London Neighbourhoods
Belgravia
When King George IV decided to make Buckingham Palace his permanent residence in 1825, the Grosvenor family saw an opportunity. They commissioned architect Thomas Cubitt to build an area of exclusive housing on this newly fashionable land, and his grand classical designs have survived to this day as some of the most fashionable residential property in London. It is a peaceful and hugely attractive area, especially by contrast with the bustle that surrounds it, and many of the UK's richest residents have their London homes here.
The twentieth century had little impact on Belgravia, and her antique shops and Michelin-starred restaurants are still discreetly located behind plain front doors, while the hotels offer topnotch facilities. Sloane Square's bars and restaurants are packed every evening with 'Sloanes', the sons and daughters of wealthy rural gentry, though it is also the home of the Royal Court Theatre, and its long tradition of left-wing theatre.
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Close to the Green spaces of Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace Gardens, the upscale streets of Belgravia are defined by elegant townhouse residences, foreign embassies and posh hotels. Traditional pubs, fine-dining restaurants and independent shops can be found on the streets north of Buckingham Palace Road. Bordering Belgravia, Chelsea's Sloane Square and Knightsbridge attract the well-heeled for luxury shopping.
Ebury, recalled in the name Ebury Street, was one of just a handful of Saxon settlements that lay in the vicinity of what is now Westminster. It once stretched from present-day Oxford Street southward to the Thames. Arranged around a manor house, the village consisted of 29 households in 1086. In the 16th century Ebury Farm covered 430 acres and its farmhouse lay where Victoria coach station now stands.
The estate was regularly leased by the Crown to court favourites until James I sold the freehold in 1623. A Temple barrister, Hugh Audley, purchased the marshy manor and it descended in 1666 to his grand-niece Mary Davies, then one year old. Eleven years later Mary married Sir Thomas Grosvenor of Eaton in Cheshire. Their union was not a happy one: she went mad and he died young. But the Grosvenor family profitably developed the land and, as Belgravia came into existence and grew, the Ebury name dropped out of widespread usage. It is remembered today primarily in the context of street names. Westminster council has designated the site of the medieval village an area of special archaeological priority.
Belgravia Address Book
180 Ebury Street, Belgravia
Classical composer Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) composed his first symphony here in 1764.
The eight-year-old prodigy composed the pice while he and his family
stayed for here for several weeks. Ebury Street, then known under the
name of Five Fields Row, was chosen as a suitable place for Mozart's
father to recover after a minor illness. Dating from the 1720s, number
180 is one of the oldest houses in Belgravia and would have been a
semi-rural lodging when Mozart and his family stayed there. At this
time, Mozart and his sister were performing as child prodigies in many
London theatres and at court. However, to accelerate Leopold’s
recovery, the children were forbidden to play instruments in the house.
And so it was there that, ‘in order to occupy himself’
– as his sister recalled – ‘Mozart composed his first
symphony for all the instruments of the orchestra, especially for
trumpets and kettledrums’.
The sypmphony and other work written here were aired at the Haymarket
Little Theatre in February 1765. Not long after this, Queen Charlotte
gave the boy composer, who had presented her with an engraved edition
of six sonatas and made himself quite a favourite at court, a
much-needed present of 50 guineas.
Other notable people who lived in Ebury Street include James Bond creator Ian Fleming and Michael Caine during the swinging 60’s.
Vivien Leigh leaving 54 Eaton Square
Actress Vivien Leigh (1913-1967) used Flat D at 54 Eaton Square as her London base from 1958 until her
death in 1967. At the time she moved to Eaton Square - alone, though
she furnished a study for Laurence Olivier - she was still one of the most
famous actresses in the world, but her private life was darkening. She
was suffering from manic depression and her marriage was almost over
- she and Olivier were divorced in 1960. By May 1967, the state
of Leigh's health was such that she was rehearsing the Edward Albee
play A Delicate Balance from her bed, where Noel Coward found her
‘pale but lovely, and smoking, which she shouldn't have been
doing’. She died of tuberculosis here a month later, with her
beloved pet cat, Poo Jones, by her side. Omar Sharif, who starred in the 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia, Bond actor Roger Moore and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber also once lived at 54 Eaton Square.
