Brook Street

Brook Street is an axial street in the exclusive central London district of Mayfair. Most of it is leasehold, paying ground rent to and seeking lease renewals from the reversioner, that since before 1800, has been the Grosvenor Estate. Named after the Tyburn that it crossed, it was developed in the first half of the 18th century and runs from Hanover Square to Grosvenor Square. The western continuation (to Park Lane) is called Upper Brook Street; its west end faces Brook Street Gate of Hyde Park. Both sections consisted of neo-classical terraced houses, mostly built to individual designs. Some of them were very ornate, finely stuccoed and tall-ceilinged, designed by well known architects for wealthy tenants, especially near Grosvenor Square, others exposed good quality brickwork or bore fewer expensive window openings and embellishments. Some of both types survive. Others have been replaced by buildings from later periods.

Opulent hotel Claridge's co-fronts two other streets and takes the majority of a block. The Embassy of Argentina is at №65. The Handel & Hendrix in London occupies №s 23-25, once homes of famous musicians Jimi Hendrix and Handel.

№43 Upper Brook Street houses on primary floors Le Gavroche, a famous restaurant.

Former residents

Sursock family
The Sursock family opened their first office in Europe, at №31, in 1858, from which they directed commercial networks, exposing land-holdings across the eastern Mediterranean to development capital of European markets (of joint-stock equity and of credit).

Others

 №23 : Jimi Hendrix, guitarist.
 №25 : George Frideric Handel, composer.
 №39 : Sir Jeffry Wyatville, architect.
 №39 : Sibyl, Lady Colefax and John Fowler, interior decorator and interior designer.
 №54 : Valentine Ackland, poet, was born here.
 №67 : Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb, musicians, better known as the Bee Gees.
 №74 : Sir William Gull, Royal physician.
 №74 : Robert Bentley Todd, physician.
 №76 : Colen Campbell, architect.
 №78 : 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.
 27 Upper Brook Street: Anne Seymour Damer, sculptor
 35 Upper Brook Street: William Jowitt, 1st Earl Jowitt, lawyer and politician (the interior received mosaics by Boris Anrep in 1923).
 40 Upper Brook Street: Edward Hughes Ball Hughes, Regency dandy
 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.

Notes and references
Footnotes

Citations

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
 

Category:Mayfair
Category:Streets in the City of Westminster