Brown Hart Gardens

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Brown Hart Gardens
Off Duke Street, Mayfair
London, September 2014

“Brown Hart Gardens, located off Duke Street, Mayfair, is a 10,000 square feet (929 m2) public garden on top of an electricity substation. The gardens began life as the Duke Street Gardens where a communal garden was laid for what were then working class dwellings in Brown Street and Hart Street. In 1902, the building of the Duke Street Electricity Substation led to the removal of the street level gardens. The substation was completed in 1905 to the design of Charles Stanley Peach in a Baroque style from Portland stone featuring a mannerist domed pavilion and steps at either end, a balustrade and Diocletian windows along the sides to light the galleries of the engine rooms, and deep basements. In order to compensate local residents for the loss of the old communal garden, the Duke of Westminster insisted that a paved Italian garden featuring trees in tubs be placed on top of the substation. It was completed in 1906. The deck of the property was open to the public as an ornamental garden until the 1980s when it was closed by the then lessees, the London Electricity Board.” (Brown Hart Gardens, Wikipedia)