Our walk started after our coffee stop, as ever: today, at Comptoir, a pretty Lebanese cafe filled with chintz, vinyl coated chairs, and empty Harissa cans carrying cutlery and condiments. All very cute.
As was a street sculpture in the square: a nod to the Duke of York Royal Military Asylum which once operated here, but relocated to Dover: this work of military orphan kids at play has been left as a memento of their time here.
Sloane Square, at the western edge of Belgravia, with Buckingham Palace and its gardens on the eastern perimeter is quite a prestigious plot of land now, but that was not always so. The area came to be called Belgravia after the 1677 marriage of a Cheshire fellow to a London lass. He was Thomas Grosvenor of Cheshire and he was 21. She was Mary Davies of London and she was 12, the daughter of a scrivener, who drew up legal deeds for a living, and became quite clever with his land acquisitions.
Thomas and his family had been in England since William the Conqueror took control and had acquired land and a small title up in Cheshire, not far from a little village called Belgrave: he was Sir Thomas Grosvenor. Mary had been betrothed before, when she was 8, but the dastardly fellow couldn't cough up the requisite £5000 when it came time to set the funds on the marriage bargaining table in exchange for the land that Mary was to bring as her dowry, so that engagement fell through. Thomas, though, had deeper pockets and Mary, in turn, gave him her 500 acres of rural land west of London -- Belgravia was a small part of that land package -- along with three children.
For a very long time their acreage stayed flat, rural and undeveloped. Occasional travellers to and from the city would pass through it, though they were likely plagued by highwaymen and horse thieves. But, after the great fire of London, and as new folk moved in to help build and grow the city again, living space was at a premium. Folk who owned land around the city thought to build houses in Belgravia for those wishing to escape crowded and filthy London.
The Grosvenors, after nearly two hundred years, had acquired a few more titles and an interest in capitalising on the housing boom on the London horizon. In 1824 Richard Grosvenor, now 2nd Marquess of Westminster had Thomas Cubitt, a master builder, already in great demand all over the city, set about designing and building Belgravia.
So, Belgravia is not a really old, well established area. Its development is all quite recent, in truth. To give it some context, there are actually parts of Australian cities older in construction terms than Belgravia.
The core of Cubit's plans involved developing houses around central squares and gardens -- locked of course, used only by the locals, even today. Some of these squares were backed with mews developments. The mews developments offered space for carriages, stables and stable hands.
Many of the houses in the squares were built from three to five floors high. The higher and more spacious the buildings, the grander the square. Many homes were built with a separate tradesmen's entrance to one side, so that deliveries might be directed away from the formal front door, and cared for by footmen downstairs.
A pretty church was squeezed in here and there, mainly to encourage folk to maintain the prevailing creed, and not to develop wild religious notions from abroad that would not be welcome.
A reading room was included, though it later became a charming neighbourhood pub. We had a quiet lunch here.
Gas light fittings from another era still survive, remodelled for electricity. The chemist, here since 1846, has not thrown away his sign.
A little social housing, too, was built, as was the way of the times. We came across the huge Lumley Building originally built to house the poor in the 19th century. These days, though, some of the flats in the Lumly building are privately owned. Around it are smaller blocks of dwellings intended for artisans. But even way back in the 19th century this area was a little too expensive for artisans to really afford them. Today, demand is for such high density buildings compacted into space which offers mass dwelling and appeases those without the many millions needed for the much grander builds.
Belgravia's 19th century lifestyle came to be portrayed in the very popular 1970s series, Upstairs Downstairs. We found the house used for the external shots for that series, though one further up the street was used for many of the internal shots.
Being so close to the city, famous folk have lived here since Belgravia came to be. The purple plaques and statue reminders around the streets are plentiful.
Mozart was barely 8 when he lived just off Orange Square in a house with his parents and talented sister. His dad was ill at time, so Mozart was ordered not to play to enable his father to rest; even so, and at that youthful age, he wrote his first symphony, and continually impressed London society with his performances.
Maggie Thatcher lived in a plain fronted house until a few months before her death, when she moved into the Ritz Hotel. Lord Lucan murdered his children's nanny in a house here in 1974. His wife, blood-stained and hysterical after discovering the body, raced into the pub down the street, begging for help. Lord Lucan has never been seen or heard of since, despite many 'sightings' over the years. He left the building. Someone along the street, without a blue plaque, owns a Tesla: the first we have seen.
