Mayfair's Brown Hart Gardens Granted Planning

BDP’s creative intervention to the Grade II listed Brown Hart Gardens Substation, in Mayfair, London has been granted planning consent. It is one of a number of schemes for Grosvenor that seek to enhance the public realm of its central London estate.

Brown Hart Gardens is an elevated public square over a Grade II listed substation immediately adjacent to Oxford Street. BDP has developed proposals for its reordering and landscaping to bring it back into an exciting use for local people and visitors.

New elements created in the public realm, through the use of water, new stairs and a glazed lift, immediately visible from Oxford Street and the surrounding streetscape, celebrate and dramatise improved access onto a new landscaped garden. Flexible planting and seating together with a new cafe, designed to be transparent and to evoke the forms of the original building, provide facilities for relaxation, recreation and community events.

This enhanced public space provides a haven from the bustle of Oxford Street and a quiet, contemplative space for visitors and local residents. Further improvements to the quality of the public realm surrounding the substation will enhance the setting, the building and integrate the square into the broader landscape improvements envisaged for this part of Mayfair.

BDP has already completed the first phase of work as part of Grosvenor’s central London estate improvement scheme at Elizabeth Street in Belgravia and Mount Street in Mayfair.