Pimlico

This article is about the London district of Pimlico. For other meanings of the word "Pimlico", please see: Pimlico (disambiguation)

Pimlico is a district in London. It is on the North bank of the River Thames, south of Victoria Station, and was formerly owned by the property owning Grosvenor family (http://www.grosvenor.com/).

History

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Manor of Ebury (from which Pimlico's Ebury Street gets its name) was divided up and leased by the Crown to servants or favourites. In 1623, James I sold the freehold of Ebury for £1,151 and 15 shillings (£1,151.75). The land was sold on several more times, until it came into the hands of heiress Mary Davies in 1666.

Mary's dowry not only included "The Five Fields" of modern-day Pimlico and Belgravia, but also most of what is now Mayfair and Knightsbridge. Understandably, she was much pursued, but in 1677 married Sir Thomas Grosvenor. The Grosvenors were a noble family of Norman descent who lived at Eaton in Cheshire.

At some point in the late 17th or early 18th century, Pimlico ceased to be known as Ebury or "The Five Fields", and gained the name by which it is now known:

At one time a district of public gardens much frequented on holidays. According to tradition, it received its name from Ben Pimlico, famous for his nut-brown ale, His tea-gardens, however, were near Hoxton, and the road to them was termed Pimlico Path, so that what is now called Pimlico was so named from the popularity of the Hoxton resort. (Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1898 edn. (http://www.bartleby.com/81/13282.html/)).

By the 19th century, and as a result of an increase in demand for property in the previously unfashionable West end of London following the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London, Pimlico had become ripe for development. In 1825, Thomas Cubitt was contracted by Lord Grosvenor to develop Pimlico.

It was Cubitt who built Eaton Square, which typifies Pimlico's architecture with its white stucco houses and garden square.

As early as the latter half of the century, however, Pimlico saw the construction of several Peabody Estates - charitable housing projects designed to provide cheap, quality homes for the poor. In addition, in the post-war period, several large public housing estates were built in the area - on land cleared by German bombing - and many of the fine Victorian houses were converted to other uses, e.g. bed and breakfast hotels. This led to the area developing an interesting social mix, and an unusual character combining exclusive restaurants and residences with Westminster Council run facilities and working-class shopping arcades. In 1950, embarrassed by the slums and brothels with which Pimlico had become associated in the press and criminal courts, the Second Duke of Westminster sold the part of the Grosvenor estate on which it is built.

Now, as in Central London in general, Pimlico property prices are high, and the area is again fashionable. A large number of houses have once again been repurposed, being divided into one or two bedroom apartments intended for young professionals.

Attractions

Pimlico's most famous attraction is The Tate Gallery on Millbank. It is also home, on its boundary with Belgravia, to the National Audit Office, which occupies the former headquarters of Imperial Airways on Buckingham Palace Road.

Notable Residents

Laura Ashley, designer - 83 Cambridge Street

Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister - 93 Eaton Square

Aubrey Beardsley, illustrator - 114 Cambridge Street

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer, wrote his First Symphony at 180 Ebury Street

Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein - 24 Chester Square

In fiction

Post-war Pimlico was the setting of the story of the Ealing comedy Passport To Pimlico.

Nearby places:

• Westminster
• Millbank

Nearest tube station:

• Pimlico tube station on the Victoria Line

See also

• Thomas Cubitt

External links

• http://www.holyapostlespimlico.org/parish_info/history.shtml

Sources

Secret London by Andrew Duncan (New Holland Publishers, London, 2001)

The Face of London by Harold P Clunn (Spring Books, London, 1970)

Grosvenor Property and Partnership (see About Us > History) (http://www.grosvenor.com/)

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