Although not as fashionable as some of the other squares in London, Eaton Square was home to several other noted figures. George FitzClarence, 1st Earl of Munster, the illegitimate son of William IV, lived at No. 13, while Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain lived at No 93 and No. 37 respectively. Since World War II, Eaton Square has become less residential; the Bolivian Embassy is at No. 106 while the Belgian Embassy is at No. 103.
Eaton Place is an extension to Eaton Square, developed by Cubitt between 1826 and 1845. The scientist William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin lived here, as did the Irish Unionist Edward Carson. Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet was assassinated by Irish Republicans in 1922 as he was leaving No. 36.
In the popular British television series Upstairs, Downstairs (1971–1975), the scene is set in the household of Richard Bellamy (later 1st Viscount Bellamy of Haversham) at 165 Eaton Place, Belgravia (65 Eaton Place was used for exterior shots; a "1" was painted in front of the house number). It depicts the lives of the Bellamys and their staff of domestic servants in the years 1903–1930, as they experience the tumultuous events of the Edwardian era, World War I and the postwar 1920s, culminating with the stock market crash of 1929, which ends the world they had known. In 2010, filming began on a mini-series intended to pick up the story of one of the main characters, Rose Buck, in 1936, as she returns to 165 Eaton Place to serve as the Holland family's housekeeper.
Upper Belgrave Street was constructed in the 1840s to connect King's Road with Belgrave Square. It is a wide one-way residential street with grand white stuccoed buildings. It stretches from the south-east corner of Belgrave Square to the north-east corner of Eaton Square. Most of the houses have now been divided into flats and achieve sale prices as high as £3,500 per square foot. Many of the buildings were constructed by Cubitt in the 1820s and 1830s. Walter Bagehot, a writer, banker and economist, lived at No. 12 during the 1860s. Alfred, Lord Tennyson lived at No 9 in 1880–1881. John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan lived at No. 46, and disappeared without trace from there in 1974 after his children's nanny was found murdered. Hope Portocarrero, the wife of Anastasio Somoza, a Nicaraguan dictator, lived at number 35.
Chester Square is a smaller, residential garden square, the last of the three garden squares built by the Grosvenor family. It is named after the city of Chester, near Eaton Hall. Past residents include the poet Matthew Arnold (1822–88) at No. 2, Mary Shelley (1797–1851) at No. 24, John Liddell (1794–1868) at No. 72, Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) at No. 73, and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (1880–1962) resided at No. 77 from 1940 until 1945.
2 Wilton Crescent, Belgravia
Wilton Crescent was created by Thomas Cundy II, the Grosvenor family estate surveyor, and was drawn up with the original 1821 Wyatt plan for Belgravia. It is named after the 2nd Earl of Wilton, second son of the 1st Marquess of Westminster. The street was built in 1827 by William Howard Seth-Smith. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it was home to many prominent British politicians, ambassadors and civil servants. Alfonso López Pumarejo, twice President of Colombia, lived and died at No. 33 (which is marked by a blue plaque).
Naval Officer, Director of
emergency relief services, Last Viceroy of India, Earl Mountbatten of
Burma (1900-1979) and Countess of Burma (1901-1960) lived at no. 2.
Lowndes Square is named after the Secretary to the Treasury William Lowndes. Like much of Belgravia, it has grand terraces with white stucco houses. Mick Jagger and James Fox once filmed in Leonard Plugge's house in Lowndes Square. The square was used as a setting for the Edward Frederic Benson novel The Countess of Lowndes Square.
24 Chapel Street, Belgravia
In January 1965, The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein moved from Whaddon House to 24 Chapel Street in Belgravia. Many memorable parties were held there, including the release party for "Sgt. Pepper". On August 27, 1967, Brian Epstein was found dead in his bed on the second floor of his home.
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