Londoners could soon be relaxing in an iconic new public park in Mayfair designed to be the city’s ‘leading public space for the 21st century’.

Grosvenor Britain & Ireland is polling 1000 Londoners to crowd-source ideas on how to use Grosvenor Square after it takes back management of the public space from The Royal Parks of London. Ideas gathered through the ‘Shaping the Square’ campaign will be delivered to a panel of leading cultural, architectural, horticultural and landscape design professionals. The panel will hold an international competition in 2018 to select a winning design for a ‘great 21st century urban garden’.

“Grosvenor Square should be a defining public space for London”, Grosvenor Chief Executive, Craig McWilliam said. “We’re focused on making our London estate work harder for the capital and its communities, with a fantastic public space for Londoners at its heart.”

Developed between 1725-1731, Grosvenor Square astonished Londoners with its incredible size when it first opened. Larger than Trafalgar Square and second only to Lincoln’s Inn Fields, it was one of the most fashionable areas of London up until the Second World War.

Among the buildings surrounding the Square are neo-Georgian mansion blocks, hotels, apartments and, since 1938, the US Embassy. The relocation of the Embassy and the redevelopment of the building into a hotel is seen as a defining opportunity to make better use of the Square, which Grosvenor is committed to maintaining as a free public space.

“There is a need for Grosvenor Square at times to be a haven but at other times to be a place of animation and activity and cultural interest”, Executive Director of Grosvenor’s London estate, Will Bax, said.