Dolphin Square

Neighbourhood in/near Pimlico, existing between 1937 and now.

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Neighbourhood · Pimlico · ·
October
27
2010
Dolphin Square is a block of private flats and business complex built near the River Thames between 1935 and 1937.

At the time of its construction the development of 1,250 up-market flats was billed by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as the "largest self-contained block of flats in Europe" and, to an extent, their design has been a model for later municipal developments.

The Dolphin Square development is situated on the former works of the developer and builder Thomas Cubitt, who created the surrounding Pimlico district in the 19th century. An Army clothing factory was built on the site after Cubitt’s death, standing until 1933, when the leasehold on the site reverted to the Duke of Westminster. An American company, the Frederick French Corporation, bought the freehold for the site from the Duke, with plans to build a large residential development, Ormonde Court. The precarious financial situation of the Frederick French Corporation resulted in the sale of the site to Richard Rylands Costain (founder of the nascent Costain Group), who began construction on his own development in 1935.

A. P. Herbert described the Square as ’a city of 1,250 flats, each enjoying at the same time most of the advantages of the separate house and the big communal dwelling place’; the provision of a restaurant made him fear that ’fortunate wives will not have enough to do. A little drudgery is good for wives, perhaps. The Dolphin lady may be spoiled’. This promotional booklet was produced for Costains. On purchasing the site, Costain remarked to a colleague: ‘in two or three years we’ll either drive up to this spot in a Rolls-Royce, or we’ll be standing here selling matches’.

Dolphin Square, as it was now known, was sold by Costains to Sir Maxwell Joseph who bought the complex in 1958 for £2.4 million, selling it to Lintang Investments in 1959 for £3.1 million. Westminster City Council bought the lease of the block for £4.5 million in the mid-1960s, and subsequently sub-let it to the Dolphin Square Trust, an effective housing association, which had been newly created for the purpose. In January 2006, the Dolphin Square Trust and Westminster City Council sold Dolphin Square to the American Westbrook Holdings group for £200 million.

Accommodation is provided in 13 ’houses’ each named after a famous navigator or admiral. At the south (Thames) side of the Square the houses are Grenville, Drake, Raleigh and Hawkins. Moving from the river up the west side, there are Nelson, Howard, Beatty, and Duncan. A hotel and administration offices, situated at the north side of the Square, is in Dolphin House, previously known as Rodney. Heading south from the hotel there is Keyes, Hood, Collingwood and Frobisher.

The estate contains a swimming pool, bar, brasserie (all of which were renovated in 2008), gymnasium, and shopping arcade. In the basement are a launderette and car park. A tennis court and croquet lawn overlook the River Thames. Until 21 January 1970, London Transport bus route 134 showed PIMLICO Dolphin Square as a destination and actually terminated in Chichester Street.

The proximity of Dolphin Square to the Palace of Westminster and the headquarters of the intelligence agencies MI5 (Thames House) and MI6 (Vauxhall Cross) has attracted many politicians, peers, civil servants and intelligence agency personnel as residents. Politicians who have lived in the development include Harold Wilson, David Steel, William Hague, Estelle Morris, Beverley Hughes, Michael Mates, John Langford-Holt and Iain Mills.

Other notable residents have included: comedians Ben Lyon and Bud Flanagan; actor Peter Finch; writer Radclyffe Hall; former Lord Chief Justice Lord Goddard; journalist Norman Cliff; tennis writer Bud Collins; Anne, Princess Royal; Profumo affair topless showgirls Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies. Australian tennis player Rod Laver stayed here for the 1969 Wimbledon championships during his Grand Slam season.

John Vassall, the Soviet spy, was arrested at apartment 807 in the square’s Hood House in 1962. Oswald Mosley and his wife Diana Mitford, Lady Mosley, left their apartment at Dolphin Square for internment in 1940 during the Second World War.

It provided a base for the Free French during World War II and number 308 Hood House was used by MI5 section B5(b) responsible for infiltrating agents into potentially subversive groups from 1924 to 1946.


Main source: Wikipedia
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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY

Lived here
Brian J MacIntyre   
Added: 8 Jan 2023 17:27 GMT   

Malcolm Davey at Raleigh House, Dolphin Square
My former partner, actor Malcolm Davey, lived at Raleigh House, Dolphin Square, for many years until his death. He was a wonderful human being and an even better friend. A somewhat underrated actor, but loved by many, including myself. I miss you terribly, Malcolm. Here’s to you and to History, our favourite subject.
Love Always - Brian J MacIntyre
Minnesota, USA

Reply

The Underground Map   
Added: 8 Dec 2020 00:24 GMT   

Othello takes a bow
On 1 November 1604, William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello was presented for the first time, at The Palace of Whitehall. The palace was the main residence of the English monarchs in London from 1530 until 1698. Seven years to the day, Shakespeare’s romantic comedy The Tempest was also presented for the first time, and also at the Palace of Whitehall.

