A Haven Of Peace In The Heart Of Mayfair
Mount Street Gardens is a public garden off Mount Street in Mayfair created in 1890.
But the origin of the garden can be traced to St George’s Hanover Square which is located several blocks away to the east.
Towards the end of the 1600s, London experienced rapid population growth. Elegant new suburbs began to cover the open country to the west.
There was very soon a need for new places of worship and an Act of Parliament was passed in 1711, enabling the building of fifty new churches.
Only twelve were built including St George’s Hanover Square, designed by John James in 1725.
However, the area around St George’s was residential and there was no room for a graveyard, so Mount Street Gardens started life as a burial ground for the new church.
Since late Tudor times, it was the responsibility of each Parish to take care of poor and destitute parishioners. To meet this obligation, St George’s built a Workhouse along the north side of the gardens in 1726, designed by Thomas Phillips and Benjamin Timbrell.
It was a three storey building containing workshops, dormitories, dining rooms and a charity school.
Workhouses could be grim places where the destitute went to work until they died, however the Mount Street Workhouse appears to have been well managed. It was expanded several times until it accommodated about 700 paupers, making it one of the largest in the country. It was closed in the late 1800s.
In 1731, the Grosvenor Chapel was built to a design by Benjamin Timbrell. He was a local builder who did not require an architect.
He simply adapted the plans from St Martin-in-the-Fields and produced a church which was rectangular in plan with two rows of round-arched windows and a neo-classical portico at the west end with a simple tower and spire.
Florence Nightingale and, much later, Dwight D Eisenhower worshipped here.
In 1849, the Church of the Immaculate Conception was built on the east side of the garden by Joseph John Scoles in the Gothic Revival style.
It belongs to the Catholic Order of Jesuits. The high altar was designed by Augustus Pugin who partnered with Charles Barry to build the new Palace of Westminster after the disastrous fire of 1834.
The front of the church on Farm Street was inspired by the cathedral of Beauvais, france:
As a result of continuing population growth, the graveyards of London became overcrowded, unhealthy and disturbing places. Grave robbers and rats were the only ones who were happy with the status quo.
From 1852 onwards, Parliament passed a number of acts which prohibited burials in the centre of London and made provision for the development of out-of-city cemeteries.
This enabled Mount Street Gardens to be laid out as a public space in 1890.
Today, the gardens contain a number of benches, many of which have been donated by US citizens who have been based at the nearby US embassy.
The gardens’ sheltered spot have enabled a number of unusual trees and shrubs to grow including a Canary Islands date palm.
Paul
