Mount Street Gardens
Encyclopedia
Public Garden
Public Garden is the second mini-album by Dragon Ash; released in 1997. Realism II was used as the theme for Asahi National Broadcasting Co.'s "Sports Spotters" show.-Track listing:#"Realism II" – 2:55#"Ability → Normal" – 3:05...
off Mount Street in the north of the Mayfair
Mayfair
Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...
area of 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...
, created in 1889. They were created out of a former burial ground of St George's, Hanover Square, and named after the Mount Field, an area including a fortification dating from the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
named Oliver's Mount
Oliver's Mount
Oliver's Mount is an area of high ground overlooking Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. It offers impressive views of the town, a tribute monument to the war dead, camping and caravanning at selected times of the year and a cafe but may be primarily known for its motorcycle races...
.
Burial ground and workhouse
Commission for Building Fifty New Churches
The Commission for Building Fifty New Churches was an organisation set up by Act of Parliament in England in 1711, with the purpose of building fifty new churches for the rapidly growing conurbation of London...
in 1723 as part of his development of the area around Mount Street, to serve as a burial ground for the parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
, St. George's, located in Hanover Square. Beside the burial ground, on South Audley Street, was planned the Grosvenor Chapel
Grosvenor Chapel
Grosvenor Chapel, is an Anglican church in what is now the City of Westminster, England, built in 1730s it inspired many churches in New England...
, but this was not built until 7 years after the burial ground was laid out, in 1730.
To the north of the ground, the site of what is now 103 Mount Street, was the parish's workhouse
Workhouse
In England and Wales a workhouse, colloquially known as a spike, was a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation and employment...
, wherein the poor were given work, board, and lodgings, built in 1725 and then enlarged in the 1780s to provide room for the parish watchmen's watch-house and the parish office.
In 1854, an Act of Parliament
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
was passed by which burial grounds in central London, such as that of St. George's, were to be closed due to health risks. The parish's other burial ground, on Bayswater Road
Bayswater Road
Bayswater Road is the main road running across the north of Hyde Park, London. To the east Bayswater Road becomes Oxford Street . It is where the fictional upper middle class Forsyte family live in the BBC series the Forsyte Saga...
, closed shortly afterwards, and the Hanwell
Hanwell
Hanwell is a town situated in the London Borough of Ealing in west London, between Ealing and Southall. The motto of Hanwell Urban District Council was Nec Aspera Terrent...
Cemetery in west London was used instead.
As the population of London grew, so did the demand upon the workhouse, and it became so overcrowded that in 1871 the decision was taken to move the workhouse to a new site, spurred on also by plans to widen Mount Street. In 1883, some land for the new workhouse on Buckingham Palace Road was bought from the new Duke of Westminster
Duke of Westminster
The title Duke of Westminster was created by Queen Victoria in 1874 and bestowed upon Hugh Grosvenor, 3rd Marquess of Westminster. The current holder of the title is Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster....
, Hugh Grosvenor, thricely-great-grand-nephew of the Baronet who originally sold the site of the burial ground, and paupers were transferred both to there and the parish's other workhouse at Little Chelsea
Little Chelsea
Little Chelsea was a hamlet spread across the parishes of Chelsea and Kensington, in the hundred of Ossulstone, Middlesex, half a mile S.W. of Chelsea. It has been overtaken by the spread of London....
on the Fulham Road
Fulham Road
Fulham Road is a street in London, England, that runs from the A219 road in right in the centre of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, through Chelsea to Brompton Road Knightsbridge and the A4 in Brompton, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.Fulham Road runs parallel...
, with the workhouse finally being demolished in 1886 and converted into more parish offices.
Development as a public space
After the demolition of the workhouse, the whole area was somewhat redeveloped; Carlos Place (then named Charles Street) was to be extended to the south of Mount Street over the site of the workhouse's chapel for access to the Church of the Immaculate Conception on Farm Street. The church, built between 1844 and 1849, was in a decorated gothicGothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
-style, designed by J.J. Scoles, and with the alter by A.W.N. Pugin, and is now a Grade II* listed building. However, the new road planned through the disused burial ground was never built.
