A Modernist London Refuge Drawn From Europe's Aesthetic Past
IN THE SHADOW of Claridge's hotel, a black iron gate marks the entrance to an otherwise hidden address.Cut into a red-and-yellow brick wall in Brook's Mews, a cobblestone artery in London's Mayfair neighborhood, it gives way to a private passage.This narrow alley, the proportions of which summon a darker, Dickensian past, leads to a compact courtyard, marked only by a pair of olive trees that shield the entrance to a contemporary office building.