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Lillington Gardens Estate was designed by architects Darbourne and Darke for WCC as one of the first low-rise high-density housing projects in London. It was built in 3 phases between 1964-1972. The landscaping around the estate and between blocks was an integral part of the scheme, and included planting on broad access balconies and walkways. The original landscaping has been considerably developed since 1996 with involvement of residents and includes individual garden areas with a wide range of shrubs, herbaceous plants and bulbs, as well as a Mediterranean garden, an exotic border, sensory garden with fountain, and a wildlife garden. Longmoore Gardens, designed by WCC Architects Department, was completed by 1980. In 2007/8 Lillington Gardens was the first housing estate to win a Green Flag Award.
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Little Venice Gardens are for the private use of residents of the houses backing onto this secluded private space. It was laid out in the 1840s on the Pond Fields belonging to the Bishop of London, residential development around the basin of the Grand Union Canal having begun in the 1830s. The garden has mature trees, managed woodland, expanses of lawns and herbaceous borders, and rose beds with box hedging. Trees include London plane, lime and horse chestnut. Facilities for the residents include a tennis court, open to members of Little Venice Tennis Club, and a children's playground.
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Lower and Upper Grosvenor Gardens are two small triangular gardens laid out to complement Thomas Cundy's French Renaissance style houses. In the Lower Garden little remains of the elaborate railings of the 1864 layout and it was remodelled in 1952 as a memorial to Anglo-French understanding and a tribute to the Free French. It has an elaborate fleur-de-lys format of paths, and flowerbeds with bedding displays, the central bed in the form of a fleur-de-lys, topiary and a tiered device for the display of ivies. Two shell and pebbledash lodges studded with molluscs, with pediments on all sides, were brought over especially from France, and between them there was once a parterre. An equestrian statue of Marshall Foch of c.1930 stands at the entrance.
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* on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens
Manchester Square was built in the late C18th on what was then the outskirts of the City. The land had been owned by the Portman family since the C16th. Almost circular in plan, the garden is overlooked by Hertford House to the north, which was built as Manchester House in 1777 by the 4th Duke of Manchester from whom the square gets its name. The garden layout today is little changed from its late C18th layout. Railings surround mixed shrubbery with a circular path enclosing the central lawn, and there are a number of notable mature plane and lime trees. Major replanting of the garden took place in 2006-08.
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Marble Arch, once the site of the Tyburn gallows, is near Speaker's Corner to the north-east of Hyde Park. Originally built in 1828 for John Nash's scheme for Buckingham Palace, the Arch was erected in its present position in 1851 as the triumphal northern gate to Hyde Park. Re-landscaped for traffic improvements in the 1960s, the Arch and its surrounding gardens became a traffic island, accessible by underpass, comprising an extensive pavement with raised planters, terraces and beds; an extension to the west was laid out with another terrace and a fountain. These areas are now linked by a new path.
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Marlborough House Garden was built as a town mansion by Sir Christopher Wren, and still possesses much of the extent and layout of its original garden. It was commissioned by the first Duke of Marlborough but the idea for a town house was that of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, who secured the lease of the site from Queen Anne. The Dukes of Marlborough had the house until 1817, after which it became a royal residence, last used by Queen Mary, who had a revolving summerhouse built in the garden. The garden is largely lawn, sloping to the south and west boundary walls, with gravel paths and some formal beds; to the east is less formal shrubbery, a woodland path and pet cemetery for royal pets including Queen Alexandra's dogs.
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Millbank Gardens is a rectangular public garden that was created as part of the LCC's Millbank Estate of 1897-1902, whose towering mansion blocks overlook the garden. The Millbank Estate was built on a site formerly that of the Millbank Penitentiary, which had been earmarked for public housing by a Royal Commission in 1885, with its road plan established in 1896. The estate streets are tree-lined, with planted courtyards between blocks of different shapes. Surrounded by modern railings, the public garden has paving and areas of grass with terraces in the centre and at each end. There are a number of trees and planted tubs, as well as bedding displays.
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Millbank Tower, a 32-floor office tower designed by Ronald Ward & Partners, was built for Vickers in a pioneering curtain walled block of 1963, briefly the tallest building in London. In and around the podium, the landscaping has asymmetric beds, paving, planters and areas of shrubbery, particularly in the courtyard where the gardens are reflected in the mirrored ground floor windows. The effect is stylish and completely 'of its time'. Part of the site is known as the 'Speaker's Stables', presumably after such a facility that once existed here.
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Montagu Square is the only purely residential square left in Westminster and has a narrow oblong garden. Developed for the Portman Estate, Montagu Square was designed by Joseph Parkinson, District Surveyor of Westminster, as a twin for Bryanston Square. It is named after Mrs Elizabeth Montagu of Portman Square. The houses were built from 1811 but the garden was laid out in c.1800. Famous residents include Anthony Trollope, who lived in No 39 from 1873-1880. In 1999 the residents restored the railings, which had been removed during WWII.
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Montpelier Square is a well preserved early C19th garden square with a perimeter hedge and modern railings, shrubs and good trees, and an interesting serpentine path layout. The development was named from Montpellier in France, a name that was intended to evoke images of its fashionable and healthy situation. The small square of some 42 terraced houses surrounds the private communal garden.
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Mount Street Gardens are on the site of an important early Georgian cemetery built as a result of the 1711 Fifty New Churches Act. The site was acquired by the newly-formed church of St George's Hanover Square as a burial ground in 1723. Few burials took place after 1831 and it closed in 1854. Like other urban cemeteries the former burial ground was later converted into a public garden. It was laid out in 1889 with plants, paths and a small fountain designed by Ernest George and Harold Peto. Its name changed to Mount Street Gardens from Mount Field, called after English Civil War fortifications here known as Oliver's Mount. The layout has little changed since 1889, retaining its late C19th gate piers at one entrance. Around 90 sponsored benches line the paths, almost all of which were donated by Americans due to the proximity of the US Embassy.
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Downing Street was built in 1682-3 by Sir George Downing in an area that soon came to be dominated by government buildings. Of the original layout as a cul-de-sac Nos.10 and 11 Downing Street remain on the north side, albeit much altered and now interconnected, the remainder to the south largely replaced by the Foreign Office. No.10 was converted in 1732-35 for Sir Robert Walpole, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and since 1735 has been the official London residence and office of over 30 British Prime Ministers, as First Lord of the Treasury. The first mention of the garden of No.10 occurs in 1736, when it was described as adjacent to the residence of Sir Robert Walpole. Used to entertain official visitors, while details of No.10's garden have changed with its occupants and events of war and peace, the shape of the garden plot, confirmed by plans, maps, paintings, drawings and photographs, has remained substantially the same.