Adjoining Hatchett's is the Hotel Avondale, named after the Duke of Clarence and Avondale. The house was opened as a dining club, the "Cercle de Luxe," in 1892, after the failure of which it was reopened as an hotel in 1895.
No. 75 is the site of the Three Kings' Inn, where stood up to 1864 two pillars taken from Clarendon House.
At the corner of Berkeley Street is the Berkeley Hotel and Restaurant, formerly the St. James's Hotel, which stands on the site of the Gloucester coffee-house.
Opposite, at the corner of the Green Park, is Walsingham House, an enormous block built by Lord Walsingham in 1887, and on which he is said to have spent £300,000. It has been used as an hotel, and is shortly to be pulled down and rebuilt. Part of it was occupied by the Isthmian Club, established in 1882 for gentlemen interested in cricket, rowing, and other sports, which removed here from Grafton Street in 1887.
Opposite Berkeley Street stood the toll-gate, removed to Hyde Park Corner in 1725. No. 78, adjoining it, is Devonshire House, the residence of the Dukes of Devonshire, which stands in a courtyard concealed from the street by a high brick wall, in which are handsome iron gates. It is an unpretending brick building built by Kent in 1735, with a large garden at the back. The interior is handsome, and contains a gallery of pictures by old masters, a large collection of prints, and the famous Devonshire collection of gems. On this site stood Berkeley House, built about 1655 by Sir John Berkeley on a property called Hay Hill Farm, the grounds then covering the present Lansdowne House and Berkeley Square, as well as Berkeley and Stratton Street. It came into the possession of the Cavendish family before 1697, but was destroyed by fire in 1733. Queen Anne, when Princess of Denmark, lived here from 1692 to 1695. Stratton Street, a cul-de-sac, was built about 1693 by Lady Stratton. At No. 1 lived Mrs. Coutts (Miss Mellon), afterwards Duchess of St. Albans, d. 1837. It now belongs to her heir, the Baroness Burdett-Coutts.
Other inhabitants: Lord Willoughby, of Brook, 1698; Hon. George Berkeley, 1735; No. 2, Thomas Campbell, 1802; 7, William Gifford, 1797, Right Hon. Arnold Morley; 11, Roger Wilbraham, 1822-29, Lord Welby; 12, General Lord Lynedoch, d. 1803; 17, Earl of Clonmell.
At No. 80, Piccadilly, Sir Francis Burdett was arrested for treason in 1810, when he was imprisoned in the Tower. He was succeeded by the Duke of St. Albans. In 1849 Lady Guilford occupied the house.
At No. 81 in 1807 was established Watier's Gambling Club, which lasted until 1819; it was named after the Prince Regent's cook, the manager. It afterwards became a public gaming-house, and is now a private residence.
No. 82, Bath House, at the corner of Bolton Street, was built for Pulteney, Earl of Bath, who died 1764. The gardens then extended nearly to Curzon Street. It was rebuilt in 1821 for Lord Ashburton.
At No. 89, the east corner of Half-Moon Street, lived Madame d'Arblay.
At No. 94, Cambridge House (Naval and Military Club), standing in a courtyard, occupies the site of Carpenter's Statue Yard, which was succeeded by an inn. It was built in 1760 for the Earl of Egremont. The Marquis of Cholmondeley lived here 1809-29, after which the Duke of Cambridge was the owner until 1850. Lord Palmerston occupied it from 1855 till his death in 1865, when it was purchased by the Naval and Military Club, established 1862, for officers of the army and navy, who made extensive alterations in 1878. This was the first club located in Piccadilly.
No. 97, at the corner of Whitehorse Street, is a square white building; the New Travellers' Club (social and non-political) was established here. It now houses the Junior Naval and Military Club.
No. 100 is the Badminton Club (proprietary), built on the site of a mews, and established in 1876 for gentlemen interested in coaching and field sports. Next door is the palatial house of the Junior Constitutional Club for members professing Conservative principles. On the site stood the town house of the Earls of Mexborough.
No. 105, on the site of Jan Van Nost's figure-yard, the Earl of Barrymore built a house in 1870, which remained unfinished at his death. After being partially burned down, it was completed and opened as the Old Pulteney Hotel. Here the Emperor of Russia and his sister, the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg, stayed in 1814. In 1823 the house came into the possession of the Marquis of Hertford, who partially rebuilt it in 1861. His son, Sir Richard Wallace, sold it to Sir Julian Goldsmid, M.P., who died 1896. It is now the Isthmian Club. Near here stood the Queen's Meadhouse.
No. 106, at the corner of Brick Street, stands on the site of the Greyhound Inn, which was purchased by Sir Henry Hunlocke in 1761. He was succeeded in 1764 by the Earl of Coventry, who built the present house, which became in 1829 the Coventry House Club. In 1854 it became the home of the St. James's Club, established in that year as a centre for the members of the British and foreign diplomatic bodies. Next door is the Savile Club, until 1836 the residence of Nathan Meyer Rothschild, the head of the banking firm.
No. 116, Hope House, at the corner of Down Street, a handsome structure, was built by Mr. Hope in 1849 at a cost of £30,600, and was sold by his widow to the members of the Junior Athenæum Club (social and non-political), established in 1866, which is now located there. The house was enlarged in 1887.
The private houses west of Down Street were built about 1873.
Two handsome houses, Nos. 127 and 128, were built about 1887. The first is the Cavalry Club, established in 1890 for officers of the cavalry and Yeomanry, and the second the Hyde Park Club.
No. 137, Gloucester House, stands on the site of Dickinson's Statue Yard. It belonged to the Earl of Elgin in 1808, from whom it was purchased in 1811 by the Duke of Gloucester on his marriage with Princess Mary. He was succeeded by the present owner, the Duke of Cambridge.
