This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. See this photograph’s page on the Geograph website for the photographer’s contact details. The copyright on this image is owned by Jonathan Wakefield and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.
In exclusive Mayfair just a stone’s throw from Oxford Street, is a public garden that you would never know existed.
That’s because it’s hidden from view by being elevated up 17 steps. Once you’ve made the steep climb you’re rewarded with an unexpected sight. A tranquil Italianate Garden surfaced in French limestone, decked with planters of trees and shrubs and a water feature in one of the original stone seats. The question is. What’s on earth it doing there?
In the 1860’s, the landowner The Duke of Westminster, was motivated to build a series of good quality mansion blocks for the working classes and hired the quaintly named ‘Improved Industrial Dwellings Company’ to carry out the work.
Part of the scheme was to provide a public garden for the residents and in those days, it was at ground level. In 1902 the land was given to Westminster Electric Supply Company to build an electric substation on the site. A compromise was reached that the garden would be saved but raised above the substation, giving us one of the most surprising London gardens and loveliest Electric substations in the capital.
Also of fascination are the great domed entrances and giant doors, giving rise to an urban myth that said Queen Victoria kept her pet elephant here, a present from the King of Abyssinia in 1884.