Grosvenor Gardens

Grosvenor Gardens is the name given to two triangular parks in Belgravia, London, faced on their western and eastern sides by streets of the same name. Both roads run roughly north to south from Hobart Place and Grosvenor Place to Buckingham Palace Road.

Grosvenor Gardens south

Grosvenor Gardens House

The Rifle Brigade Memorial, Grosvenor Gardens

Notable buildings include the Grade II-listed Grosvenor Gardens House at Nos. 23–47, built in about 1868 by the architect Thomas Cundy III in the French Renaissance style.[1]

The Rifle Brigade War Memorial commemorates the service of the Rifle Brigade in the First and Second World Wars. It stands at the junction of Grosvenor Gardens and Hobart Place, on land donated by the 2nd Duke of Westminster.

The shell-covered huts in the southern garden were part of a redesign of the park by Jean Moreux, architect-in-chief of the National Monuments and Palaces of France, in 1952. The fabrique style buildings are covered with shells from England and France, and are used to store gardening equipment.[2][3]

The northern garden contains the sculpture Lioness and Lesser Kudu by Jonathan Kenworthy, installed in 2000.[4]

Notable residents

• William Henry Blackmore (1827–1878), killed himself in his study at Belgrave Mansions, Grosvenor Gardens[5]
• Henry Eliot, 5th Earl of St Germans (1835–1911), lived at No. 13
• John Eliot, 6th Earl of St Germans (1890–1922), born and lived at No. 13
• Thomas Forbes (1900–1988), grew up at No. 15
• Augustus Pitt Rivers (1827–1900), lived at No. 4, commemorated with a blue plaque[6]
• F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead (1872–1930), lived at No. 32, commemorated with a blue plaque[7]

References

1. Historic England, "23–47 Grosvenor Gardens (1288701)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 19 March 2017
2. "13 Of London's Oddest Buildings". Londonist. 24 January 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
3. thelondonphile (18 April 2012). "Shell huts, Grosvenor Gardens". Retrieved 4 May 2019.
4. Ward-Jackson, Philip (2003), Public Sculpture of the City of London, Public Sculpture of Britain, 7, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 53–54, ISBN 0-85323-977-0CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
5. "Pitt-Rivers and Blackmore". Web.prm.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
6. "Biography of General Pitt-Rivers". Web.prm.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
7. "SMITH, F.E., 1st Earl of Birkenhead (1872–1930)". English Heritage. Retrieved 19 March 2017.

• Media related to Grosvenor Gardens at Wikimedia Commons