Other inhabitants of Piccadilly were: No. 96 (No. 15 Piccadilly west), Mr. Dumergue, with whom Sir Walter Scott resided in 1800; 99 (then 23), Sir William Hamilton, d. 1803; next door, Sir Thomas Lawrence; 114, Lord Palmerston, before 1855; 133, Kitty Frederick, mistress of the Duke of Queensberry, who built the house 1779; 139 (13, Piccadilly Terrace), Lord Byron, 1815; 138 and 139, the Duke of Queensberry, 1778-1810.
Hamilton Place is a short but broad street, lined on the west with large and fashionable houses. The ground, then part of Hyde Park, was granted to Hamilton, Ranger of Hyde Park, 1660-84, who built a street of small houses, named Hamilton Street, a cul-de-sac. This was replaced in 1809 by a street built by the Adams. In 1871, to relieve the congestion of the traffic, the roadway was carried through the Park Lane.
Inhabitants: No. 1, Lord Montgomery, 1810 (Lord Chancellor Eldon built the present house); 2, Duke of Bedford, 1810-19, Earl Gower (Duke of Sutherland), Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, 1840-46, Duke of Argyle, 1847-51; 3, Earl of Cork, 1810-50, Earl of Dalkeith, 1870; 4, Earl of Lucan, 1810, Duke of Wellington, 1814, Lord Grenville, 1822, Messrs. Labouchere, 1823-29, Henry Bevan, 1840-48, Earl of Northbrook, 1895; 5, Earl of Buckinghamshire, 1810-25, Marquis of Conyngham, 1870, Baron Leopold de Rothschild, 1895; 6, Right Hon. John Sullivan, 1810, Earl of Belmore, Lord Montagu, 1829, Earl of Home, 1843, Lord Southampton, 1847, W. Munro, 1848, Hon. B. J. Munro, 1870; 7, Earl of Shannon, 1810-22, William Miles, M.P., 1840-50. Nos. 7 and 8 are now the premises of the Bachelors' Club, established 1881, one of the most fashionable young men's clubs in London.
The space between Hamilton Place and Apsley House is now occupied by six large houses.
It was up to the middle of last century a row of mean buildings, many of them public-houses. Next to Apsley House stood, up to 1797, a noted inn, the Pillars of Hercules. In 1787 M. de Calonne built a mansion on the site now occupied by Nos. 146 and 147.
Inhabitants: No. 142, Miss Alice de Rothschild, heiress of the late Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild; 145 was formerly Northampton House; 148, Nathaniel Meyer, first Baron Rothschild, G.C.V.O., P.C.
Apsley House was built in 1778 by Lord Chancellor Apsley, Earl Bathurst, to whom the site was granted by George III. The ground was formerly occupied by the old Ranger's Lodge, and adjoining it was a tenement granted by George II. to Allen, a veteran of Dettingen, for a permanent apple-stall. In 1808 the house came into the possession of the Marquis Wellesley, and in 1816 into that of his brother, the Duke of Wellington, and it is now held by the fourth Duke.
It was faced with stone, and enlarged by the Wyatts in 1828, and in 1830 the Crown sold its interest in the building for £9,530. Further alterations were made in 1853. In the west gallery was held annually the Waterloo Banquet during the great Duke's life, and his study is still preserved intact. The house contains a good collection of pictures and many relics of the Napoleonic era.
Hyde Park Corner was the entrance to London until 1825, when the turnpike was removed. Cottages existed here in 1655. It is now an open triangular space, much enlarged when a portion of Green Park was thrown into the roadway in 1888. In the centre, about 1828, was erected a triumphal arch, an imitation of the arch of Titus at Rome. This, in 1846, was surmounted by a colossal equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington by Matthew Wyatt, which, in 1888, was removed to Aldershot, and the arch shifted to the top of Constitution Hill. The vacant space is now occupied by an equestrian statue of Wellington by Boehm.
In 1642 one of the forts for the defence of London against the Royalists was erected on the ground opposite the present Apsley House.
The prolongation of Piccadilly to the westward is known generally as Knightsbridge, as far as the stone bridge which spanned the Westbourne at the present Albert Gate. Edward the Confessor granted the land to the Abbey of Westminster, and it was disafforested in 1218. After the Reformation Knightsbridge was preserved to the Abbey, and still belongs to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. In 1725 the name was applied to the fields as far south as the King's Road (Eaton Square), but after the building of Belgravia it was restricted to the street fronting Hyde Park. Facing Hyde Park Corner is St. George's Hospital, established in 1733; the residence of the Earls of Lanesborough previously occupied the site. The present building was erected from designs by William Wilkins, R.A., in 1828, and enlarged in 1831, 1859, and 1868. In the latter year the south-west wing was added. The question of the removal of the hospital is exciting much attention at present. In connection with the hospital is Atkinson Morley's Convalescent Hospital at Wimbledon. The following celebrated doctors have been attached to this hospital: Matthew Baillie, 1787-1800; John Hunter, 1768-93; Sir Benjamin Brodie, 1808-40; Sir Prescott Hewett, 1848-91.
Facing Hyde Park a row of well-built private houses now forms St. George's Place (1839), which, until lately, consisted of low brick buildings. One of these is now being pulled down to make way for the station of the new Piccadilly and Brompton Electric Railway. Close by is the Alexandra Hotel, built soon after the marriage of the present Queen, after whom it was named. Behind is Old Barrack Yard, which adjoined the old Guards Barracks, established about 1758. After being discontinued for troops, it was used as a depot until 1836, when the lease was sold and the building let out as tenements. The site is now occupied by St. Paul's Schools in Wilton Place. The houses beyond Wilton Place are being rebuilt further back to widen the roadway, which has hitherto been very narrow, and which during the afternoon in the season is often blocked by the traffic.
Inhabitants: Dr. Parr; No. 14, Liston, actor, d. 1846.
