| Knightsbridge | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Knightsbridge Location withinGreater London | |
| Population | 9,270 (2011 Census. Knightsbridge and Belgravia Ward)[1] |
| OS grid reference | TQ275797 |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | SW1X, SW3, SW7 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| UK Parliament | |
| London Assembly | |
| 51°30′06″N0°09′44″W / 51.5017°N 0.1621°W /51.5017; -0.1621 | |
Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district incentral London,[2] south ofHyde Park. It is identified in theLondon Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside theWest End.[3] Knightsbridge is also the name of the roadway which runs near the south side of Hyde Park fromHyde Park Corner.
Knightsbridge is an affluent district in London with a rich history. Its name has Old English origins, meaning "bridge of the young men orretainers." The area was initially divided between local authorities and has been home to several parishes. Knightsbridge is known as the home of exclusivedepartment stores includingHarrods andHarvey Nichols, banks and schools catering to a global clientele includingHill House International Junior School, as well as for renowned restaurants and high-end salons. Property prices in the district are among the highest in the world, with the most expensive apartment at One Hyde Park selling for £100 million in 2007.[4]
Knightsbridge is located between Exhibition Road and Sloane Street, with its southern border alongBrompton Road, Beauchamp Place, and the western section of Pont Street. The district has been a target for high-profile crimes throughout history, including theSpaghetti House siege, theWalton's Restaurant bombing, and theKnightsbridge Security Deposit robbery. It is served byKnightsbridge station on the Piccadilly line andSloane Square station on the District and Circle lines.
Knightsbridge is an ancient name, spelt in a variety of ways in Saxon and Old English, such asCnihtebricge (c. 1050);Knichtebrig (1235);Cnichtebrugge (13th century); andKnyghtesbrugg (1364). The meaning is "bridge of the young men or retainers," from the Old Englishcniht (genitive case plural –a) andbrycg.Cniht, in pre-Norman days, did not have the later meaning of a warrior on horseback, but simply meant a youth. The allusion may be to a place wherecnihtas congregated: bridges and wells seem always to have been favourite gathering places of young people, and the original bridge was where one of the old roads to the west crossed theRiver Westbourne.[5][6] However, there is possibly a more specific reference to the importantcnihtengild ('guild ofcnihtas') in 11th-century London and to the limits of its jurisdiction (certainly Knightsbridge was one of the limits of the commercial jurisdiction of theCity of London in the 12th century).
Knightsbridge was a hamlet located primarily in the parish ofSt Margaret (detached) and partly inSt Martin in the Fields (the part that later becameSt George Hanover Square). It also extended into the parishes ofKensington andChelsea. It was therefore divided between local authorities from a very early time.[7]
In the time ofEdward I, the manor of Knightsbridge appertained to the abbey of Westminster.[8] It was named after a crossing of theRiver Westbourne, which is now anunderground river. It is recorded that the citizens of London metMatilda of England at the Knight's Bridge in 1141.[citation needed]
From 1885 to 1887, as a result of theopening of trade betweenBritain and theFar East, Humphreys' Hall in Knightsbridge hostedan exhibition of Japanese culture in a setting built to resemble a traditional Japanese village. The exhibition was very popular, with over 250,000 visitors during its early months.[9] Japanese artisans illustrated "the manners, customs and art-industries of their country, attired in their national and picturesque costumes. Magnificently decorated and illuminated Buddhist temple. Five o'clock tea in the Japanese tea-house. Japanese Musical and other Entertainments. Every-day Life as in Japan".[10]W. S. Gilbert and his wife attended the exhibition, which is said to have inspired him to writeThe Mikado.[citation needed] When the Mikado requests of Ko-Ko the address of his son (Nanki-Poo) after Ko-Ko tells the Mikado that Nanki-Poo has "gone abroad", Ko-Ko replies that Nanki-Poo has gone to Knightsbridge.[11]
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Knightsbridge is east ofExhibition Road and west ofSloane Street.Brompton Road,Beauchamp Place and the western section ofPont Street serve roughly as its southern border together with their adjacent gardens and squares such asOvington Square,Lennox Gardens andCadogan Square. South of this area, the district fades intoChelsea whileBelgravia lies to the east andSouth Kensington to the west.
Knightsbridge is home to many expensive shops, including thedepartment storesHarrods andHarvey Nichols, and flagship stores of many British and international fashion houses, including those of London-based shoe designersJimmy Choo andManolo Blahnik, and twoPrada stores. The district also has banks that cater to wealthy individuals. Some of London's most renowned restaurants are here, as well as many exclusive hair and beauty salons, antiques and antiquities dealers, and chic bars and clubs. One ofBonhams auction houses is located in Knightsbridge.[12]
The district and the road itself, which is the only definitive place within it, is small, which assists its cachet: more than half of the zone closest to its tube station (and nearer to no others) isKnightsbridge Underground station. Knightsbridge had in its park side, east and west gold-coloured blocks of exceptional wealth inphilanthropistCharles Booth's late VictorianPoverty Map, formerly excluding Brompton Road to the west but extending well into Piccadilly,St James's to the east.[13] Knightsbridge is home to many of the world's richest people and has some of the highest property prices in the world. In 2014 a terrace of 427 m2 sold for £15,950,000, a home inMontpelier Square.[14] The average asking price for all the properties in slightly widerSW7 was £4,348,911 (as at Autumn 2014). On-street parking spaces have sold for as much as £300,000 for a 94-year lease.[citation needed] Fourteen of Britain's two hundred most expensive streets are in the neighbourhood, as defined byThe Times.[15]
In February 2007, the world's most expensive apartment atOne Hyde Park, sold off plan for £100 million, bought by aQatari prince, and another apartment at the same place in February 2009, at almost the same price, was bought by a Qatari prince.[16] Apartments of this secure, optimum specification, address equate to in excess of £4,000 per square foot (£43,000 per square metre).