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Born here
www.violettrefusis.com   
Added: 17 Feb 2021 15:05 GMT   

Birth place
Violet Trefusis, writer, cosmopolitan intellectual and patron of the Arts was born at 2 Wilton Crescent SW1X.

Source: www.violettrefusis.com

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Comment
Pauline jones   
Added: 16 Oct 2017 19:04 GMT   

Bessborough Place, SW1V
I grew up in bessborough place at the back of our house and Grosvenor road and bessborough gardens was a fantastic playground called trinity mews it had a paddling pool sandpit football area and various things to climb on, such as a train , slide also as Wendy house. There were plants surrounding this wonderful play area, two playground attendants ,also a shelter for when it rained. The children were constantly told off by the playground keepers for touching the plants or kicking the ball out of the permitted area, there was hopscotch as well, all these play items were brick apart from the slide. Pollock was the centre of my universe and I felt sorry and still do for anyone not being born there. To this day I miss it and constantly look for images of the streets around there, my sister and me often go back to take a clumped of our beloved London. The stucco houses were a feature and the backs of the houses enabled parents to see thier children playing.

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Lynette beardwood   
Added: 29 Nov 2022 20:53 GMT   

Spy’s Club
Topham’s Hotel at 24-28 Ebury Street was called the Ebury Court Hotel. Its first proprietor was a Mrs Topham. In WW2 it was a favourite watering hole for the various intelligence organisations based in the Pimlico area. The first woman infiltrated into France in 1942, FANY Yvonne Rudellat, was recruited by the Special Operations Executive while working there. She died in Bergen Belsen in April 1945.

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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT


Matthew Proctor   
Added: 7 Dec 2023 17:36 GMT   

Blackheath Grove, SE3
Road was originally known as The Avenue, then became "The Grove" in 1942.

From 1864 there was Blackheath Wesleyan Methodist Chapel on this street until it was destroyed by a V2 in 1944

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Comment
Peter   
Added: 4 Dec 2023 07:05 GMT   

Gambia Street, SE1
Gambia Street was previously known as William Street.

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Comment
Eileen   
Added: 10 Nov 2023 09:42 GMT   

Brecknock Road Pleating Company
My great grandparents ran the Brecknock Road pleating Company around 1910 to 1920 and my Grandmother worked there as a pleater until she was 16. I should like to know more about this. I know they had a beautiful Victorian house in Islington as I have photos of it & of them in their garden.

Source: Family history

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Comment
   
Added: 6 Nov 2023 16:59 GMT   

061123
Why do Thames Water not collect the 15 . Three meter lengths of blue plastic fencing, and old pipes etc. They left here for the last TWO Years, these cause an obstruction,as they halfway lying in the road,as no footpath down this road, and the cars going and exiting the park are getting damaged, also the public are in Grave Danger when trying to avoid your rubbish and the danger of your fences.

Source: Squirrels Lane. Buckhurst Hill, Essex. IG9. I want some action ,now, not Excuses.MK.

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Christian   
Added: 31 Oct 2023 10:34 GMT   

Cornwall Road, W11
Photo shows William Richard Hoare’s chemist shop at 121 Cornwall Road.

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Vik   
Added: 30 Oct 2023 18:48 GMT   

Old pub sign from the Rising Sun
Hi I have no connection to the area except that for the last 30+ years we’ve had an old pub sign hanging on our kitchen wall from the Rising Sun, Stanwell, which I believe was / is on the Oaks Rd. Happy to upload a photo if anyone can tell me how or where to do that!

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Comment
Phillip Martin   
Added: 16 Oct 2023 06:25 GMT   

16 Ashburnham Road
On 15 October 1874 George Frederick Martin was born in 16 Ashburnham Road Greenwich to George Henry Martin, a painter, and Mary Martin, formerly Southern.

