Mayfair gardens: London’s prettiest squares

Built in 1906 and located above the old Duke Street electricity substation, Brown Hart Gardens were conceived after local residents complained that they had lost their Duke Street Gardens when these were leased to Westminster Electricity Supply Company. The unusual roof garden measures 10,000 sq.ft. and features a domed pavilion, moveable plants and seating and a café at its western end. It was voted the best public space at the New London Awards and, amusingly, is one of the few places where quarrelling is forbidden by law.

Berkeley Square gardens date back to the 1660s, when Berkeley House was built for the first Lord Berkeley of Stratton. In the centre, there’s a pump house with a Chinese-style roof in its centre, erected around 1800. In one of the corners, there’s a marble statue of a nymph pouring water into a basin, by sculptor Alexander Munro, and on the eastern side, there’s a bronze sculpture named Reina Mariana by Spanish artist Manolo Valdés. The large London plane trees here are some of the oldest in London, dating back almost 250 years. Look out for popular Instagram location, Annabel’s: overlooking Berkeley Square, this private members’ club is known for the maximalist installations on its façade.

One of London’s biggest squares, Grosvenor Square boasts two and a half hectares of pristine lawns. Originally constructed by Sir Richard Grosvenor in 1726, the garden was a real sensation when it first opened: the first of its kind in London. The garden is surrounded by a holly hedge, and there’s a statue of Franklin D Roosevelt in the centre of the north side of the garden. There are currently plans underway to create a further subterranean garden up to 50 metres across, in a bid to increase biodiversity.

Laid out in the late 1710s, Hanover Square was named in honour of George I. After World War II, the gardens were re-landscaped with diagonal paths, and a pond with a fountain was introduced. The gardens cover around four acres of ground, dotted with statues and sculptures; there’s a huge bronze statue of William Pitt by Sir Francis Chantrey, erected in around 1831, and another more recent sculpture, from 2012, called Emergence, by David Breuer-Weil. Its craggy-looking figures, resembling rough rock, relate to Adam’s origins from the earth.

Just off Mount Street, tucked behind mansion blocks, you’ll come across the secluded Mount Street Gardens, with its plane trees, tropical plants, lawns and paths. Many of the benches lining these paths have been donated by Americans connected to the nearby US Embassy, grateful for this peaceful slice of greenery in central London. During the English Civil War, the site was part of a huge fortification known as Oliver’s Mount, which later became a burial ground for St George’s, Hanover Square. In 1889 the public gardens were formally established with stone gate piers which still exist today.