Upper and Lower Grosvenor Gardens, Victoria, London

I doubt that many of the hundreds of thousands of people who flow in and out of Victoria each week-day are aware of these two small public gardens, right next to the station. Although bounded by busy roads, they are oases of green - especially the more secluded Upper Grosvenor Gardens.

The Grosvenor Gardens estate dates back to the 1860s, when the Victoria area was being developed. Two triangular gardens were enclosed by four grand terraces in the French Renaissance style, designed by Thomas Candy. Although Lower Grosvenor Gardens have always been open to the public, Upper Grosvenor Gardens were only opened to the public in 2000. An unusual, life-sized sculpture of a Lioness chasing a Lesser Kudu was commissioned by the Duke of Westminster for the centre of the Upper Gardens, by the sculptor Jonathan Kenworthy.

Lower Grosvenor Gardens also has an equestrian statue of the First World War French Military Commander, Marshal Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929). Unveiled in 1930, it is the work of the French sculptor, Georges Malissard, and is a replica of that erected at Cassel in France.

The site was chosen so that it could be seen French visitors arriving at Victoria! At the time, there was much debate as to whether an English sculptor should have been employed, but Malissard won out in the end. Later, in 1952, the gardens were redesigned in the formal French style.