Reply
Lived here
Christine Bithrey   
Added: 15 Oct 2023 15:20 GMT   

The Hollies (1860 - 1900)
I lived in Holly Park Estate from 1969 I was 8 years old when we moved in until I left to get married, my mother still lives there now 84. I am wondering if there was ever a cemetery within The Hollies? And if so where? Was it near to the Blythwood Road end or much nearer to the old Methodist Church which is still standing although rather old looking. We spent most of our childhood playing along the old dis-used railway that run directly along Blythwood Road and opposite Holly Park Estate - top end which is where we live/ed. We now walk my mothers dog there twice a day. An elderly gentleman once told me when I was a child that there used to be a cemetery but I am not sure if he was trying to scare us children! I only thought about this recently when walking past the old Methodist Church and seeing the flag stone in the side of the wall with the inscription of when it was built late 1880

If anyone has any answers please email me [email protected]

Reply


NEARBY LOCATIONS OF NOTE
Dolphin Square Dolphin Square is a block of private flats and business complex built near the River Thames between 1935 and 1937.
Pimlico Pimlico is known for its garden squares and Regency architecture.
Pimlico Academy Pimlico Academy (formerly Pimlico School) is a mixed-sex education secondary school and sixth form with academy status.
St Saviour’s St Saviour’s is an Anglo-Catholic church in Pimlico.