The Gardens' footpaths are those originally created in 1889, and the bronze drinking fountain of a rearing horse was designed for the local estate agent Henry Lofts in 1891 by Harold Peto
Harold Peto
Harold Ainsworth Peto was a British landscape architect and garden designer, who worked in Britain and in Provence, France.-Biography:...
and Sir Ernest George
Ernest George
Sir Ernest George RA was an English architect, landscape and architectural watercolour painter, and etcher.-Life and work:...
, who was also the designer of 104-111 Mount Street. As of 2005 the fountain is largely removed for restoration.
The gravestones had been removed to the Gardens' tool shed, but when the shed itself was demolished in 1931 to make way for the Mayfair telephone exchange
Telephone exchange
In the field of telecommunications, a telephone exchange or telephone switch is a system of electronic components that connects telephone calls...
between the Gardens and Farm Street, the City Engineer’s office made a copy of the inscriptions, now stored in City of Westminster Archives Centre, along with other records from the Parish.
The paths in the gardens are lined with benches, many of which have been donated by the families of US citizens who have enjoyed the gardens whilst based at the nearby US embassy and other US institutions nearby.
Flora and fauna
The garden has a number of London PlaneLondon Plane
Platanus × acerifolia, the London plane, London planetree, or hybrid plane, is a tree in the genus Platanus. It is usually thought to be a hybrid of Platanus orientalis and the Platanus occidentalis . Some authorities think that it may be a cultivar of P...
trees (Platanus x hispanica), the predominant tree throughout central London due to their ability to cope with the capital's formerly heavily-polluted air. Other trees, some able to grow only due to the Gardens' sheltered spot and warm climate, include an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n Silver Wattle
Silver wattle
Silver wattle is the common name of two plant species:* Acacia sclerosperma* Acacia dealbata...
(Acacia dealbata) and a Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
Date Palm
Phoenix (plant)
Phoenix is a genus of 14 species of palms, native from the Canary Islands east across northern and central Africa, the extreme southeast of Europe , and southern Asia from Turkey east to southern China and Malaysia. The diverse habitats they occupy include swamps, deserts, and mangrove sea coasts...
(Phoenix canariensis), three Dawn Redwood (Metasequola glyptostroboides) from South-East China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, and a form of twisted Willow, Salix matsudana 'Tortuosa', from Northern China, as well as a Chusan Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei), a common Palm
Arecaceae
Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
due to its hardiness.
Underneath these trees are planted a number of shrubs, most noticeably Laurel
Aucuba
Aucuba is a genus of three to ten species of flowering plants, now placed in the family Garryaceae, although formerly classified in the Aucubaceae or Cornaceae....
s (Aucuba japonica) and Hollies
Holly
Ilex) is a genus of 400 to 600 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. The species are evergreen and deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones world wide....
(such as Ilex aquifolium), and several Camellia
Camellia
Camellia, the camellias, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalaya east to Korea and Indonesia. There are 100–250 described species, with some controversy over the exact number...
s (Camellia japonica) and a Fatsia japonica
Fatsia
Fatsia is a small genus of three species of evergreen shrubs native to southern Japan and Taiwan. They have stout, sparsely branched stems bearing spirally-arranged, large leathery, palmately lobed leaves 20-50 cm in width, on a petiole up to 50 cm long, and small creamy-white flowers in...
.
The Gardens provides homes for a number of birds, including Great Tit
Great Tit
The Great Tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central and Northern Asia, and parts of North Africa in any sort of woodland. It is generally resident, and most Great Tits do not migrate except in extremely...
s, Robins
European Robin
The European Robin , most commonly known in Anglophone Europe simply as the Robin, is a small insectivorous passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family , but is now considered to be an Old World flycatcher...
, Magpies
European Magpie
The European Magpie, Eurasian Magpie, or Common Magpie, , is a resident breeding bird throughout Europe, much of Asia and northwest Africa. It is one of several birds in the crow family named as magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic radiation of "monochrome" magpies...
, and Blackbirds.