Royalty and the Bruton

London’s Best Office Spaces – The Links Between London’s Past and the Modern World

Bruton Street is located in Mayfair in the West End of London and has a surprising past. No.17 Bruton Street was once a townhouse that belonged to the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and his wife who were the maternal grandparents of Queen Elizabeth II. And it was in this house, at 2.40 am on the 21st April 1926, that the Queen was born. The property has changed significantly over the decades and was bombed during the Second World War. In 2010, the building became the esteemed restaurant, Hakkasan – a restaurant that went on to earn a Michelin star. Diners would only be aware of the royal heritage of the building if they sighted the small placard on the wall that commemorates its history. According to our research, there is actually only one listed building associated with Bruton Street – this is on Bruton Place which runs parallel to Bruton Street. Bruton Place can be accessed from Bruton Street and many buildings have frontages to both streets. 36-40, Bruton Place is a Grade II listed building which is defined as a building that is ‘of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve it’. This means that it is legally protected from being demolished, extended or significantly altered without special permission from the City of Westminster. It was first listed in 1990 and is described as a group of 3 stables with accommodation above – these are now mews houses. Built in the late 19th Century, it is described as being built in red brick with gauged brick dressings and glazed brown brick dados, having tiled gabled roofs, and in the Queen Anne style. The listing details the history of the building stating that ‘this group of former livery stables, designed in the Queen Anne style, was built to serve the elegant residential area of Mayfair. Their survival represents the final chapter in the story of town stables, and they have been subsequently adapted to automobile garage use. Bruton Place retains its scale as a quiet mews street, although most of the other stables have been re-built. This group of 3 survive externally mostly intact, clearly expressing their original function.’ The building is summarized as an ‘externally intact group of three former stables in the Queen Anne style that forms part of a fine late-Victorian stables development, built to serve the elegant residential area of Mayfair.’ Mayfair is now much more of a commercial district of Central London and is now home to hotels, restaurants, boutiques and shops – the district, today, famously represents some of the most expensive residential and commercial real estate in the world. The district also provides high-end office space that is used by an array of occupiers ranging from publishing houses to hedge fund management companies. Bruton Street, itself, provides modern private offices at No.28 where a range of 21st-Century businesses thrive. These offices allow modern businesses to operate at an address with a relatively unknown royal pedigree, providing a graceful and subtle association.