THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
The gardens in the center of London's Grosvenor Square are to be redesigned, and Westminster Council and the developers want to know what you think about the plans.
Americans have had a special relationship with Grosvenor Square in Mayfair, central London for a long time. John Adams, the first US Minister to the Court of St. James’s and later President of the United States, lived in the house there as did James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren and James Buchanan. The US embassy moved to 1 Grosvenor Square in 1938. During the Second World War General Eisenhower had his headquarters in the square, with Admiral Stark's naval mission next door and the area became known as Little America. The embassy moved to a building occupying the entire west side of the square in 1960 where it remained until the new embassy (in Nine Elms, south of the Thames) was completed in 2016.
After the war a memorial to President Franklin D Roosevelt was installed in the center of the square on land given by the Duke of Westminster. Over 160,000 British citizens contributed funds for a statue of FDR, in an appeal organized by the Pilgrims Society. It was unveiled by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1948 at a ceremony attended by King George VI and Ambassador Lewis W. Douglas.
Grosvenor, which owns the Square, is determined that it will not lose its American identity. Memorials commemorating those killed in 9/11, and the Americans who came to the UK to join the RAF's volunteer Eagle Squadrons in the early days of the Second World War were added later. These will not be removed in the development.
(The old Grosvenor Square embassy building is now being turned into a luxury hotel by Qatari Diar, a developer, outside which statues of General, later President, Eisenhower and President Ronald Reagan were situated. They are due to be reinstated by the developer.)
Westminster City Council are running a consultation to find out what the public thinks of Grosvenor's proposals for Grosvenor Square. These include an oval open grassed area, surrounded by shaded gardens with a 'forest floor' and wetland areas, aimed at increasing biodiversity in central London. It will also feature railings (replacing those removed during the war), new walkways to explore, flowering entryways, waterfall canopies and other water features, play spaces for children, kiosk with items for sale and an education center. The carbon neutral urban garden is scheduled to be completed by 2025, the 300th anniversary of the Square.
You can find out more about the development, see the plans and view a video presentation at www.grosvenorsquare.org/
To give your views on the development visit www.bit.ly/GSComment.