Park Side, the north side of Knightsbridge, is freehold of the Dean and Chapter, and rented by the descendants of Mr. Gamble of Trinity Chapel. Shops were erected here about 1810. At the east end stood the stocks in 1805, and in 1835, close by, a watch-house and pound. The Queen's Head, an old inn dating from 1576, was pulled down in 1843. Trinity Chapel belonged to an ancient lazar-house or hospital, held by the family of Glassington under the Abbey of Westminster in 1595. The chapel was rebuilt in 1629 and 1699, and repaired in 1789. It was entirely restored and remodelled in 1861 at a cost of £3,300. A charity school, instituted about 1785, adjoined it until 1844, when it was removed and attached to St. Paul's. In Knightsbridge Chapel marriages were performed without banns or license in a manner similar to those at Mayfair Chapel. The most celebrated of these are: Sir Robert Walpole to Katherine Shorter, 1700; Henry Graham to the Countess of Derwentwater, daughter of Charles II., 1705.
West of the chapel on the site of the hospital stood the Cannon Brewery, erected in 1804, and demolished in 1841 to make Albert Gate. The French Embassy, east of the gate, was built by Cubitt in 1852 for Hudson, the Railway King, and has lately been enlarged. The stone bridge was removed, and the stream arched over in 1841.
In 1765 George II. attempted to buy the fields adjoining Buckingham Palace to the west, but as Granville refused to sanction the expenditure of £20,000 for the purpose, the property was bought by Lord Grosvenor for £30,000, and Grosvenor Place was built in 1767-70, overlooking the Palace gardens. It has always been a fashionable place of residence. The houses below St. George's Hospital were formerly small and plain. The best-known inhabitants were: No. 1, Dr. Lewes' School of Anatomy and Medicine; 4, Lord Egremont (the third); north corner of Halkin Street, the Earl of Carlisle, Byron's guardian.
These houses were replaced in 1873-76 by five palatial stone houses built for the Duke of Grafton, Duke of Northumberland, Sir Anthony Rothschild, and Earl Stanhope.
They are occupied now by: No. 1, the Wellington Club (proprietary), social and non-political; 2, Duke of Northumberland; 4 and 5, Lord Iveagh.
At the south corner of Chapel Street stood the Lock Hospital, established in 1747, attached to which was a chapel, built 1764, and an asylum for penitent females, founded by the Rev. Thomas Scott in 1787. The chapel was celebrated for its preachers, which included Martin Madan, Thomas Scott, C. E. de Cöetlogon, Dr. Dodd, Rowland Hill, etc. The buildings, of red brick, and very plain, were pulled down in 1846, and the institution removed to Harrow Road. On the site were built Grosvenor Place Houses, renamed 18, 19, 20, Grosvenor Place in 1875. At No. 20 now lives Earl Stanhope.
In Grosvenor Row, at the south end of Grosvenor Place, stood a court named Osnaburgh Row (1769), after the Duke of York, who was also Bishop of Osnaburgh. It was cleared away about 1843. Near it stood the Duke's Hospital for Invalid Guards, closed in 1846 and removed 1851. Adjoining it was an old inn, the Feathers.
Other inhabitants: No. 6, Sir H. Campbell Bannerman; 15, Duke of Atholl, 1773; 44, Hanoverian Embassy, 1859 (the King of Hanover stayed here in 1853); 24, Bishop of Worcester, 1859; 46, Sir James Graham, 1868; 19, Sir Anthony Rothschild, 1859; 20, Earl Stanhope; 31, Earl Cathcart.
The district bounded by Knightsbridge and Grosvenor Place, as far as Sloane Street and Ebury Street, is known as Belgravia, after Belgrave Square, which occupies the centre. Up to 1825 it was named the Five Fields, and was bare, swampy ground on which were a few market gardens. Only one road, the King's Road (Eaton Square), crossed it, though there were numerous footpaths, rendered insecure by the highwaymen and footpads who infested them. It was also a favourite duelling-ground. In 1826 a special Act of Parliament empowered the owner, Lord Grosvenor, to drain the site, raise the level, etc., and in the course of the next few years Messrs. Cubitt and Seth Smith built the streets and squares which now rank as a fashionable centre with the neighbourhood of Grosvenor Square. The houses are mainly uniform in type—square, substantial, plaster-fronted structures, which give an aspect of monotony to the whole district.
Belgrave Square, 10 acres in extent, is 684 feet long by 637 feet wide, and was designed by Basevi and built by Cubitt in 1825-28. The detached houses in the corners are by Philip Hardwick, R.A., and H. E. Kendall (west side). An enclosed garden occupies the centre.
Inhabitants: No. 5, General Sir George Murray, d. 1846, Earl of Shaftesbury, d. 1886; 15, Duke of Bedford; 16, Sir Roderick Murchison, geologist, d. 1871; 12 (western corner house), the late Earl Brownlow, Earl of Ancaster; 18, Austro-Hungarian Embassy; 23, Viscountess Hambledon, widow of Right Hon. W. H. Smith; 32, Admiral Earl of Clanwilliam.
The south corner house was built for Mr. Kemp of Kemptown. No. 24 General Lord Hill occupied in 1837. After his death, Lord Ducie occupied it till 1853; 36, H.R.H. Duchess of Kent, 1840; 37, Earl of Sefton, 1896; 45, Duchess of Montrose, d. 1895; 48, Viscount Combermere, d. 1891; 49 was built in 1850 for Mr. Sidney Herbert, Duke of Richmond and Gordon; Earl of March.
The principal approach to Belgrave Square is by Grosvenor Crescent, a broad and handsome street commenced in 1837, but not completed until about 1860. Where is now the south-west wing of St. George's Hospital stood Tattersall's famous auction mart for horses, etc., and betting-rooms. The establishment was started by Richard Tattersall, trainer to the last Duke of Kingston, about 1774, and was long popularly known as "the Corner." It was pulled down in 1866, and removed to Knightsbridge Green.
Inhabitants: No. 5, Lord Ashbourne; 8, Right Hon. Sir George Trevelyan, Bart., M.P.; 11, Duke of Leeds; 14, C. Bulkeley Barrington, M.P.; 15, Grosvenor Crescent Club for Ladies. Behind the north-west side of the Square is Wilton Crescent, with a garden in the centre, and Wilton Place, both built by Seth Smith between 1824 and 1828.