Belgravia folk still have a very privileged lifestyle. There is a very stylish farmshop off one of the pretty squares. We were admiring the produce, which comes from all over the country and abroad, so it is not at all specific to any one farm, but, while there overheard a caller phoning to double check where the in-store asparagus had come from today. Luckily, it was from the Wye Valley in Herefordshire. Given that, the caller would come in, soon, to collect it, was the message. Which made us wonder what asparagus one would not bother to come in and purchase. Bemused.
While some homes are lovely and well looked after, construction and renovation is going on everywhere. Much around the area could do with a bit of spit and polish, despite this being one of the most expensive enclaves in London. No price is too stupid these days for some of these dwellings. Again, it is all about location.
One home we came across on Eaton Square, for example, is a massive corner property owned now by a Russian oligarch. He paid a fortune for it, but never actually moved in. So squatters did, encouraging other homeless to do the same in similar vacant buildings. Bringing with them their flags and placards and regular protests. They have since been moved on by the authorities, the notices on the front of buildings proclaim.
But, many homes here are empty. And that angers the activists. Especially those concerned about the conditions of the homeless, when so many vast homes around London are bought up purely as real estate and investment, and very rarely, and sometimes never, even lived in.
And if that legal stuff doesn't work, the Grosvenor family still owns much of the leasehold on much of the property in Belgravia which they literally protect themselves. Little Mary's dowry has exponentially grown in value over the centuries since her marriage to Thomas. Grosvenors are among the largest landowners in London, and have now added the prestigious title, Duke of Westminster, to their swag of family titles. They are friends and godparents to the royals, and one of the richest families in the world: now worth in the vicinity of 9 billion dollars, and growing.
They have done well. The wheatsheaf that they now use as their family emblem is one of their few losses as a family. They spent time in court in the 1300s, arguing over an earlier coat of arms that had, it was charged, too much in common with the Scrope family emblem. Even Geoffrey Chaucer was brought into court to offer a deposition in what became known as the Scrope-Grosvenor controversy. Finally, the Scropes won, but the Grosvenors have the last of it, as with their new shield, they are still around the ridges today gathering many more wheat sheaves.
A family trust looks after their properties. A wealthy one. And men in suits and red vests, employed by the trust, look out for squatters and tourists like us armed with cameras and questions. There are some twenty of them all up, we were told, wandering the streets here: rain, hail, or shine. They look like smart estate agents, with eyes eagle alert. Many are given lodgings by the trust, right here in Belgravia. We found one in one of the mews developments at the back of a square. It even had an estate vehicle parked out front. Other such employees, if they have to live elsewhere, receive a lodging gratuity as part of their wage package.
Sometimes, though, tales from history carry a touch of irony. Belgravia was built at the same time as St Katherine's Docks near Tower Bridge. Rubble and rock cleared from the dock area was brought across here as landfill so that Belgrave Square could be stabilised and levelled.
So, much of the place is resting on foundations that have come from the very heart of the old infamous East End. Still, it remains a pretty place, a pleasant place to work, and to walk. But Mary's name should really be all over it.
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| Stylish Belgravia |
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| Cute Comptoir, all chintz and vinyl |
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| Street sculpture memento of school for orphaned kids of the military |
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| Robert Grosvenor, Richard's father |
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| Belgravia houses were built around squares and gardens |
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| Even today, the gardens are only for the locals |
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| Mews are low set, over the stables. Big houses are behind. |
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Today, most of these large homes are just too expensive
for private dwellings, so are used as embassies |
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| Tradesmen's entrance to the side, and down |
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| Religion was a good reinforcement of the status quo |
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| Local Belgravia pub that was once a reading room |
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| Arched entrance into the Lumley social housing complex |
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| Lumley flats, some privately owned today |
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| Candy street flats, also social housing |
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| Beautiful gas light fittings rejigged for use with electricity |
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| Lovely old chemist sign |
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| Was filmed for Upstairs, Downstairs |
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| Young Mozart once lived, walked and played here |
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| Mozart's first symphony was written here when he was 8 |
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| Where Maggie Thatcher lived |
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| Where Lord Lucan lived |
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| Our first Tesla sighting |
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| Belgravia deli, terribly expensive |
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| The canopy over the portico is seriously rusted and needs repair |
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| Many of the Belgravia mansions are owned by Russian oligarchs |
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| Once occupied by squatters |
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| The wheatsheaf emblem caused controversy |
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| Grosvenor v Scropes go to court over wheatsheaf emblem |
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| Men in suits and red vests look after Grosvenor property |
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| Though elegant, Belgravia is built on rubble from the docklands |
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| Here today, thanks to little Mary Davies |
