Trees and the Public Realm - Westminster City Council

Trees and the Public Realm (Draft) Appendix B - 29
15 Caution West Marylebone
History
Development north of Oxford Street was largely planned and built in the early 19th Century, and resulted from
the laying out of several settled estates; the Portman Estate, the Portland Estate and the Audley Estate. The
Georgian core of each estate is characterised by large scale domestic buildings fronting directly onto broad
streets. The planned layout included some squares surrounded by more prestigious buildings, often in
conjunction with grander terraces with planting.
Later, Victorian development has largely occurred piecemeal, with the redevelopment of individual plots. This
phase of development tends to the imaginative, with generous use of decorative terracotta, polychromy, and
architecturally integrated sculpture.
Urban character
West Marylebone primarily comprises the Portman Estate and Harley Street Conservation Areas and also a
number of other small areas of slightly varying character. The typical Georgian form of development is the part
stucco, yellow stock brick terrace house, rarely exceeding six storeys. This form of development has survived
well throughout the areas, creating a restrained and elegant background to some of the larger set pieces.
The Portman Estate and Harley Street Conservation Areas are both centred on formal grid like street plans,
with squares formed in place of occasional street blocks. The most significant such squares in this character
area are Bryanston, Montagu, Portman, Manchester, and Cavendish Squares.
Trees
The streets of this area is similar to that of Mayfair and St James’s with the original intention being deliberately
hard and largely treeless. However, some of the broader streets have some potential for greater flexibility.
Although never intended to become boulevards, Portland Place, Gloucester Place, Devonshire Place, Great
Cumberland Place are able to satisfactorily accommodate planting and now have an important greening
function in this dense urban area. London plane is the principal species used in the squares.
There may also be some areas within Portman Estate where additional street tree planting may be
accommodated. For example Seymour Place, north of Upper Berkeley Street, is such a street, as is Dorset
Street and George Street (east of Gloucester Place). It would be preferable that ginkgos and privet in some of
these areas be succeeded by other deciduous species if location is appropriate.
There may be further opportunities, particularly on some side streets where there is enough space to
accommodate street trees and in a planned, coordinated way, taking account of townscape and access
considerations. Each opportunity will be assessed on its own merits.
The limited amount of planting concentrated in the north of Harley Street Conservation Area should not be
extended throughout the rest of this conservation area as a general rule, whilst also taking account of the
points made above.
The formal squares in this Townscape Area are of the highest importance in urban design terms. They were
designed as an integral part of the various phases of development and demonstrate the principles of the
earliest phase of town planning. They remain important today as green oases, providing both visual and
recreational amenity in the area. In the Portman Estate, the garden squares are of particular historic
significance as they form part of the original planting schemes