Inhabitants, Wilton Crescent: No. 16, Right Hon. James Lowther, M.P.; 24, Henry Hallam, d. 1859; 20, Sir George Wombwell, Bart.; 26, Lord Lamington; 28, Lord De Ros; 30, Lord John Russell; 37, Lord Chewton, who was killed at the Battle of the Alma; 39, Rev. W. J. Bennett, 1850.
Wilton Place stands on the site of a cow-yard, and is a broad street with fine houses on the east side. Here is St. Paul's Church, celebrated for the ritualistic tendencies of its successive vicars. It was built in 1843 by subscription on the drill ground of the old barracks, and cost £11,000, the site being given by the Marquis of Westminster. The building by Cundy is handsome, in Early Perpendicular style, and has sittings for 1,800. It was enlarged and altered in 1889 and 1892, when a side-chapel, by Blomfield, was added. Adjoining is the Vicarage, and opposite are St. Paul's National Schools.
Here lived: No. 4, Miss Reynolds, actress; 13, Hon. Thomas Stapleton, antiquary; 15, Sir James Macdonald, the defender of Hougoumont, d. 1857; 21, Mr. Westmacott.
In the adjoining Kinnerton Street (1826), so called from one of the Grosvenor estates, stood the dissecting school and anatomical museum of St. George's Hospital, removed to the new wing in 1868. At No. 75 is an institute for providing and promoting humane treatment of animals, founded by Lady Frances Trevanion circa 1890. It is supported by voluntary contributions.
Motcomb Street was built in 1828, and named after the property of the Dowager Marchioness of Westminster in Dorset.
On the north side is the Pantechnicon, built circa 1834 as a bazaar for the sale of carriages, furniture, etc.; it had also a wine and toy department. It was burnt down in 1874, but has been rebuilt, and is now used for storing furniture, etc.
West Halkin Street and Halkin Place on the west side, and Halkin Street on the east side of the Square, are named after Halkin Castle, the Duke of Westminster's seat in Flintshire. The first contains a chapel of singular shape, the northern end being wider than the southern. It was built by Seth Smith as an Episcopal church, but is now Presbyterian.
Halkin Street was commenced about 1807, but until 1826 it, as well as the other streets leading out of Grosvenor Place, terminated in a mud-bank, on the other side of which were the Five Fields. On the north side is Mortimer House, a plain brick building standing in a courtyard. It was the residence of the late Earl Fitzwilliam, but is now Lord Penrhyn's. Next to it is Belgrave Chapel (St. John's), a proprietary church in Grecian style, built in 1812, with accommodation for 800. The remaining houses are small and unpretending, as are those in Chapel Street, built 1775-1811, and so called from the Lock Hospital Chapel, which stood at the corner of Grosvenor Place. Here lived Mr. Richard Jones (Gentleman Jones). No. 24, General Sir W. K. Grant, d. 1825.
On the other side of Belgrave Square, Chesham Place (1831) leads to a triangular space, with a small garden in the centre. Here lived: Madame Vestris, 1837; No. 37, Lord John Russell; 35, Sir Charles Wood, 1851; 29, the Russian Embassy.
The name is taken from the seat of the Lowndes family, the ground landlords. In Lowndes Street lived: No. 33, Colonel Gurwood, editor of "Wellington's Despatches"; 40, Mrs. Gore, novelist.
In Chesham Street, at No. 7, lived Henry Parish, diplomatist.
The feature of Lyall Street (1841) is Chesham House, at the corner, in which is the Russian Embassy, noted under Chesham Place. On the other side of Lyall Street is Lowndes Place, built about 1835. Eaton Place is a dull but broad and fashionable street.
Inhabitants: General Caulfield; Sir Robert Gardiner, Sir H. Duncan, d. 1836; Sir Thomas Troubridge, d. 1852; No. 5, Mr. Heywood, 1859; 14, Sir George Grey, 1859; 15, Lord Kelvin; 18, Dr. Lushington, 1859; 26, Sir Erskine Perry, 1859; 38, Mr. Justice Wightman, 1859; 80, Kossuth, 1851; 84, Duke of Atholl; 87, Sir William Molesworth, d. 1853; 93, General Sir Archibald Alison, Bart.; and many others.
Off Eaton Place is West Eaton Place, where lived General Sir Peregrine Maitland, d. 1852.
Belgrave Place, so named in 1879 instead of Upper Eccleston Street; and Upper Belgrave Street, built circa 1827, have the same general characteristics.
Inhabitants: No. 2, Mrs. Gore; 3, Lord Charles Wellesley; 13, Earl of Munster, son of William IV., who shot himself in 1842. It is now Lord Harewood's residence.
In Chester Street, commenced 1805, lived: No. 5, Right Hon. Sir Frederick Shaw, d. 1876; 7, Dr. Pettigrew, d. 1860; 12, Sir Douglas Galton, d. 1899; 13, Dr. Broughton, d. 1837; 27, Colonel Sibthorpe, d. 1855.
Wilton Street was begun in 1817. Here lived Mr. Spencer Perceval, son of the Minister.
Grosvenor Place, Lower Grosvenor Place, Hobart Place, Eaton Square, and Clieveden Place occupy the site of the King's private road, which had existed before as a footpath, but was made a coach-road by Charles II. as a short-cut to Hampton Court. It ran along the north garden of Eaton Square, and crossed the Westbourne at Bloody Bridge, a name which dates as far back as 1590. On the north side, where is now Eaton Terrace, was a coppice which provided wood for the Abbey. Houses were first built on it about 1785, and in 1725 a turnpike existed at its junction with Grosvenor Place. Admission to the road was by ticket, but in 1830 it was thrown open to the public under the name of the King's Road. Part of Lower Grosvenor Place, however, was named Arabella Row in 1789, but became known by its present name in 1789. Here in a shabby house lived Lord Erskine after resigning the Lord Chancellorship in 1806.
