The development known as Belgravia was laid out in the 1820s by Thomas Cubitt and Thomas Cundy. Cubitt saw the possibilities of developing the land to the west of Buckingham Palace as a fashionable residential area and leased the land from the Grosvenor Estate. Many of the streets surrounding Cubitt’s development are of an even …
Category: SW1
Birdcage Walk, SW1
Queen Anne’s Gate was first developed as domestic residences in the early eighteenth century and further expanded in the middle and later periods of that century. Old Queen Street was built at about the same period as the later part of Queen Anne’s Gate. The Wellington Barracks complex, dates from the 1830s with major twentieth …
Haymarket, SW1
The area was originally developed in the 17th century. In 1640 there were a few buildings on the west side of Haymarket but by 1680 the street was fully developed, providing a link between Piccadilly and Charing Cross. Residential side streets, such as Oxendon, Panton, Orange (formerly James) and Norris Streets, developed at the same …
Knightsbridge
The conservation area is defined by three distinct developments. First, the eastern part around Trevor Square, Montpelier Square and Place dated early 19th century. Secondly, the central part developed during the mid-19th century, consisting of large stucco houses detailed in a classical manner including Princes Gate, Rutland Gate, Queens Gate, and part of Ennismore Gardens. …
Pimlico
Pimlico is the triangular area of land bounded by Vauxhall Bridge Road, the Thames and the railway into Victoria Station. The first recorded use of the name was in 1626 when it referred to a group of mean cottages called Neat Houses around Ranelagh Gardens. When the nearby Buckingham House had been sold to George …
The Royal Parks
The history of the Royal Parks is intimately linked to the possession of the land by the Crown. Hyde Park, named after the ancient manor of Hyde, was originally Abbey land which was seized and enclosed as a deer park at the time of Henry VIII. In the 16th century the park was used for …
St James
There are records of a lepers’ hospital within the area as early as the 11th century. It appears that this was later converted to a convent. In 1532, the convent was purchased by Henry VIII to provide a site for a palace and in the next 300 years a court complex grew around St. James’s …
St James’s Park
The earliest surviving development on the site dates back to the early 18th century. The area includes a large proportion of turn-of-the century buildings. The former burial ground of Christ Church, Broadway (badly damaged by bombing during the Second World War and subsequently demolished together with the vicarage) is now known as Christchurch Gardens and …
Victoria
Dolphin Square Dolphin Square was designed by the architect Gordon Jeeves and built between 1937-38. At the time it was built it was the largest block of flats in Europe. It was built on a 7.5 acre site and also provided recreation land on the river frontage side of Grosvenor Road. It was planned as …
Westminster
Westminster Abbey The origins of the area that is now the political and religious heart of Britain can be traced back to the end of the tenth century, when there was a small monastery on Thorney Island, near the site of the current Abbey. The abbey church of St. Peter was built by Edward the …
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