NEARBY STREETS
Alderney Street, SW1V Alderney Street was originally Stanley Street, after George Stanley, local landowner.
Anson House, SW1V Anson House is a block on Churchill Gardens Road.
Antrobus Street, SW1V Antrobus Street, now demolished, was long called Rutland Street.
Aylesford Street, SW1V Aylesford Street was built in 1848.
Balniel Gate, SW1V Balniel Gate is a road of Pimlico.
Balvaird Place, SW1V Balvaird Place is a road in the SW1V postcode area
Beatty House, SW1V Beatty House is a block on Dolphin Square West.
Belvedere House, SW1V Belvedere House is a block on Grosvenor Road.
Bessborough Gardens, SW1V Bessborough Gardens is a road in the SW1V postcode area
Bessborough Mews, SW1V Bessborough Mews was situated behind Bessborough Street.
Bessborough Place, SW1V Bessborough Place is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
Bessborough Street, SW1V Bessborough Street is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
Blackstone House, SW1V Blackstone House is located on Johnson’s Place.
Bramwell House, SW1V Bramwell House is a block on Churchill Gardens Road.
Cambridge Street, SW1V Cambridge Street is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
Campbell House, SW1V Campbell House is a block on Johnson’s Place.
Charlwood Street, SW1V Charlwood Street is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
Chaucer House, SW1V Chaucer House is a building on Churchill Gardens Road.
Chichester Street, SW1V Chichester Street is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
Chippendale House, SW1V Chippendale House is a block on Churchill Gardens Estate.
Churchill Gardens Road, SW1V Churchill Gardens Road is a road in the SW1V postcode area
Churchill Gardens, SW1V Churchill Gardens is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
Claverton Street, SW1V Claverton Street runs from Lupus Street to Grosvenor Road.
Coleridge House, SW1V Coleridge House is a block on Churchill Gardens Road.
Collingwood House, SW1V Collingwood House is located on Dolphin Square.
Crown Reach Riverside Walk, SW1V Crown Reach Riverside Walk is a road in the SW1V postcode area
Cumberland Street, SW1V Cumberland Street is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
De Quincey House, SW1V De Quincey House is a block on Lupus Street.
Denbigh Place, SW1V Denbigh Place is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
Denbigh Street, SW1V Denbigh Street is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
Dolphin Square East Side, SW1V Dolphin Square consists of blocks of private flats built between 1935 and 1937.
Dolphin Square West, SW1V Dolphin Square West is a road in the SW1V postcode area
Drake House, SW1V Drake House is a block on Grosvenor Road.
Drummond Gate, SW1V Drummond Gate is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
Duncan House, SW1V Duncan House is a block on Dolphin Square West.
Elm Lane, SW8 Elm Lane is one of the streets of London in the SW8 postal area.
Erskine House, SW1V Erskine House is a block on Churchill Gardens Road.
Exbury House, SW1V Exbury House is a block on Rampayne Street.
Frobisher House, SW1V Frobisher House is a block on Dolphin Square.
Gifford House, SW1V Gifford House is a block on Lupus Street.
Glasgow Terrace, SW1V Glasgow Terrace has coexisted with the name of Caledonia Street.
Gloucester Street, SW1V Gloucester Street is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
Grenville House, SW1V Grenville House is a block on Dolphin Square.
Grosvenor Road, SW1V Grosvenor Road forms part of the Thames embankment.
Hallam House, SW1V Hallam House is a block on Johnson’s Place.
Hawkins House, SW1V Hawkins House is a block on Dolphin Square West.
Hawthorne House, SW1V Hawthorne House is a block on Churchill Gardens Road.
Hood House, SW1V Hood House is a block on Dolphin Square.
Howard House, SW1V Howard House can be found on Dolphin Square West.
Jane Austen House, SW1V Jane Austen House is sited on Johnson’s Place.
Johnson’s Place, SW1V Johnson’s Place is a road in the SW1V postcode area
Keats House, SW1V Keats House is sited on Churchill Gardens Road.
Keyes House, SW1V Keyes House is a block on Dolphin Square.
Langdale House, SW1V Langdale House can be found on Lupus Street.
Lidhammer Court, SW1V Lidhammer Court is a block on Bessborough Gardens.
Lindsay Square, SW1V Lindsay Square is a road in the SW1V postcode area
Littleton House, SW1V Littleton House is sited on Lupus Street.
Longleat House, SW1V Longleat House is a block on Garden Terrace.
Lowther House, SW1V Lowther House is a block on Churchill Gardens Road.
Lupus Street, SW1V Lupus Street was named after Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester.
Lutyens House, SW1V Lutyens House is a building on Glasgow Terrace.
Maitland House, SW1V Maitland House is a block on Churchill Gardens Road.
Marryat House, SW1V Marryat House is a block on Lupus Street.
Martineau House, SW1V Martineau House is a block on Lupus Street.
Middlesex House, SW1 Middlesex House is located on Causton Street.
Millennium House, SW1V Millennium House is a block on Grosvenor Road.
Moreton Place, SW1V Moreton Place is a road in the SW1 postcode area
Moreton Street, SW1V Moreton Street is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
Moreton Terrace Mews North, SW1V This mews lies behind Moreton Terrace.
Moreton Terrace Mews South, SW1V The former Moreton Terrace Mews was split into two during 1964.
Moreton Terrace Mews, SW1V The former Moreton Terrace Mews was split into two in 1964.
Moyle House, SW1V Moyle House is a block on Churchill Gardens Road.
Neate House, SW1V Residential block
Nelson House, SW1V Nelson House is a building on Dolphin Square West.
New Covent Garden Market, SW8 New Covent Garden Market is a location in London.
Nine Elms Lane, SW11 Nine Elms Lane is a location in London.
Nine Elms Lane, SW8 Nine Elms Lane was named around 1645, from a row of elm trees bordering the road.
Paxton Terrace, SW1V Paxton Terrace is a road in the SW1V postcode area
Ponsonby Place, SW1V Ponsonby Place is one of the streets of London in the SW1P postal area.
Ponsonby Terrace, SW1V Ponsonby Terrace is one of the streets of London in the SW1P postal area.
Pulford Street, SW1V Pulford Street was a street between its construction in 1848 and demolition after the Second World War.
Raleigh House, SW1V Raleigh House is a block on Grosvenor Road.
Rampayne Street, SW1V Rampayne Street is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
Ranelagh Road, SW1V Ranelagh Road is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
Ripley House, SW1V Ripley House is a block on Churchill Gardens Road.
Rivermill, SW1V Rivermill is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
Riverside Court, SW8 Riverside Court is located on Nine Elms Lane.
Riverside Walk, SW8 Riverside Walk is part of the Thames Path long-distance footpath.
Seldon House, SW1V Seldon House is a block on Glasgow Terrace.
Shelley House, SW1V Shelley House is a block on Churchill Gardens Road.
Sheraton House, SW1V Sheraton House is a block on Paxton Terrace.
St George’s Square, SW1V St Georges Square is a long narrow space reaching to the river with an enclosed garden in the centre.
St Georges Drive, SW1V St Georges Drive is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
The Arcade, SW1V The Arcade is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.
Thomson House, SW1V Thomson House is a block on Balvaird Place.
Thorndike House, SW1 Thorndike House is a block on Vauxhall Bridge Road.
Tyburn House, SW1V Tyburn House is a block on Grosvenor Road.
Tyrrell House, SW1V Tyrrell House is a block on Churchill Gardens Road.
Vauxhall Bridge, SW1V Vauxhall Bridge is a road in the SW1V postcode area
Viaduct Gardens, SW8 Viaduct Gardens runs beside the United States Embassy building in Nine Elms.
Walston House, SW1V Walston House is a block on Aylesford Street.
Wilkins House, SW1V Wilkins House is a block on Churchill Gardens Road.
Winchester Street, SW1V Winchester Street is one of the streets of London in the SW1V postal area.


Click here to explore another London street
We now have 653 completed street histories and 46847 partial histories


Pimlico

Pimlico is known for its garden squares and Regency architecture.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Manor of Ebury was divided up and leased by the Crown to servants or favourites. In 1623, James I sold the freehold of Ebury - the land was sold on several more times until it came into the possession of heiress Mary Davies in 1666.