Hobart Place was first so called in 1836, but part of it was called Grosvenor Street West until 1869. It leads to Eaton Square, built by Cubitt in 1827-53. This is 1,637 feet long by 371 feet wide, 15 acres in extent, and contains six enclosed gardens. The houses are of the usual type. At the west end is St. Peter's Church, built in 1826 in Ionic style from designs by Hakewell at a cost of £21,515. An altar-piece by Hilton, R.A., was presented by the British Institution in 1828, but was removed in 1877, and is now in the South Kensington Museum. After being nearly burnt down in 1837, it was rebuilt by Gerrard, and in 1872 a chancel and transepts in Byzantine style, by Sir A. Blomfield, were added. The nave was remodelled in 1874, and further alterations have been made in the last ten years at a cost of £5,000. Here are buried Admiral Sir E. Codrington, d. 1851, and General Lord Robert Somerset, G.C.B. The Right Rev. G. H. Wilkinson, Bishop of St. Andrew's, was vicar from 1870-83.
Inhabitants: No. 8, Sir R. T. Reid, K.C., M.P.; 16, Mr. Justice Willes, 1859; 43, Lord Cottesloe; 60, Lord Sandhurst; 66a, Lord Walsingham, F.R.S.; 71, in 1809 the official residence of the Speaker; 74, Cardwell, 1859; 75, Ralph Bernal, M.P., d. 1853, Mr. George Peabody, d. 1869, Viscount Knutsford; 76, Viscount Falkland; 83, Lord Chancellor Truro, d. 1855; Lord Aberdare; 85, Sir Edward Malet, G.C.B., P.C.; 92, Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, d. 1851; 110, General Sir A. Codrington, 1859; 114, Lady Baden-Powell; 115, Earl of Ellenborough, 1859, Marquis of Hertford; Colonel Sibthorpe, d. 1855; Jacob Omnium (Mr. J. Higgins).
Clieveden Place, first built over in 1826, was so named in 1890 from the Duke of Westminster's late estate near Cookham, instead of its original name, Westbourne Place.
Between Clieveden Place and Pimlico Road the streets are narrow and unimportant. In Westbourne Street (1826), so called from the neighbouring Westbourne River, stood the York Hospital for invalid soldiers, removed to Chatham in 1819. On the east side is a Baptist chapel, a plain building, erected in 1825. Skinner Street (1842) and Whittaker Street (1836) lead to Holbein Place, built over the Westbourne, and called in 1877 "the Ditch." Leading from Whittaker Street are Passmore Street (1837) and Union Street, containing industrial dwellings.
Inhabitants—Chester Place: Right Hon. Charles Buller, d. 1848. Chester Square: No. 19, Mantell, the geologist, d. 1852; 24, the poet Shelley's widow, d. 1851.
The houses in Chester Square and the neighbourhood are not so pretentious as those in Belgravia, but it is still a fashionable place of residence. In South Eaton Place, near the south end, stood the Star and Garter Tavern, well known about 1760. The end of this street was called Burton Street (1826) until 1877. In Elizabeth Street, first called Eliza Street in 1820, and until 1866 divided into Upper Elizabeth Street, Elizabeth Street, and Elizabeth Street South, stood the Dwarf Tavern, noted about 1760. At the south end, near St. Philip's Parochial Hall and Parsonage, is St. Michael's Mission House, built in 1893. Gerald Road, 1834 until 1885 named Cottage Road, contains the station of the R Division of Police.
Eccleston Street, with which in 1866 was incorporated Eccleston Street South, was so called from Ecclestone in Cheshire, where the Duke of Westminster has property. A house on the west side inhabited by Sir Frances Chantrey was pulled down during the construction of the underground railway. On the same side is the Royal Pimlico Dispensary, established in 1831. Part of the east side has been rebuilt. In Eccleston Place is the station of the Westminster Electric Supply Company, which supplies this district with electric light. In Lower Belgrave Street (1810), the lower end of which was till 1867 named Belgrave Street South, are St. Peter's National Schools, a large red-brick building with a playground, in connection with St. Peter's, Eaton Square.
At the end of Grosvenor Place great improvements were made in 1868 by the building of Grosvenor Gardens, when Grosvenor Street West, and Upper and Lower Eaton Street were swept away.
At No. 27, Upper Eaton Street, lived George Frederick Cooke, 1870; 25, Thomas Campbell, 1803; 19, Lower Eaton Street, Mrs. Abington, actress, 1807, Mr. Pinkerton, 1802. The present houses are very large and handsome.
Inhabitants: No. 1, Spanish Embassy; 46, Lord Herschell.
On the west side, at the corner of Buckingham Palace Road, are Belgrave Mansions, built from designs by Cundy in 1868, a large block in French Renaissance style, with a frontage of nearly 300 feet. The ground-floor is occupied by shops, and above are five floors of flats. The centre of the open space is occupied by two triangular enclosed gardens, and is crossed by Ebury Street, once an open lane leading over the fields to Chelsea. Houses were built on it after 1750, and in 1779 the north-eastern end was named Upper Ranelagh Street and Ranelagh Street. The south-western end was Upper Ebury Street, but the whole was renamed Ebury Street in 1867. It is an uninteresting street of unpretending houses and shops. In Upper Ebury Street lived: Rodwell the composer; William Skelton, engraver, d. 1848; No. 174 is the Boys' School belonging to the parish of St. Barnabas.
At the north-east end of Ebury Street is Victoria Square, a small square of plain houses built about 1837, out of which Albert Street leads to Grosvenor Place. In the square lived, at No. 8, Thomas Campbell, 1841-43; 5, Earl of Mount Edgcumbe.
At the other end, near Ebury Bridge, is Ebury Square, built about 1820 on the site of Ebury Farm. This ancient property, which derives its name from the Saxon ey, water, and burgh, a fortified place, is mentioned in 1307, when permission was granted by Edward I. to John de Benstede to fortify it. In Queen Elizabeth's time it consisted of a farm of 430 acres, let on lease for £21 per annum. In 1676 it came into the possession of the Grosvenor family, and in 1725 embraced a long narrow area, reaching from Buckingham House to the Thames between the Westbourne and the present Westmoreland Street.
