Pimlico (/ˈpɪmlɪkoʊ/) is a district inCentral London, in theCity of Westminster, built as a southern extension to neighbouringBelgravia.[1] It is known for its garden squares and distinctiveRegency architecture. Pimlico is demarcated to the north byVictoria Station, by theRiver Thames to the south,Vauxhall Bridge Road to the east and the formerGrosvenor Canal to the west. At its heart is a grid of residential streets laid down by the plannerThomas Cubitt, beginning in 1825 and now protected as the PimlicoConservation Area. The most prestigious are those on garden squares, with buildings decreasing in grandeur away fromSt George's Square,Warwick Square,Eccleston Square and the main thoroughfares of Belgrave Road and St. George's Drive.
Additions have included the pre–World War IIDolphin Square and theChurchill Gardens andLillington and Longmoore Gardens estates, now conservation areas in their own right. The area has over 350Grade II listed buildings and several Grade II* listed churches. At the western edge of Pimlico, on the borders of Chelsea, Pimlico Road has in recent years seen a loss of traditional local retail, replaced by upscale interiors and design stores.
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 for £1,151 and 15 shillings.[a] 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 andBelgravia, but also most of what is nowMayfair andKnightsbridge. Understandably, she was much pursued but in 1677, at the age of twelve, marriedSir Thomas Grosvenor, 3rd Baronet. The Grosvenors were a family ofNorman descent long seated at Eaton Hall in Cheshire who, until this auspicious marriage, were of but local consequence in their native county ofCheshire. 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. While its origins are disputed, it is "clearly of foreign derivation....[William] Gifford, in a note in his edition ofBen Jonson, tells us that 'Pimlico is sometimes spoken of as a person, and may not improbably have been the master of a house once famous for ale of a particular description'."[2] Supporting this etymology,E. Cobham Brewer describes the area as "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 nearHoxton, 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".[3]
H. G. Wells, in his novelThe Dream, says that there was a wharf at Pimlico where ships from America docked and that the word Pimlico came with the trade and was the last word left alive of the Algonquin Indian language (Pamlico).
By the 19th century, and as a result of an increase in demand for property in the previously unfashionable West End of London following theGreat Plague of London and theGreat 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 ofSt Katharine Docks.[4]
Cubitt developed Pimlico as a grid of handsome white stucco terraces. The largest and most opulent houses were built along St George's Drive andBelgrave Road, the two principal streets, and Eccleston, Warwick andSt 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.[citation needed]
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."[5]
Although the area was dominated by the well-to-do middle and upper-middle classes as late asCharles Booth's 1889 Map of London Poverty,[6] 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 youngLaurence Olivier, to minister to the parishioners ofSt Saviour, it was part of a venture to west London "slums" that had previously taken the family to the depths ofNotting Hill.[7]
In 1908,G. K. Chesterton described Pimlico as "a desperate thing" in his philosophical treatiseOrthodoxy.[8]
Through the late nineteenth century, Pimlico saw the construction of severalPeabody Estates, charitable housing projects designed to provide affordable, quality homes.
Proximity to theHouses of Parliament made Pimlico a centre of political activity. Prior to 1928, theLabour Party andTrades Union Congress shared offices at 33Eccleston Square, and it was here in 1926 that thegeneral strike was organised.
In the mid-1930s Pimlico saw a second wave of development with the construction ofDolphin Square, a self-contained "city" of 1,250 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 fascistOswald Mosley until his arrest in 1940, and the headquarters of theFree French for much of the Second World War.[citation needed]
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 theChurchill Gardens andLillington and Longmoore Gardens estates, and many of the largerVictorian 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 adistrict heating system installed. District heating became popular after World War II to heat the large residential estates that replaced areas devastated by the Blitz. ThePimlico District Heating Undertaking (PDHU) is just north of the River Thames. The PDHU first became operational in 1950 and continues to expand to this day. The PDHU once relied on waste heat from the now-disusedBattersea Power Station on the south side of the River Thames. It is still in operation, the water now being heated locally by a new energy centre which incorporates 3.1 MWe /4.0 MWTh of gas-fired CHP engines and 3 × 8 MW gas-fired boilers.
