![Mount Street Gardens chapel entrance](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Mount_Street_Gardens_chapel_entrance.jpeg)
Mount Street Gardens is a public
garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...
off
Mount Street in the west of the
Mayfair area of
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
The gardens were created in 1889 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
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
named Oliver's Mount.
Several structures in and adjacent to the gardens are
listed Grade II on the
National Heritage List for England
The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...
. These include the fountain, two cisterns, and the two
K2 telephone kiosks and the
Portland stone gate piers with lamps at the entrance by South Audley Street.
Burial ground and workhouse
![Mount Street Gardens old map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Mount_Street_Gardens_old_map.jpg)
The land was originally sold by
Sir Richard Grosvenor, 4th Bart. to the
Commission for Building Fifty New Churches in 1723 as part of his development of the area around Mount Street, to serve as a burial ground for the
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
, St. George's, located in Hanover Square.
"Mount Street Gardens", Westminster City Council
/ref> Beside the burial ground, on South Audley Street
South Audley Street is a major shopping street in Mayfair, London.'South Audley Street: Introduction', in Survey of London: Volume 40, the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings), ed. F H W Sheppard (London, 1980), pp. 290–291. Br ...
, was planned the Grosvenor Chapel
Grosvenor Chapel is an Anglican church in what is now the City of Westminster, in England, built in the 1730s. It inspired many churches in New England. It is situated on South Audley Street in Mayfair.
History
The foundation stone of the Gro ...
, 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
In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse' ...
, 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 the 1850s, Parliament passed a series of Burial Act
Burial Act is a stock short title used in the United Kingdom for legislation relating to burials.
List
*Burying in Woollen Acts
*The Burial of Drowned Persons Acts 1808 and 1886
The Burial Acts 1852 to 1885 is the collective title of the followin ...
s 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 is the main road running along the northern edge of Hyde Park in London. Originally part of the A40 road, it is now designated part of the A402 road.
Route
In the east, Bayswater Road originates at Marble Arch roadway at ...
, closed shortly afterwards, and the City of Westminster Cemetery, Hanwell 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
Buckingham Palace Road is a street that runs through Victoria, London, from the south side of Buckingham Palace towards Chelsea, forming the A3214 road. It is dominated by Victoria Station.
History
In the 18th century, the road was known as ...
was bought from the new Duke of Westminster
Duke of Westminster is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created by Queen Victoria in 1874 and bestowed upon Hugh Grosvenor, 3rd Marquess of Westminster. It is the most recent dukedom conferred on someone not related to the ...
, 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 on the Fulham Road
Fulham Road is a street in London, England, which comprises the A304 and part of the A308.
Overview
Fulham Road ( the A219) runs from Putney Bridge as "Fulham High Street" and then eastward to Fulham Broadway, in the London Borough of Hamme ...
, 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 gothic-style, designed by Joseph John Scoles
Joseph John Scoles (1798–1863) was an English Gothic Revival architect, who designed many Roman Catholic churches.
Early life and education
Scoles was born in London on 27 June 1798, the son of Roman Catholic parents Matthew Scoles, a joiner, ...
, and with the altar by A.W.N. Pugin, and is now a Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. 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 Ainsworth Peto FRIBA (11 July 1854 – 16 April 1933) was a British architect, landscape architect and garden designer, who worked in Britain and in Provence, France. Among his best-known gardens are Iford Manor, Wiltshire; Buscot P ...
and Sir Ernest George, 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 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 plane
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...
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 Australian silver wattle (''Acacia dealbata'') and a Canary Islands date palm (''Phoenix canariensis''), three dawn redwood
''Metasequoia glyptostroboides'', the dawn redwood, is a fast-growing, endangered deciduous conifer. It is the sole living species of the genus ''Metasequoia'', one of three genera in the subfamily Sequoioideae of the family Cupressaceae. It now ...
(''Metasequola glyptostroboides'') from south-east China, and a form of twisted willow, ''Salix matsudana'' 'Tortuosa', from northern China, as well as a chusan palm (''Trachycarpus fortunei''), a common palm
Palm most commonly refers to:
* Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand
* Palm plants, of family Arecaceae
**List of Arecaceae genera
* Several other plants known as "palm"
Palm or Palms may also refer to:
Music
* Palm (ba ...
in the UK due to its hardiness.
Underneath these trees are planted a number of shrubs, most noticeably laurel
Laurel may refer to:
Plants
* Lauraceae, the laurel family
* Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel
People
* Laurel (given name), people with the given name
* Laurel (surname), people with the surname
* Laurel (mus ...
s (''Aucuba japonica'') and hollies
The Hollies are a British pop rock band, formed in 1962. One of the leading British groups of the 1960s and into the mid-1970s, they are known for their distinctive three-part vocal harmony style. Allan Clarke and Graham Nash founded the band ...
(such as ''Ilex aquifolium''), and several camellia
''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species, with some controv ...
s (''Camellia japonica'') and a ''Fatsia japonica
''Fatsia japonica'', also fatsi, paperplant, false castor oil plant, or Japanese aralia, is a species of flowering plant in the family (biology), family Araliaceae, native plant, native to southern Japan and southern Korea.
Etymology
The name '' ...
''.
The gardens provides homes for a number of birds, including great tit
The great tit (''Parus major'') is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Af ...
s, robins Robins may refer to:
Places United States
*Robins, Iowa, a small city
* Robins, Ohio, an unincorporated community
* Robins Township, Fall River County, South Dakota
* Robins Island, of the coast of New York state
*Robins Air Force Base, Georgia
*R ...
, magpies
Magpies are birds of the Corvidae family. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's most intelligent creatures, and is one ...
, blackbirds and goldcrest
The goldcrest (''Regulus regulus'') is a very small passerine bird in the kinglet family. Its colourful golden crest feathers, as well as being called the "king of the birds" in European folklore, gives rise to its English and scientific ...
s.
References
Sources
*
External links
{{commons category, Mount Street Gardens
Photos of Mount Street Gardens
The Mount Street Gardens
on Instagram
1889 establishments in England
1889 in London
Former cemeteries
Grade II listed buildings in the City of Westminster
Mayfair
Mount Street, London
Parks and open spaces in the City of Westminster