Pimlico
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coordinates: 51°29′19″N 0°08′22″W / 51.4887°N 0.1395°W
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  Pimlico shown within Greater London |
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| OS grid reference | |
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| London borough | Westminster |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | London |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | SW1V |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| European Parliament | London |
| UK Parliament | Cities of London and Westminster |
| London Assembly | West Central |
| List of places: UK • England • London | |
Pimlico is a small area of central London in the City of Westminster. Like Belgravia, to which it was conceived as a southern extension, Pimlico is known for its grand garden squares and impressive Regency architecture.
The area is separated from Belgravia to the north by Victoria Railway Station, and bounded by the River Thames to the south, Vauxhall Bridge to the east and the former Grosvenor Canal to the west. At its centre lies the Pimlico "Grid", a residential area populated by handsome, stucco-fronted terraces. The entire district was formerly owned by the Grosvenor family.
The large majority of the buildings in Pimlico are residential and were designed by the builder Thomas Cubitt, a statue of whom can be seen in the area. Most of the district is included in a conservation area. Pimlico is also home to the pre-war Dolphin Square development and the iconic Churchill Gardens and Lillington Gardens estates, now designated conservation areas in their own right.
Notable residents have included Sir Winston Churchill, Laura Ashley, Swami Vivekananda, Laurence Olivier, Jomo Kenyatta, Aubrey Beardsley, Joseph Conrad, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield, Michael Howard and Richard Dadd.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early History and Origin of Name
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. 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 family of Norman descent long seated at Eaton Hall in Cheshire who until this auspicious marriage were but of local consequence in their native county of Cheshire. 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.... Gifford, in a note in his edition of Ben 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."[1]. Supporting this etymolovy, Rev. 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 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.[2].
[edit] Development
By the nineteenth century, and as a result of an increase in demand for property in the previously unfashionable West End of London following the Great Plague of London and the Great 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 of St. Katherine's Dock. [3]
Cubitt developed Pimlico as a grid of handsome white stucco terraces. The largest and most opulent houses were built along St George's Drive and Belgrave Road, the two principal streets, and Eccleston, Warwick and St 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.[4] Smaller-scale propertes, typically of three stories, line the side streets. 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 as 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 young Laurence Olivier, to minister to the parishoners of St Saviour, it was part of a venture to west London "slums" that had previously taken the family to the depths of Notting Hill.[7].
Through the late nineteenth century, Pimlico saw the construction of several Peabody Estates, charitable housing projects designed to provide affordable, quality homes. Equally ambitious was Dolphin Square, a self-contained "city" of 1,250 upmarket flats built on the site formerly occupied by Cubitt's building works. Following the destruction of the Second World War, larger public housing estates were built in the area, and many of the larger Victorian houses were converted to hotels and other uses.
[edit] Twentieth Century
Proximity to the Houses of Parliament made Pimlico a centre of political activity. Prior to 1928, the Labour Party and Trades Union Congress shared offices on Eccleston Square, and it was here in 1926 that the general strike was organised.
In 1953, the Second Duke of Westminster sold the part of the Grosvenor estate on which Pimlico is built.[8]
Pimlico was connected to the underground in 1972 with the opening of Pimlico station on the Victoria Line. Pimlico was a late addition to the line, opened more than a year after the rest of the line had become fully operational. It remains the only station on the line which does not have an interchange with another Underground or National Rail line.
Following the designation of a conservation 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 with Westminster City Council run facilities.
[edit] Notable buildings
Pimlico School, a comprehensive school built between 1967 and 1970, is a notable example of Brutalist architecture. It is currently being rebuilt as Pimlico Academy.
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 many Members of Parliament.
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.
Pimlico 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 as well as the National Records of Statistics.
The area contains a number of attractive Anglican churches, most constructed at the time the neighbourhood was laid down. Among them are St Gabriel's, St Saviour and St James the Less. The area's Catholic church, Holy Apostles, was destroyed in the Blitz and rebuilt in 1957.
