Greater London Council on behalf of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA), which intended to demolish it in order to build a new school.

In the late 1970s, Bonnington Square was compulsorily purchased by the Greater London Council (GLC) A Turkish shopkeeper in one of the buildings managed to prevent the demolition through legal means during the period in which all the houses’ occupants were departing, and shortly after squatters began moving into the vacated buildings. The squatters subsequently formed housing cooperatives and successfully negotiated with ILEA for the right to lease the buildings.

A shopkeeper from the square managed to prevent the demolition through legal action after the houses’ occupants were departing. Squatters then moved into the vacated buildings during the early 1980s.

The squatters formed housing cooperatives and negotiated with Inner London Education Authority for the right to lease the buildings. They established a volunteer-run vegetarian cafė and a community garden on part of the square which had been bombed during the Second World War.

The Bonnington Square Garden Association was established to manage the garden in 1990 and in 1998 the housing cooperative was permitted by the London Borough of Lambeth to purchase the buildings.

The residents undertook a project to change the garden into a ’Pleasure Garden’ (named in homage to the nearby Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens).