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.
[Illustration: MAYFAIR DISTRICT.
Published by A. & C. Black, London.]
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.