In 2014, a 16,000-square-foot (1,500-square-metre) two-storey penthouse in One Hyde Park sold for £140 million.[17]
Land in Knightsbridge is for the most part identified by City of Westminster (and by theRBKC, where formerBrompton parts are included) as strengthenedplanning law-governedConservation Areas: 'Albert Gate', 'Belgravia', 'Knightsbridge' and 'Knightsbridge Green'.[18] Properties must be offered here by developers as refurbished flats or houses meeting the enhanced architectural demands in the local Conservation Areas policy of the Local Plan. Within each many buildings are covered by the similar but separate requirements of beinglisted. Growing demand has since 2000 persuaded the authority to revise its planning policies to permit roof terraces and basement extensions, for residential facilities from leisure suites to private nightclubs, a degree ofeconomic liberalisation documented by a non-tabloid paper in 2008.[19]
Theunderlying landowners of the few streets making up, without any dispute, Knightsbridge are theDuke of Westminster,Lord Cadogan and theWellcome Trust with a minority of thefreeholds to houses in each streetsold to others. Red-brickQueen Anne revival buildings form most of theCadogan Estates, whereas white stucco-fronted houses are mostly found on theGrosvenor Estate, designed by architectThomas Cubitt.[20]
TheBrompton Oratory, a place ofCatholic worship, marks one of the transitions intoKensington, butBelgravia andBrompton have competing mapped neighbourhood status in the east and south of the neighbourhood, and as they have no eponymously named tube stations or historic parish boundaries, their limits are arbitrary and the triangular salient of Brompton, administratively in Kensington, as part ofSouth Kensington, once coloured mid-wealth by Charles Booth, is now blurred with 'Knightsbridge', into which it long projected.[citation needed]
Brompton is only used when the postcode and/or Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is being emphasised, rather than the modernCentral London 'district' definitions, which suggest Knightsbridge or South Kensington, eithertube station, being at most 350 m away and thus can be easily found on all maps.
For centuries, the area was renowned as the haunt ofhighwaymen, robbers and cutthroats targeting travellers on the western route out of London, but its fortunes were transformed in the 19th century. However, the area has been a target of several high-profile crimes.
In September and October 1975, theSpaghetti House siege happened.
In November 1975, twocivilians were killed by theProvisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in theWalton's Restaurant bombing.
In 1980, theIranian Embassy siege took place, lasting several days. It ended when theSpecial Air Service stormed the building, which was on live television.
In 1983, three Christmas shoppers and threeMetropolitan Police officers were killed by an IRAcar bomboutside Harrods.[21]
In 1987, theKnightsbridge Security Deposit centre was the target of a robbery worth £60 million.
In 2005, 22-year-oldbeautician Clare Bernal was gunned down by herex-boyfriend Michal Pech on the shopfloor ofHarvey Nichols in front of colleagues and shoppers before Pech fatally turned the gun on himself. The case attracted extensive coverage in the media, and Clare's mother Patricia has since led a campaign to address flaws in the system, which allowed her daughter's murder to happen.[22]
Many residential buildings are heavily covered byCCTV and are staffed by security guards, and railings or bars on lower floor windows are commonplace.[citation needed]
To the north of the area, is theHyde Park Barracks of theHousehold Cavalry, with a distinctive 33-storey tower by SirBasil Spence. TheRoyalty and Diplomatic Protection Department is based inWalton Street. TheEmbassy of Libya is located at 15 Knightsbridge, theEmbassy of France at no 58 and theEmbassy of Kuwait at 2 Albert Gate, just off Knightsbridge.[23]
On the religious side it contains the impressiveBrompton Oratory (Catholic church, Brompton Road) and the CoEHoly Trinity Church behind it, a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Exhibition Road, theRussian Orthodox Church in Ennismore Gardens,St Columba's Church of Scotland, Pont Street, andDeutsche Evangelische Christuskirche. The former St Saviour's church, designed byGeorge Basevi, is now a private home.
Notably, two of the four London buildings ofHill House School are located here atCadogan Gardens andHans Place.
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Knightsbridge takes its name from the road that runs along the south side ofHyde Park, west fromHyde Park Corner, spanning theCity of Westminster and theRoyal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Up toBrompton Road, it is a part of theA4 arterial road, while the remainder is part of theA315 road. West of Rutland Gardens, the road becomesKensington Road.
It is served byKnightsbridge station on thePiccadilly line, andSloane Square station on theDistrict andCircle lines.Brompton Road station closed in 1934.
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Eric Coates uses Knightsbridge as the setting of a march for the 3rd movement of hisLondon Suite (1933). It gained popularity through the radio showIn Town Tonight (1933–1960).
Knightsbridge is referenced in theRolling Stones song "Play with Fire", released in 1965. Knightsbridge is used as an indicator of a character's affluence, as opposed to the more working classStepney.
According to season 3 episode 'Happy New Year,' Knightsbridge is the setting of the television series "Absolutely Fabulous".St. Columba's Church in Knightsbridge is the setting of a wedding in the 1996 episode 'The Last Shout.'
Knightsbridge is referenced in the story bookNeverwhere byNeil Gaiman as a place the protagonists need to cross to go to the next floating market. "The Knightsbridge" is used as metaphor for the night and its dangers they need to pass through.[24]
In the 2017 filmThe Foreigner, Knightsbridge is the location of a detonated bomb that sets the plot in motion.
On his 2017 mixtapeWorking on Dying Swedish rapperBladee references Knightsbridge in the title and lyrics of a song.
Bars, clubs and restaurants of Knightsbridge frequently feature in theChannel4's reality tv showMade in Chelsea.
