Description
North Row Buildings were built on the Duke of Westminster's Grosvenor Estate as artisan dwellings at the instigation of the St George's Parochial Association. The estate was later acquired by the Peabody Trust. What was formerly a dark central courtyard has recently been transformed into a garden with planting, seating areas and a children's play area.
Practical Information
| Site location | North Row |
|---|---|
| Postcode | W1K 7DG |
| What3Words | ///caves.economies.areas |
| Type of Site | Housing/Estate Landscaping |
| Borough | Westminster |
| Open to Public | Occasionally |
| Opening Times | Has opened for London Open Gardens. Otherwise private, for residents only |
| Public Transport | Tube: Marble Arch (Central). |
| Research Updated | 1 June 2011 |
| Last Updated | 18 October 2026 |
Full description
St George's Parochial Association was founded in 1849 under the presidency of the Marquess of Westminster with the aim of providing artisans' dwellings in the parish of St George's, Hanover Square. It was later known as St George's Workmen's Model Dwellings Association. North Row Buildings were designed in 1887/8 by Robert Henry Burden, who had already built similar dwellings for St George's Association. The estate was later acquired by the Peabody Trust. The Peabody Donation Fund had been founded in 1862 by George Peabody (1795-1869), an American banker, diplomat and philanthropist who had moved to London in 1837. Setting up his fund with a donation of £500,000, a gift that Queen Victoria described as 'wholly without parallel', Peabody's aim was to tackle the poverty and poor housing that he witnessed around him in London. The first Peabody estate was built in Spitalfields in 1864. In the 1950s Peabody began to purchase other existing housing estates, the oldest being Parnell House in Bloomsbury of 1850 built by the Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes; the Shaftesbury Park Estate in Battersea, built in the 1870s by the Artizans' Labourers' and General Dwellings Company; the Carlton Square Estate in Mile End built in the 1850s by the Pemberton-Barnes family; the Ebury Estate of the 1870s built by the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company; and the Tachbrook Estate (q.v.) in Westminster, built in 1935-47 by Westminster Housing Trust. In 2011 four estates were purchased from the Crown Estate: Cumberland Market Estate, Millbank Estate in Pimlico, Lee Green in Lewisham and Victoria Park Estate in Hackney. A number of estates are LBII: Blackfriars Road, Parnell House, Shadwell and part of Ebury.
The Group currently owns and manages over 19,000 homes in London and runs various community programmes for its residents and neighbourhoods. In 2007 a 10-year programme of major improvements was launched, which includes environmental improvements to the open spaces of around 40 estates, carried out in consultation with the residents. These aim to improve access, safety and security as well as address issues such as waste management, climate change and biodiversity. Soft and hard landscaping, lighting, provision of play areas are among the works and residents' panels work with Peabody to select the landscape architects and other contractors for the programme. At North Row Buildings, what was formerly a dark central courtyard has recently been transformed into a garden with planting, seating areas and a children's play area.
The Group currently owns and manages over 19,000 homes in London and runs various community programmes for its residents and neighbourhoods. In 2007 a 10-year programme of major improvements was launched, which includes environmental improvements to the open spaces of around 40 estates, carried out in consultation with the residents. These aim to improve access, safety and security as well as address issues such as waste management, climate change and biodiversity. Soft and hard landscaping, lighting, provision of play areas are among the works and residents' panels work with Peabody to select the landscape architects and other contractors for the programme. At North Row Buildings, what was formerly a dark central courtyard has recently been transformed into a garden with planting, seating areas and a children's play area.
Further Information
| Grid Reference | TQ280809 |
|---|---|
| Site Ownership | Peabody Trust |
| Site Management | Peabody Trust |
| Dates | 1888 |
| Designers | Robert Henry Burdon |
| On National Heritage List for England (NHLE), Parks & Gardens | No |
| Registered common or village green on Commons Registration Act 1965 | No |
| Protected under London Squares Preservation Act 1931 | No |
| Local Authority | Westminster |
| In Conservation Area | Yes |
| Conservation Area Name | Mayfair |
| Tree Preservation Order | No |
| Nature Conservation Area | No |
| Green Belt | No |
| Metropolitan Open Land | No |
Please note the Inventory and its content are provided for your general information only and are subject to change. It is your responsibility to check the accuracy.
Nearby parks and gardens
Green Street Garden was planned and laid out between 1913-6 for the Grosvenor Estate, one of three new gardens created on the estate's land in Mayfair that had previously been occupied by stables and other ancillary buildings. It was part of the 10-year programme drawn up by Estate Surveyor Edmund Wimperis when he was appointed in 1910 and was the first garden to be completed, in its final stages of planning when WWI broke out. Surrounded by tall red-brick apartment blocks, mainly designed by Wimperis and Simpson architects, the garden, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, was formally laid out with lawns, paved areas and a wide perimeter path in crazy paving, ornamental features and fountains.
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.
A series of gardens, private and semi-private, remind us that Park Lane was originally a back street behind the houses fronting on to Park Street, rather like Queens Walk or Birdcage Walk. Few of these houses with their bowed park fronts now survive except at Nos. 130-135 and Nos. 93-99, which have small gardens. Dudley House, an early C19th mansion, has a well-kept garden bounded by railings. There is also a small but stylish forecourt garden with fountain, which marks the extent of the forecourt of the demolished Dorchester House. The concrete divisions of the garden, in the same 'moderne' taste as Sir Owen Williams and W Curtis Green's 'Grand' hotel, are invariably lavishly planted and the tree in the centre of the garden illuminated with lights.