The square was partially destroyed in 1868, but the old houses remain on the north-west and south sides. In the centre is a garden, and the ground between it and Buckingham Palace Road is occupied by St. Michael's National Schools, opened in 1870, a spacious building, accommodating about a thousand scholars; there is a large playground. The site had been previously occupied by the Pimlico Literary Institution, built in 1830 from designs by J. P. Deering.
On the remaining side a handsome block of industrial dwellings (Ebury Buildings) was built in 1872, when the old Flask Lane (1785) was swept away. The approaches on the north-west are Semley Place (1785), late Flask Row, and Little Ebury Street (1823). At the end of Avery Farm Row (probably a corruption of Ebury), opposite Ebury Bridge, is a drinking-fountain, erected in memory of the second Marquis of Westminster, d. 1869, by his widow.
Buckingham Palace, which falls partly within St. George's district and partly within St. Margaret's, Westminster, has already been described in the volume on Westminster.
The Royal Mews, the entrance to which is in Buckingham Palace Road, contains a large riding-school, a room for the state harness, stabling for the state and other horses, and houses for forty carriages. Here also are kept the old and new state coaches, the former of which was built in 1762 of English oak, with paintings by Cipriani, and cost £7,660.
Buckingham Palace Road, now a broad street with large houses and shops, was in 1725 an open country road, known as the coach-road to Chelsea. The houses in it are rated under the name of Pimlico as late as 1786, but rows of houses under various names had been built earlier—Stafford Row in 1752, Queen's Row in 1766. These, with Victoria Road (1838), Stockbridge Terrace (1836), King's Road, Lower and Upper Belgrave Place and Belgrave Terrace (1826), were united under the name of Buckingham Palace Road in 1867, and in 1894 Union Place, Holden Terrace, and South Place were incorporated with it. The portion facing the Palace is named Buckingham Gate, and consists of seven large private houses. On this site, facing the Park, stood Tart Hall, the residence of Viscount Stafford (see "Westminster").
Facing Grosvenor Gardens is the Grosvenor Hotel, opened in 1862 in connection with Victoria Station. The building, designed by Knowles, is 272 feet long, 75 feet deep, and 150 feet high, and cost £100,000.
Beyond, on the north side, a row of large red-brick houses has been built since 1883, containing Buckingham Palace Mansions (flats), the National Training School of Cookery, and the City of Westminster Public Baths. Here also is St. Peter's Institute, in connection with St. Peter's, Eaton Square, which cost £15,000. It consists of a club for 600 men and 600 boys, with gymnasium, class-rooms, reading-room, concert-hall, etc.
Buckingham Palace Gardens, also on the north side, is a row of large, ornamental, red-brick houses, newly erected, adjoining the Free Library built by Bolton and opened in 1894. On the first floor is a natural history collection presented by a parishioner. St. Philip's Church, built 1887-90, is a plain but spacious red-brick building, in Early English style by Brierley and Demaine, with seats (free) for 850. Adjoining is the Grosvenor Club and Grosvenor Hall, used for social entertainments, etc. Nearly the whole of the south side of the road has recently been demolished in view of the extension of Victoria Station.
Inhabitants—Stafford Row: W. Ryland, engineer, executed for forgery 1767; Mrs. Radcliffe, authoress of the "Mysteries of Udolpho"; Richard Yates, d. 1796. Lower Belgrave Place: No. 3, George Grote, historian (later 102, Buckingham Palace Road); 29 and 30, Sir Francis Chantrey, 1814-41 (later 98, Buckingham Palace Road); 27, Allan Cunningham, poet, 1824-42; 96, Henry Weekes, R.A. Buckingham Palace Road: E. B. Stephen, R.A., 1882.
From the end of Buckingham Palace Road Chelsea was reached by the present Pimlico Road, so called in 1871, when the old names of Jews' Row, Grosvenor Row (1785), and Queen Street (1774) were abolished. The origin of the name Pimlico is uncertain. There was one also at Hoxton, where a certain Ben Pimlico kept a noted hostelry in Queen Elizabeth's time. It is now officially used to denote the whole district south of Knightsbridge, but is popularly confined to the part between Chester Square and the Thames. It began to be sparsely inhabited in 1680, after which date it is mentioned occasionally in the rate-books, and regularly after 1739.
On the north side, near the east end, are two narrow streets—Clifford's Row (1785), and King Street (1785). At the corner of Ebury Street stood an old inn, the Goat and Compasses, now replaced by the Three Compasses public-house. Further on is the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, built about 1850 as a chapel of ease to St. Barnabas. Adjoining is the site of the Chelsea Bun House, in its best days kept by Richard Hand, "who has the honour to serve the Royal Family." It was celebrated by Swift in 1711, and was taken down in 1839. Opposite stood Strombelo or Stromboli House, a minor place of amusement, at its height in 1788. Near here Nell Gwynne is said to have lived, and her name is kept up by the Nell Gwynne Tavern and a passage called Nell Gwynne Cottages.
Between the Pimlico and Commercial Roads are several small streets. In Bloomfield Place stood St. John's School for girls, established in 1859 under the auspices of the Sisterhood of St. John; adjoining, under the same management, St. Barnabas' Mission House and St. Barnabas' Orphanage, established in 1860. In Bloomfield Terrace lived at No. 1 Captain Warner, inventor of the "long range," d. 1853.
In Church Street (1846) stands the college of St. Barnabas, founded by Rev. W. J. Bennett. The buildings are of Kentish ragstone, were designed by Cundy, and contain a church, clergy house, and school-house with teacher's residence. The church, originally built as a chapel of ease to St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, is in Early Pointed style, and has a tower and spire of Caen stone 170 feet high, with ten bells. The edifice cost £15,000, and was at the opening signalized by ritualistic disturbances. The schools built on the site of the Orange Tavern and tea-gardens in the Pimlico Road were designed for 200 boys, 200 girls, and 200 infants, but a separate boys' school has been since built in Ebury Street.
