Duke Street Electricity Sub-station - Brown Hart Gardens, London, UK - Historic Transformer Sub-Stations Buildings on Waymarking.com

The British History website tells us about the Duke Street electricity sub-station:

This unusual and stylish edifice, together with the paved garden on top, was built in 1903–5 for the Westminster Electric Supply Corporation to the designs of C. Stanley Peach, with C. H. Reilly as assistant. The Corporation had for some years enjoyed close relations with the Grosvenor Estate, having in 1890–1 been allowed to build a generating station and shops and chambers designed by Peach at the corner of Davies and Weighhouse Streets. But when in February 1902 their secretary, Captain Bax, first suggested a scheme to replace the communal garden with a chamber for transformers one hundred feet by fifty in dimension and seven feet in height and housing a replanned garden on top, the Board was not enthusiastic. Nevertheless, continuing complaints about the nuisance from 'disorderly boys', 'verminous women' and 'tramps' in the garden, together with the second Duke's readiness to entertain the proposal, swayed their minds. Terms were with some reluctance agreed in September 1902 whereby for the sum of £4,000 the Corporation was to have a sixty-year lease at an annual rent of £200.

Once the decision became known it aroused some protest among neighbouring tenants, who regretted the loss of trees and amenity, but they were to an extent placated by the promise that the garden would be restored by the Westminster Electric Supply Corporation with new trees in tubs. In the summer of 1903 the old garden was closed, its furniture, fountain and shelter were distributed to other sites in London, and work proceeded from then until 1905, with Kennedy and Jenkin acting as engineers and George Trollope and Sons as contractors. The new garden was opened on 16 June 1906 (about a year after its completion) by the Mayor of Westminster, Lord Cheylesmore.

As built, the sub-station rose to a greater height than had been contemplated but retained Peach's original layout, with a tall 'kiosk' or pavilion and steps at either end, a balustrade all round, and Diocletian windows along the sides to light the galleries of the engine rooms, which occupied deep basements. The garden above was paved and allotted the trees in tubs suggested, though these no longer exist. As to the style of the design, Peach was then recognized as the leading British architectural authority on electrical works, having designed some large and functional but elegant installations for which he and his assistant of the time, C. H. Reilly, had earned praise. In the richer and more ornate architecture deemed proper for such an ample open space in central Mayfair they were not, however, so well versed. Although the bold Baroque composition in Portland stone that Peach ultimately produced proved acceptable to the Estate and was evidently liked by the second Duke (who toyed with the idea of employing him again), it was not attained without effort. Eustace Balfour, who as chairman of the St. James' Electric Light Company also had some interest in such works, was in 1908 to record diffidently that the final design was only arrived at 'after a great amount of trouble and alterations by him' as estate surveyor, and that in his view Peach was possessed of 'no artistic perceptions'. Nevertheless, the sub-station remains one of the most confident and capable buildings in this part of Mayfair; and the 'garden' is perhaps the only place in London where quarrelling is specifically forbidden by law.

The sub-station is Grade II listed with the entry at the Historic England website telling us:

Electricity sub station, concealed by raised terrace with partitions. 1904-05 by C.S. Peach, and Balfour for the Grosvenor Estate. Portland stone. An architecturally tasteful disguise for the sunken sub-station, in Edwardian Baroque. Stone paved terrace with garden, surrounded by balustrades and with stone domed and columned pavilions to east and west end, the whole raised over rusticated arcade of lunettes lighting the sub station below.

Wikipedia has an article about Brown Hart Gardens that tells us:

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 C. Stanley Peach in a Baroque style from Portland stone featuring a 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.

The dwellings surrounding Brown Hart Gardens were built by the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company (founded in 1863) to replace the poor housing that existed previously. In 1888 Moore suggested that tenants of old houses should move into Clarendon Buildings and that inmates of Clarendon Buildings should go into the new blocks, so that 'those who had not been used to a model lodging house would be gradually improved before moving into new buildings'. This was approved, but it cannot have been generally done. Though no figures are available, the rents for those displaced and rehoused were fixed below market value and indeed below what they had paid before, while for newcomers the terms were higher. This was only possible because of the low grounds rents charged by the Duke on all the buildings on both sides of Duke Street, amounting to £502 per annum as against £2,193 for old leases of the same sites. Altogether 332 families were accommodated in the developments of 1886–92.

Together with Clarendon Buildings, this meant that the Duke and the I.I.D.C. had between them settled nearly 2,000 people on the Grosvenor estate in Mayfair.

In 2007 plans were announced to revamp the site, and the site was reopened to the public after 20 years of closure in October 2007.

In 2012 the gardens were closed for further refurbishment, under supervision of BDP, the architectural consultancy. The new development includes a glass building at the Western end, to house a café run by Benugo, the café chain, called The Garden Café. Plans for the gardens are shown on BDP's website. The gardens were reopened to the public in June 2013. The adjacent Beaumont Hotel (formerly an AVIS garage) is expected to be completed in autumn 2014, after a £21M development by Grosvenor, in partnership with Corbin & King Hotels, who will operate the hotel.

Creation date: 1906 Status: Active Current use: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
To post a visit log for waymarks in this category, you must have personally visited the waymark location. When logging your visit, please provide a note describing your visit experience, along with any additional information about the waymark or the surrounding area that you think others may find interesting.

We especially encourage you to include any pictures that you took during your visit to the waymark. You do not have to be in the picture, neither does your GPSr.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.