In 1953, theSecond Duke of Westminster sold the part of the Grosvenor estate on which Pimlico is built.[9]
In 1970, whilst Roger Byron-Collins was a partner in Mullett Booker Estate Agents in Albion Street on the Hyde Park Estate, he sold the entire 27 acre freehold Pimlico Estate for £4.4 million to Jack Dellal of Dalton Barton Bank in a joint venture with Peter Crane of City and Municipal Properties, being a consortium controlled by the Hanson Trust. He was introduced to the owners of the Estate by the Hon Brian Alexander, son of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, who at that time represented Previews International, a part of Coldwell Banker. Brian Alexander's friend, Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, owner of Mustique island in the Caribbean was friends with Henry Cubitt, Baron Ashcombe the chairman of the builders, Holland, Hannen and Cubbits who developed the estate comprising 480 homes in the 19th century and were major shareholders in partnership with Harry Reynolds of Reynolds Engineering of then owners CR Developments. Brian Alexander after leaving Previews International, eventually became MD of the Mustique Company for many decades.[10]
Pimlico was connected to theLondon Underground in 1972 as a late addition to theVictoria line. Following the designation of aconservation 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 withWestminster City Council-run facilities.[citation needed]
For a history of street name etymologies in the area see:Street names of Pimlico and Victoria
Dolphin Square is a block of private apartments built between 1935 and 1937. At the time of their construction the development was billed as the largest self-contained block of flats in Europe. It is home to manyMembers of Parliament (MPs).
Churchill Gardens is a large housing estate covering the south-west corner of Pimlico. It was developed between 1946 and 1962 to a design by the architects Powell and Moya, replacing docks, industrial works, and several Cubitt terraces damaged in the Blitz.
On Buckingham Palace Road is the former "Empire Terminal" ofImperial Airways, a strikingArt Moderne building designed in 1938 by architect Albert Lakeman.[11] Mail, freight and passengers were transported from the terminal toSouthampton via rail before transferring to flying boats. The building now serves as the headquarters of theNational Audit Office.
The area contains a number ofAnglican churches, most constructed at the time the neighbourhood was laid out. Among them areSt Gabriel's (of which a former Vicar is nowArchdeacon of Chichester),St Saviour andSt James the Less. From its foundingSt Peter's, Eaton Square, Belgravia, was usually recorded as St Peter's, Pimlico (at least prior to 1878).[12][13] The area's Catholic church, Holy Apostles, was destroyed in the Blitz and rebuilt in 1957. The headquarters of theCatholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales are located inEccleston Square.
Tate Britain is located within the ward ofMillbank, but is a short walk from Pimlico Underground station and is regarded as a Pimlico landmark. The district's association with fine art has been reinforced by theChelsea College of Art and Design's recent move to the formerRoyal Army Medical College next to the Tate.
Pimlico School, a comprehensive built between 1967 and 1970, was a notable example ofBrutalist architecture. It was demolished in 2010.
Pimlico is the setting of the 1940 version ofGaslight, and the 1949Ealing comedyPassport To Pimlico.
InG. K. Chesterton'sOrthodoxy, Pimlico is used as an example of "a desperate thing." Arguing that things are not loved because they are great but become great because they are loved, he asserts that if merely approved of, Pimlico "will remain Pimlico, which would be awful," but if "loved with a transcendental tie and without any earthly reason" it "in a year or two might be fairer than Florence."[23]
Barbara Pym usedSt Gabriel's Church as her inspiration for St Mary's inExcellent Women.
The area is the home ofFrancis Urquhart inMichael Dobbs's 1989 novel,House of Cards.
While still only partially built, the area is the abode of a criminal gang inCharles Palliser's 1989 novel,The Quincunx. They live in 'carcasses', part-built houses on which work has ceased owing to the drying-up of funds, due in turn to an involved conspiracy central to the book's convoluted plot.
Alexander McCall Smith's on-lineDaily Telegraph serial novelCorduroy Mansions is set in Pimlico.[citation needed]
Pimlico is served byPimlico station on theVictoria line andVictoria station on the Victoria,District andCircle lines. It is also served byNational Rail services toLondon Victoria Station.Bus routes that run centrally through Pimlico are the24,360 and theC10. Many more buses run along Vauxhall Bridge Road (Pimlico's eastern boundary).Riverboat services toWaterloo andSouthwark run fromMillbank Millennium Pier.
The area has a dozen docking stations for theSantander Cycles scheme.
Pimlico would be connected at Victoria to the proposedChelsea-Hackney line (Crossrail 2). Plans under consideration for the redevelopment ofNine Elms andBattersea Power Station include a pedestrian bridge stretching across the river fromSt George's Square; in 2015, Wandsworth council awardedBystrup and partners the design for the £40m bridge, with spiral ramps preserving parks at both ends.[24][25][26]
The area is represented onWestminster City Council by the wards ofPimlico North andPimlico South. These all form part of theCities of London and Westminster parliamentary constituency, currently represented by MPNickie Aiken, aConservative. Of the six local councillors, three are Labour and three are Conservative. Pimlico is part of theWest Central constituency on theLondon Assembly, which is represented byJames Small-Edwards AM.
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Henry Weekes, Eccleston Street, Pimlico,.
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