The Layout
There was nothing remarkable about the terrain of The
Hundred Acres either to pose difficulties or create opportunities for Barlow in devising his layout. The ground
sloped gently from a high point in the north-west corner
to the valley of the Tyburn in the east, the lowest level
being in the south-east corner. The only topographical
feature of any note was the remnant of one of the fortifications erected during the Civil War and known by the
eighteenth century as Oliver's Mount. (ref. 99) Probably by
then little more than a raised earthwork, it was, however,
sufficiently recognisable to give its name to Mount Field
and subsequently to Mount Street, Mount Row and the
Mount Coffee House, and the development which began
in 1720 was often referred to initially as 'the new buildings
about Oliver's Mount'. So completely was it obliterated
in the course of building that its exact location is difficult
to pinpoint, but the evidence of a map of 1717 and some
vague references in documents suggest that it stood near
the junction of Mount Row and Carpenter Street, where
a public house called Oliver's Mount was established. (ref. 100)
Barlow's layout of the Mayfair estate is an exercise in
disciplined, straightforward town planning—a grid of
wide, straight streets with a grand place in the centre—
which makes no concession at all to the irregular boundaries of the land. The positioning of the main east-west
streets, and consequently of the square which lies between
them, links up with the layout of the Hanover Square
area. Brook Street and Upper Brook Street are direct
continuations of that part of Brook Street which joins
the south side of Hanover Square, while Grosvenor Street
and Upper Grosvenor Street are aligned with the axis of
St. George's Church (which had, however, not been built
although its site had been determined upon when the
Grosvenor estate layout scheme was made). In Brook
Street Sir Richard Grosvenor had to take leases of land
in Conduit Mead, which lay between his estate and the
Hanover Square estate, and enter into agreements with
builders there—in one instance allowing a builder to
have land on his estate on especially favourable terms—
in order to prevent them building across the proposed
line of Brook Street and thus blocking up this important
line of communication with older established parts of
the West End. (ref. 101) The reason for the positioning of
Grosvenor Street is less obvious. Barlow knew that the
street could not be extended as far as St. George's Church
in order to provide a monumental 'vista-stopper', for
the course of the narrow Maddox Street, which was to
skirt the north side of the church, had been decided by
1718, and frontages to the street west of its intersection
with St. George Street were being developed by the
following year. (ref. 102) It is possible, though highly unlikely,
that Barlow foresaw that the steeple of the church (the
design of which had not even been decided) would provide
an effective terminal point to the view down Grosvenor
Street from the west, but, more prosaically, it may be that
he simply chose a convenient position for the street
parallel with Brook Street. From the wording of his own
building agreement of August 1720 Barlow originally
anticipated that Grosvenor Street would be extended as
a sixty-foot-wide road as far as New Bond Street, (ref. 16) but
in the event the street narrows at the eastern boundary of
the estate. This awkward transition is effected by bringing
forward the frontage of No. 80 Grosvenor Street where
Barlow originally built the Mount Coffee House.
There are several references in documents to a grand
plan in which the layout was expressed, (ref. 103) but this does
not appear to have survived. A small sketch plan is folded
loosely in a notebook in which Robert Andrews kept a
brief record of agreements and leases: (ref. 104) several comments are written on it and it may have been a working
copy of the grand plan. It is somewhat misleading, however, as a record of the intended layout, for it seems that
some streets were added to the sketch plan at a date later
than the original drawing. The best record of the layout
as originally planned is the map of the whole of the
Grosvenors' London property drawn in 1723 by John
Mackay, (ref. 105) which shows Mayfair as set out for building
(Plate 1). This part of the map has the measurement of
foot frontages inscribed, suggesting that it may have been
taken from Barlow's grand plan, and at the foot of the
map the area is described as 'Grosvenor Buildings or the
Fields Commonly called Oliver's Mount Fields; being
Partly built and a Square And Eleven Principal Streets
designed As per Plan . … Few mews are shown, except
in the area developed by Barlow himself, and the sites of
these were probably worked out in the course of development. The evidence of this map suggests that alterations
in the layout were made as building proceeded, particularly in the western part of the area. More streets were
formed than originally intended, including Green Street,
and the site of the projected chapel was altered. That some
of these changes were variations from the initial scheme
is confirmed by documentary evidence. (ref. 106)
The extent of The Hundred Acres enabled Barlow to
plan on a lavish scale. Grosvenor Square itself measures
680 feet 530 feet between the building lines and covers
over eight acres, its spaciousness increased by setting the
houses in the square thirty feet back from the frontages
of the streets leading into it (a device also used in Hanover
Square, but not in Cavendish Square). The main eastwest streets—Grosvenor Street and Upper Grosvenor
Street, Brook Street and Upper Brook Street—were
intended to be sixty feet wide and most of the remaining
streets fifty feet. Even the mews were spacious, an
impression now enhanced by the relatively recent widening of their entrances, which were originally left deliberately narrow to make the stable yards less obtrusive. Long,
straight, unbroken lines of terrace frontage, so favoured
by the early Georgians, abound, and would have been
even more extensive if the original layout scheme had
been scrupulously followed.