Ranelagh Grove occupies the site of The Avenue, which led from Ebury Bridge to old Ranelagh House, but now ends in the blank wall of Chelsea Barracks.
In Ranelagh Terrace (now abolished), near Ebury Bridge, d. at No. 2 the Rev. T. Pennington, son of Elizabeth Carter, in 1852.
Commercial Road (1842) is occupied by works and industrial dwellings (Gatcliff Buildings, 1867, and Wellington Buildings). On the west side is the wall of Chelsea Barracks.
It leads by the Chelsea Bridge Road to the embankment at Victoria Bridge, a light and graceful suspension bridge designed by Page and opened in 1858. The structure, which cost £88,000, is built of iron, and rests on piers of English elm and concrete enclosed in iron casings. The piers are each nearly 90 feet in length by 20 feet in width, with curved cutwaters. The whole bridge is 915 feet long, 715 feet between abutments, the centre span 347 feet, side-spans each 185 feet, and there is a clear water-way of 21 feet above high-water mark. The roadway is made by two wrought-iron longitudinal girders extending the whole length of the bridge, suspended by rods from the chains. Toll-houses stand at each end, but it was purchased in 1879 for £75,000 as a free bridge.
Near the end of the bridge stood the White House, a lonely habitation much used by anglers; opposite, on the Surrey side, was a similar building, the Red House. A short way to the east stood the Chelsea Waterworks, incorporated as a company in 1724, though waterworks seem to have existed here before that date. They extended, with the Grosvenor Canal and basin (now occupied by Victoria Station), over 89 acres, and supplied water to Chelsea, Knightsbridge, Belgravia, Pimlico, and part of Westminster. The company has now removed to Kingston, and the site is occupied by the western pumping-station of the main drainage system of London, built 1873-75 at a cost of £183,000.
Graham Street (1827) incorporated with which in 1894 were Graham Street West and Gregory Street (1833), contains the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, a chapel of ease to St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, a red-brick building with a spire, built in 1872. Caroline Street (1834) is of no interest. Eaton Terrace (1826) was until 1884 named Coleshill Street. At the corner of Clieveden Place is an old proprietary chapel, Eaton Chapel, in Grecian style, built about 1800, with sittings for 1,200. A chapel existed here, however, before that date, known as the Five Fields Chapel.
Chester Terrace was in 1878 amalgamated with Minera Street (1830), and in 1887 with Newland Street (1836).
Chester Square is very long and narrow; it is five acres in extent, and was commenced about 1834. It has three enclosed gardens. At the west end is the handsome church of St. Michael, erected 1844-46 in the Decorated style from designs by Cundy. The tower has a lofty spire. The chancel was extended in 1874, and the building has on several occasions been enlarged and restored.
Chester Place, at the east end of the square, was incorporated with it in 1874.
The portion of our district lying between the Buckingham Palace Road and Grosvenor Canal and the eastern boundary forms an acute-angled triangle with the apex at Buckingham Palace. The streets north of Victoria Street, which lead into Buckingham Palace Road from the east, are narrow and unimportant. Here is Palace Street (1767), until 1881 called Charlotte Street, after Queen Charlotte, the first royal occupant of the Palace. In it is St. Peter's Church, a plain building with seats for 200, which existed as Charlotte Chapel in 1770. Its most famous incumbent was Dr. Dodd, who was executed for forgery in 1777. Subsequently it was held by Dr. Dillon, who was suspended in 1840. It was then a proprietary chapel, but is now a chapel of ease to St. Peter's, Eaton Square; also St. Peter and St. Edward's Catholic Chapel.
In Palace Place (until 1881 Little Charlotte Street) is St. Peter's Chapel School, established in 1830.
The St. George's Union Workhouse, a large red-brick building, built in 1884, stands in Wallis's Yard, off Princes Row (1767). Buckingham Palace (1840), Brewer Street (1811), and Allingham Street (1826) have no interest. The latter leads to Victoria Street, a broad thoroughfare opened in 1851, only the western end of which falls within the district. On the south side is the Victoria Station of the Metropolitan District Railway, commenced in 1863 and opened in 1868. The line runs in a curve underground from Sloane Square, crossing Ebury Street at Eaton Terrace, and Buckingham Palace Road at Grosvenor Gardens. From the Underground Station a subterranean passage leads to the Victoria terminus, the starting-point of the London, Brighton, and South Coast and London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Companies. The present station, which has no pretension to architectural beauty, is being greatly enlarged and partly rebuilt. It was built at a cost of £105,000, provided by the Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway Company, which, having acquired 91 acres of land, had built a temporary station and opened the line for the two companies' traffic in 1860. The bridge over the Thames was built about the same time by Fowler, and on it is the Grosvenor Road ticket-collecting station. The land occupied by the railways is freehold of the Victoria Company, and leased by the two lines. In 1863 the lines of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway were widened to enable their trains to come into the station independently. The lines of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway are now being extended. The station of the latter is a West End branch, the headquarters being at London Bridge; but the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway have here their principal starting-point. The ground between Victoria Station and the river occupies the site of the old manor of Neyte, which belonged to the Abbey of Westminster until confiscated by Henry VIII. in 1536. It was a favourite residence of the Abbots, and here also lived John of Gaunt, and here John, son of Richard, Duke of York, was born in 1448. In 1592 the manor became a farm and passed with the Ebury Estate into the possession of the Grosvenor family. The manor-house stood where is now St. George's Row, and in Pepys' time was a popular pleasure-garden. Between the Willow Walk (Warwick Street) and the river were the Neat House Gardens, which supplied a large part of London with vegetables. The name lingered until the present century among the houses on the river-bank, and is still commemorated by Neat House Buildings in Ranelagh Road. The whole area was low-lying and swampy, and the neighbourhood of Eccleston Square was occupied by a vast osier bed. In 1827, however, Cubitt raised the level of the district by depositing the earth excavated from St. Katharine's Docks, and the present houses and squares were gradually completed. The whole district is singularly uninteresting, the streets of good breadth, and the houses faced with plaster of the type we have seen in Belgravia. North of Belgrave Road the streets are occupied by the poorer classes, but the squares and principal streets in this neighbourhood are tenanted by the wealthy. The southern portion is dully respectable, and most of the houses are let in lodgings. The eastern end of Warwick Street and Lupus Street contain the only shops, and those of no great size or importance. The streets, with their principal buildings, are as follows:
The Vauxhall Bridge Road, commenced after 1816, but first mentioned under that name in 1827. The following terraces were incorporated with it in 1865: Bedford Place (1826), Trellick Place (1826), York Place (1839), Pembroke Place, Gloucester Place, Windsor Terrace, Shaftesbury Crescent (1826), Howick Place and Howick Terrace (1826).