The Tate Britain is located within the ward of Millbank, 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 the Chelsea College of Art and Design's recent move to the former Royal Army Medical College next to the Tate.
[edit] Notable residents
- Laura Ashley, designer - 83 Cambridge Street
- Hugh Bayley MP, for York
- Aubrey Beardsley, illustrator - 114 Cambridge Street
- Wilfrid Brambell, actor, star of Steptoe and Son - Denbigh Street
- Sir Winston Churchill, politician – 33 Eccleston Square
- James Crump, founder of St. Aubyn's School, Woodford Green - 86 Cambridge Street
- Anthony Davis, comedian and broadcaster
- Steve Hackett, former Genesis guitarist
- Michael Howard, former leader of the Conservative Party
- William Morris 'Billy' Hughes, 7th Prime Minister of Australia - born in Pimlico, 25 September 1862
- Catherine Johnson, creator of the musical Mamma Mia!
- James Lennox Kerr, Scottish socialist author
- Douglas Macmillan, founder of cancer relief - Ranelagh Road[9]
- Laurence Olivier, actor - 22 Lupus Street
- Barbara Pym, writer - 108 Cambridge Street
- Alex Salmond, MP, MSP, First Minister of Scotland
- Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein
- Gianluca Vialli, Italian football striker and manager
- Herbert William Weekes, genre and animal painter - born in Pimlico ca. 1842
- Henry Weekes, RA, Victorian era sculptor - worked at No. 2, lived at No. 96, Eccleston Street[10]
- Major Walter Clopton Wingfield, father of lawn tennis - 33 St George's Square
- Rhys Ifans, Welsh Actor
[edit] In the arts
Post-World War II Pimlico was the setting of the Ealing comedy Passport To Pimlico.
In G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy, Pimlico is used as an example of "a desperate thing” in the chapter entitled Flag of The World.
In Clive Barker's The Damnation Game, Joseph Whitehead's right-hand man, Bill Toy, lives in Pimlico with his girlfriend.
Barbara Pym used St. Gabriel's Church, Warwick Square, as her inspiration for St. Mary's in Excellent Women.
The area is the home of the scheming Francis Urquhart, in Michael Dobbs' 1989 novel, House of Cards.
Alexander McCall Smith's on-line Telegraph serial novel Corduroy Mansions is set in Pimlico.
[edit] Education
[edit] Transport
The nearest London Underground station is Pimlico on the Victoria Line
[edit] Location in context
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[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ From: 'Pimlico', Old and New London: Volume 5 (1878), pp. 39-49. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45221
- ^ Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1898 edn.
- ^ I never knew that about London: Christopher Winn. ISBN 9480091918576
- ^ The Fascination of London: Mayfair, Belgravia and Bayswater, 1903[1]
- ^ Pimlico design guide
- ^ Map of London Poverty
- ^ p. 10, Coleman, Terry in Olivier. Macmillan 2006
- ^ The Grosvenor Estate
- ^ Hunt, Timothy (2004). "Macmillan, Douglas (1884–1969)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Wheatley, Henry B.; Peter Cunningham (1891). London, Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions. Albemarle Street, London: John Murray. pp. 152. http://books.google.com/books?id=zcoPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA152&lpg=PA152&dq=Henry+Weekes,+Eccleston+Street,+Pimlico,&source=bl&ots=kwSRw7Q8Fd&sig=y2Kob5fZLrmjxtOfWoOaQjzUVtI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result#PPA152,M1.
[edit] External links
- http://www.holyapostlespimlico.org/parish_info/history.shtml
- http://www.pimlicoschool.org.uk/index.asp?page=about-us
- http://www.barbara-pym.org
[edit] Sources
- Secret London by Andrew Duncan (New Holland Publishers, London, 2001)
- The Face of London by Harold P Clunn (Spring Books, London, 1970)
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