The history of Mount Street is the story of the evolution of class.

Mount Street, which extends from Davies Street to Park Lane, is a mixture of exclusive shops, business premises and residential flats and houses, built in neo-French Renaissance or Queen Anne style. There is much terracotta and red brick, giving the street a feeling of quality and warmth that is reminiscent of an earlier, more civilised era. But it wasn’t always like that.

 The modern street takes its name from a defensive earthwork known as ‘Oliver’s Mount’ that was erected in what is now Grosvenor Square during the Civil War, to defend against a possible Cavalier attack on London. The street itself was built between 1720 and 1740, small, narrow-fronted houses rubbing shoulders with shops, coffee houses, taverns and the premises of tradespeople.

 Artists and artisans

Mount Street wasn’t immediately fashionable, but the high quality of the products produced there and the artistic ability of many of its inhabitants helped to lift it from its insignificant beginnings. Elward and Marsh at Nos. 13-14 were cabinet makers to King George IV and were in much demand from the haute monde of Mayfair and beyond. Richard Westmacott and his two sons, Henry and Richard, were practising sculptors, living and working at Nos. 24 and 25.

 The younger Richard was the star of the family. He was knighted in 1837 and became a professor at the Royal Academy, working mainly on monumental busts and statues. He later moved to larger premises in nearby South Audley Street.

 Mount Street Gardens

Opposite the opening into Carlos Place is the entrance to Mount Street Gardens. In 1723, Sir Richard Grosvenor sold one and a half acres to the Church Commissioners for use as a burial ground for the recently built St George’s Church, Hanover Square. The burial ground was later transferred to Tyburn – the Mount Street site having allegedly been too quickly filled up by the ineptitude of the surgeons of St George’s Hospital at Hyde Park Corner.

In 1889-90, the disused Mount Street graveyard was laid out as a public garden, with the then Duke of Westminster making an annual contribution towards its upkeep. In 1892, a fountain by Sir Ernest George was erected. Today, the pathway that winds through the lawns and flowerbeds is lined with seats where local employees enjoy a peaceful time during their lunch breaks.

 Workhouse and watchhouse

Where No 103 now stands, the Parish Workhouse was built in 1725-26 to house up to 200 people. It was enlarged in 1743 and 1772, the number of paupers to be housed having risen to 600. In 1883 a new site was provided in Belgravia, and the Mount Street building was demolished in 1886 to make way for a new development.

 In 1726, a watchhouse was built at the western end of the street. The watchmen were known as ‘Charlies’, after King Charles II, and were the butt of much humour. The novelist Henry Fielding wrote that the Charlies were chosen “out of those poor old decrepit people who are, for their want of bodily strength, rendered incapable of getting a livelihood by work”. Even so, the Charlies only became redundant in 1829, with the founding of the Metropolitan Police.

 In 1784, the Prince of Wales and three companions were lodged in the Mount Street watchhouse until the Prince’s tailor bailed him out. The building was the main target of local riots in 1792. It was later demolished, and for a period a police station stood on its site.

 The 19th century

It was at a coffee house in Mount Street, early one morning in 1811, that the poet Percy Shelley waited to elope with Harriet Westbrook, who lived in nearby Chapel (now Aldford) Street. Harriet’s father was landlord of the Mount Coffee House in Grosvenor Street. The young couple (Harriet was 16 and Shelley 19) made their way to Gretna Green and were wed, but it wasn’t a happy marriage. In 1816, two years after Shelley had deserted her and left the country with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, Harriet drowned herself in the Serpentine.

 Some rebuilding was carried out in Mount Street during the mid-19th century; workshops were converted into stables and the quality of buildings was upgraded. But it wasn’t until the 1870s, when many leases were approaching expiry, that a complete reconstruction programme was mooted. This was carried out by a number of consortia between 1880 and 1900 to give Mount Street its present-day character, a regular architectural concept that has still allowed for much individualism in the different lots.

 Read more about Mount Street today.