Wilton Road (1833), with which, in 1890, was incorporated Wilton Terrace, skirts the east side of Victoria Station. In it stands the Church of St. John the Evangelist, a chapel of ease to St. Peter's, Eaton Square. It is a handsome red-brick edifice, built by Blomfield in 1875, and it accommodates about 900. Behind, in Hudson's Place, are St. Peter's Mission House and parish room.
Gillingham Street (1826), Hindon Street (1826), Berwick Street (1830), and St. Leonard's Street (1830) are mean and uninteresting.
Warwick Street occupies the site of the ancient Willow Walk, a low-lying footpath between the cuts of the Chelsea Waterworks, where lived the notorious Aberfield (Slender Billy) and the highwaymen Jerry Abershaw and Maclean. It is first mentioned in the rate-books in 1723.
Belgrave Road (1830) is a broad, well-built street, with large houses. In 1865 Eccleston Terrace, North and South Warwick Terrace, Upper Eccleston Place, and Grosvenor Terrace, were incorporated with it. Nearly opposite Eccleston Square is Eccleston Square Chapel (Congregational), in Classical style, with seats for 1,100. The railway is crossed by Eccleston Bridge. Eccleston Square is 4 acres in extent, and is long and narrow, with an enclosed garden, built in 1835.
Warwick Square, of 3 acres, is very similar, and was built in 1843. At the end stands St. Gabriel's Church, built by Cundy in Early English style, and consecrated in 1853.
St. George's Road is a broad street joined to Buckingham Palace Road by Elizabeth Bridge.
In Gloucester Street is the Belgrave Hospital for Children, founded in 1866 by the late Rev. Brymer Belcher, Vicar of St. Gabriel's, 1853-85. The objects of this charitable institution are:
1. The medical and surgical treatment of the children of the poor.
2. The promotion of the study of children's diseases.
3. The training of pupil nurses.
Clarendon Street (1858) absorbed Warwick Place in 1870. Stanley Street (1851) was renamed Alderney Street in 1879, Winchester Street 1852, Cumberland Street 1852.
Ebury Bridge is the oldest of the bridges over the railway and canal. It was known in early days as Chelsea, and afterwards as Waterworks Bridge, a wooden structure. A turnpike existed here until 1825. At the south end stood Jenny's Whim, a celebrated tavern and pleasure-garden, perhaps named from the name of the proprietress and the fantastic way it was laid out. It was in the height of its popularity about 1750, and came to an end circa 1804. When the railway was widened in 1863 all vestiges of it were swept away.
St. George's Row was built as Monster Row circa 1785, and renamed in 1833. Here was the site of the manor-house of Neyte. The Monster public-house commemorates the old Monster tavern and garden, the name being probably a corruption of monastery.
At the corner of Warwick Street are the Pimlico Rooms, containing a hall for entertainments, etc., and occupied by the Ebury Mission and Pimlico day-school for boys, girls, and infants. Adjoining the railway is a double row of industrial dwellings, built by the trustees of the Peabody fund under the name of Peabody's Buildings.
Westmoreland Street (1852) contains the Pimlico chapel for United Free Methodists.
Lupus Street (1842) is named after Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, an ancestor of the Duke of Westminster. It contains a hospital for women and children.
At the eastern end is St. George's Square (1850), a long narrow space reaching to the river with an enclosed garden in the centre. The houses are large. At No. 9 Sir J. Barnby d. 1896.
At the north end is St. Saviour's Church, built in 1864 from designs by Cundy in a Decorated Gothic style. It has sittings for 1,834, and was restored in 1882. To the east are Pulford Street (1848) and Aylesford Street, in which is St. Saviour's Mission House, built by the Duke of Westminster at a cost of £4,000. It serves also for parochial meetings. Here also are the works of the Equitable Gas Company, established 1830.
In Claverton Street (1852) is a Methodist Wesleyan chapel, in Classical style, with seats for 1,000.
In Glasgow Terrace (1851), formerly Caledonia Street, are St. Saviour's and St. Gabriel's National Schools. This neighbourhood contains many works and offices, the largest of which is Taylor's repository for storing property. Along the river runs the Grosvenor Road, part of the Thames Embankment. The houses built on and near it were generally known in the last century as the Neat Houses. Terraces with various names—Albion Terrace, Pier Terrace, Erin Place (1826), Thames Parade (1827), Thames Bank (1828)—were incorporated with the road in recent years. Facing the river is All Saints' Church, a chapel of ease to St. Gabriel's, by Cundy, built circa 1870 to replace a mission church; opposite it is the Pimlico Pier for river steamboats. Adjoining St. George's Square is the Army Clothing Factory, established in 1857 in the Vauxhall Bridge Road as an experiment to provide labour for women. The present establishment was opened in 1859, and has since been largely increased, occupying a space of about 7 acres. The east block is the Government store, the west the factory, the centre of which is occupied by a glass-roofed hall, three stories high, surrounded by spacious galleries.