Grosvenor Square has been a part of central London since the 1720s, and was home to the US Embassy from 1938 until 2017. Now, it's about to undergo perhaps its largest transformation yet.
While Eero Saarinen's former US Embassy building prepares to reopen in September as the Chancery Rosewood hotel, major plans are afoot to shake up Grosvenor Square itself. As of 8 June, the garden has closed for just over a year, in which time it will be radically overhauled to designs by architects Tonkin Liu. The planting will be overseen by horticulturalist Professor Nigel Dunnett, who worked on the Tower of London's Superbloom project.
An oval lawn will be reinstated at the centre of Grosvenor Square, in a nod to the garden's original design, while its fringes will be planted up with woodland-inspired spaces, featuring some 44 new trees, alongside miniature wetlands, and 70,000 plants including primroses, bluebells and honeysuckle — some of which were voted for by the public. This will see, says the site's developer, Grosvenor, a 5,600% increase on what's currently planted in the square — a huge boost of the area's biodiversity.
Alongside the planting will be a new education building, offering "opportunities for children and adults to learn about biodiversity, the environment, climate change and the square’s rich history", children's play areas, a good deal of new seating, two new pavilions with access to public toilets, and a café kiosk.
The square's memorials to Franklin D Roosevelt, the Eagle Squadrons and a garden of remembrance commemorating the 67 British victims of the September 11 attacks in 2001 will remain.
Built as part of a residential development by the Duke of Westminster (his surname, Grosvenor) between 1725 and 1731, Mayfair's Grosvenor Square spent much of its life as a private garden, only becoming a public park post-Second World War, thanks to the Roosevelt Memorial Act 1946. As it stands, the space is a welcome — if somewhat uninspired — park consisting of lawns sliced up by symmetrical pathways, and sprinkled with plane trees. In recent winters, the square has become the setting of the charitable Ever After Garden.
This will be only the fourth redesign of the garden in its 300-year history, and is arguably the most radical so far. The new garden is expected to open around July 2026.