Mary’s dowry not only included modern-day Pimlico and Belgravia, but also most of what is now Mayfair and Knightsbridge. She was much pursued and in 1677 at the age of twelve she married Sir Thomas Grosvenor. The Grosvenors were a family of Norman descent long seated at Eaton Hall in Cheshire who until this auspicious marriage were only of local consequence in the county of Cheshire. Through the development and good management of this land, the Grosvenors acquired enormous wealth.

At some point in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, the area ceased to be known as Ebury (or ’The Five Fields’) and gained the name by which it is now known. According to folklore, it received its name from Ben Pimlico, famous for his nut-brown ale. His tea-gardens were near Hoxton, and the road to them from here was termed Pimlico Path, so that what is now called Pimlico was so named from the popularity of the Hoxton resort.

By the nineteenth century, and as a result of an increase in demand for property in the previously unfashionable West End of London following the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London, Pimlico had become ripe for development. In 1825, Thomas Cubitt was contracted by Lord Grosvenor to develop Pimlico. The land up to this time had been marshy but was reclaimed using soil excavated during the construction of St Katharine Docks.

Cubitt developed Pimlico as a grid of handsome white stucco terraces. The largest and most opulent houses were built along St George’s Drive and Belgrave Road, the two principal streets, and Eccleston, Warwick and St George’s Squares. Lupus Street contained similarly grand houses, as well as shops and, until the early twentieth century, a hospital for women and children. Smaller-scale properties, typically of three storeys, line the side streets. An 1877 newspaper article described Pimlico as "genteel, sacred to professional men… not rich enough to luxuriate in Belgravia proper, but rich enough to live in private houses." Its inhabitants were "more lively than in Kensington… and yet a cut above Chelsea, which is only commercial."

Although the area was dominated by the well-to-do middle and upper-middle classes as late as Booth’s 1889 Map of London Poverty, parts of Pimlico are said to have declined significantly by the 1890s. When Rev Gerald Olivier moved to the neighbourhood in 1912 with his family, including the young Laurence Olivier, to minister to the parishioners of St Saviour, it was part of a venture to west London ’slums’ that had previously taken the family to the depths of Notting Hill.

Through the late nineteenth century, Pimlico saw the construction of several Peabody Estates, charitable housing projects designed to provide affordable, quality homes.

Proximity to the Houses of Parliament made Pimlico a centre of political activity. Prior to 1928, the Labour Party and Trades Union Congress shared offices on Eccleston Square, and it was here in 1926 that the General Strike was organised.

In the mid-1930s Pimlico saw a second wave of development with the construction of Dolphin Square, a self-contained ’city’ of 1250 up-market flats built on the site formerly occupied by Cubitt’s building works. Completed in 1937, it quickly became popular with MPs and public servants. It was home to fascist Oswald Mosley until his arrest in 1940, and the headquarters of the Free French for much of the Second World War.

Pimlico survived the war with its essential character intact, although parts sustained significant bomb damage. Through the 1950s these areas were the focus of large-scale redevelopment as the Churchill Gardens and Lillington and Longmoore Gardens estates, and many of the larger Victorian houses were converted to hotels and other uses.

To provide affordable and efficient heating to the residents of the new post-war developments, Pimlico became one of the few places in the UK to have a district heating system installed.

In 1953, the Second Duke of Westminster sold the part of the Grosvenor estate on which Pimlico is built.

Pimlico was connected to the underground in 1972 as a late addition to the Victoria Line. Following the designation of a conservation area in 1968 (extended in 1973 and again in 1990), the area has seen extensive regeneration. Successive waves of development have given Pimlico an interesting social mix, combining exclusive restaurants and residences with Westminster City Council run facilities.

Notable residents of Pimlico have included politician Winston Churchill, designer Laura Ashley, philosopher Swami Vivekananda, actor Laurence Olivier, illustrator and author Aubrey Beardsley, Kenyan nationalist Jomo Kenyatta and inventor of lawn tennis Major Walter Wingfield.


LOCAL PHOTOS
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Antrobus Street sign
TUM image id: 1601897046
Licence: CC BY 2.0

In the neighbourhood...

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The Lillington Gardens estate
Credit: Ewan Munro
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Victoria coach station’s temporary base (1929) This was sited where the Tachbrook Estate is now. The open-air King’s Scholar Pond sewer is on the left.
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Nine Elms Station map in the 1850s with the new line to Waterloo on right. Before the Waterloo extension, Nine Elms was the main London terminus for the LSWR.
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Pulford Street being demolished
Credit: Peabody Trust
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Antrobus Street sign
Licence: CC BY 2.0


"A Sunset with a View of Nine Elms" (c.1755)
Credit: Samuel Scott/Tate Britain
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Battersea Power Station
Credit: Robert Lowry/Wandsworth Museum
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