Brook Street

Houses of Jimi Hendrix (No. 23, left) and George Frideric Handel (No. 25)

Brook Street is one of the principal streets on the Grosvenor Estate in the exclusive central London district of Mayfair. Named after the Tyburn Brook that formerly ran nearby,^[1] it was developed in the first half of the 18th century and runs from Hanover Square to Grosvenor Square. The continuation from Grosvenor Square to Park Lane is called Upper Brook Street. Both sections originally consisted of typical London terraced houses, mostly built to individual designs. Some of them are quite grand and were designed by well known architects for aristocratic clients, especially near Grosvenor Square, while others are more modest. Some of the original houses survive while others have been replaced by buildings from a variety of periods.

Features of the street include the grand hotel Claridge's, at the junction with Davies Street, and Le Gavroche, a famous restaurant. The United States Embassy, which abuts Upper Brook Street and Grosvenor Square, has necessitated security arrangements which impede free access to the former. The Embassy of Argentina is at number 65. The Handel House Museum is also in Brook Street. A curiosity is the placing of two blue plaques on adjoining houses, numbers 23 and 25, both for famous musicians.

Westward view from the east end of Brook Street, close to Hanover Square.

Former residents

• 23 Brook Street: Jimi Hendrix — guitarist
• 25 Brook Street: George Frideric Handel — composer (now the Handel House Museum)
• 39 Brook Street: Sir Jeffry Wyatville — architect
• 39 Brook Street: Sibyl, Lady Colefax and John Fowler — interior decorator and interior designer
• 74 Brook Street: Sir William Gull - Royal physician
• 74 Brook Street: Robert Bentley Todd - Physician
• 76 Brook Street: Colen Campbell — architect
• 78 Brook Street: Ronald Firbank - Novelist
• 22 Upper Brook Street: Leo Bonn — founder of what became the Royal National Institute for Deaf People.
• 24 Upper Brook Street: Richard Bull, MP and art collector.^[2]
• 27 Upper Brook Street: Anne Seymour Damer - sculptor^[3]
• 40 Upper Brook Street: Edward Hughes Ball Hughes, Regency dandy^[1]
• 51 Upper Brook Street: Giorgos Seferis — Greek Ambassador, poet and Nobel Laureate
• 56 Upper Brook Street: David Ricardo - economist
• 13 Avery Row: W. H. Davies - Welsh tramp-poet

References

1. Survey of London, Volume 40: The Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings), 1980, ed. F. H. W. Sheppard, p. 210-221
2. 'Upper Brook Street: North Side', in Survey of London: Volume 40, the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings), ed. F H W Sheppard (London, 1980), pp. 200-210 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol40/pt2/pp200-210 Accessed 14 December 2015
3. Wheatley, Henry Benjamin (1891). London, Past and Present. London: Murray. p. 283.

External links

• Brook Street — detailed architectural history of Brook Street from the Survey of London
• Upper Brook Street — detailed architectural history of Upper Brook Street from the Survey of London
• Brook Street at DMOZ

Coordinates: 51°30′46″N 0°08′50″W / 51.5129°N 0.1471°W