52-604: Chelsea Town Hall is a municipal building in King's Road , Chelsea , London. The oldest part is a Grade II* listed building and the later part is Grade II listed . The building was commissioned to replace a mid-19th-century vestry hall on King's Road, which had been designed by William Willmer Pocock in the Italianate style for the Parish of St Luke's and which had been found to be structurally unsound. The oldest part of
104-421: A McDonald's ), and in the 1970s to Malcolm McLaren 's boutique Let It Rock, which was renamed SEX in 1974, and then Seditionaries in 1977. During the hippie and punk eras it was a centre for counterculture , but has since been gentrified . It serves as Chelsea's high street and has a reputation for being one of London's most fashionable shopping streets. Other celebrated boutiques included Granny Takes
156-477: A Nicaraguan dictator, lived at number 35. Chester Square is a smaller, residential garden square, the last of the three garden squares built by the Grosvenor family. It is named after the city of Chester , near Eaton Hall. Members of the family also served as Members of Parliament (MPs) for Chester . The garden, just under 1.5 acres (6,100 m ) in size, is planted with shrubs and herbaceous borders. It
208-479: A Trip . 484 King's Road was the headquarters of Swan Song Records , owned by Led Zeppelin . The company was closed and the building vacated in 1983. King's Road was the site of the first UK branch of Starbucks , which opened in 1999. In 1984, Keith Wainwright , a pioneer responsible for starting one of the first men's hairdressers catering for the longer men's styles of the time, with such clients including Roy Wood , Cat Stevens and The Walker Brothers , opened
260-419: A colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents) is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham , both in west London, England. It is associated with 1960s style and with fashion figures such as Mary Quant and Vivienne Westwood . Sir Oswald Mosley 's Blackshirt movement had a barracks on the street in the 1930s. King's Road runs for just under two miles (3.2 km) through Chelsea, in
312-563: A large Venetian window flanked by huge Ionic order pilasters supporting a pediment . A cupola with a dome and weather vane was erected at roof level. This building became the headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea on its formation in 1900. Internally, the main rooms were the main hall, which was particularly ornate, a smaller hall and the Cadogan Suite, the latter two being located in side wings off
364-650: A major road through West London, and the London Inner Ring Road run along the boundaries of Belgravia. The area takes its name from the village of Belgrave, Cheshire , two miles (3 km) from the Grosvenor family's main country seat of Eaton Hall . One of the Duke of Westminster 's subsidiary titles is Viscount Belgrave. During the Middle Ages , the area was known as the Five Fields and
416-433: A popular spot for duelling . Despite its reputation for crime and violence, Five Fields was a pleasant area during the daytime, and various market gardens were established. The area began to be built up after George III moved to Buckingham House and constructed a row of houses on what is now Grosvenor Place . In 1826, Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster received rights from Parliament to build on land that
468-483: Is a Grade II* listed building , in a Greek revival style featuring a six-columned Ionic portico and a clock tower. Eaton Place is an extension to the square, developed by Cubitt between 1826 and 1845. The scientist William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin lived here, as did the Irish Unionist Edward Carson . Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet was assassinated by Irish Republicans in 1922 as he
520-762: Is a district in Central London , covering parts of the areas of the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea . Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period , and became a dangerous place due to highwaymen and robberies. It was developed in the early 19th century by Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster under the direction of Thomas Cubitt , focusing on numerous grand terraces centred on Belgrave Square and Eaton Square . Much of Belgravia, known as
572-563: Is also within easy reach of the western end of King's Road, with river bus services provided by London River Services and Thames Executive Charters to Putney and Blackfriars . Further east, the same services are also provided at Cadogan Pier, only a few blocks south of King's Road near the Albert Bridge . 51°29′15″N 0°10′08″W / 51.48737°N 0.168874°W / 51.48737; -0.168874 Belgravia Belgravia ( / b ɛ l ˈ ɡ r eɪ v i ə / )
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#1732794095598624-472: Is believed to have composed " Rule Britannia " there. Ellen Terry lived in the same house from 1904 to 1920, and also Peter Ustinov ; the house is commemorated by a blue plaque also. Photographer Christina Broom was born in 1862 at No. 8. The world's first artificial ice rink , the Glaciarium , opened just off King's Road in 1876, and later that year it relocated to a building on the street. During
676-520: Is in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham . King's Road derives its name from its function as a private road used by King Charles II to travel to Kew . It remained a private royal road until 1830, but people with connections were able to use it. Some houses date from the early 18th century. No. 213 has a blue plaque to film director Sir Carol Reed , who lived there from 1948 until his death in 1976. Thomas Arne lived at No. 215 and
728-411: Is marked by a blue plaque ). Like much of Belgravia, Wilton Crescent has grand terraces with lavish white houses which are built in a crescent shape, many of them with stuccoed balconies, particularly in the southern part of the crescent. The houses to the north of the crescent are stone clad, and five storeys high, and were refaced between 1908 and 1912. Most of the houses had originally been built in
780-661: Is one of London's largest and is divided into six compartments by the upper end of King's Road (northeast of Sloane Square ), a main road, now busy with traffic, that occupies its long axis, and two smaller cross streets. Although not as fashionable as some of the other squares in London, Eaton Square was home to several key figures. George FitzClarence, 1st Earl of Munster , the illegitimate son of William IV , lived at No. 13, while Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain lived at No 93 and No. 37 respectively. Since World War II, Eaton Square has become less residential;
832-724: The Grosvenor Estate , is still owned by a family property company, the Duke of Westminster's Grosvenor Group , although owing to the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 , the estate has been forced to sell many freeholds to its former tenants. Belgravia is near the former course of the River Westbourne , a tributary of the River Thames . The area is mostly in the City of Westminster , with a small part of
884-614: The Grosvenor family estate surveyor, and was drawn up with the original 1821 Wyatt plan for Belgravia. It is named after the 2nd Earl of Wilton , second son of the 1st Marquess of Westminster. The street was built in 1827 by William Howard Seth-Smith. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it was home to many prominent British politicians, ambassadors and civil servants. Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma lived at No. 2 for many years and Alfonso López Pumarejo , twice President of Colombia , lived and died at No. 33 (which
936-521: The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea , from Sloane Square in the east (on the border with Belgravia and Knightsbridge ) and through the Chelsea Design Quarter (Moore Park Estate) on the border of Chelsea and Fulham. Shortly after crossing Stanley Bridge the road passes a slight kink at the junction with Waterford Road, where it then becomes New King's Road, continuing to Fulham High Street and Putney Bridge ; its western end
988-809: The 1960s radio series Round the Horne , in the 'Jules and Sandy' section, their establishment (named 'Bona...'), is often located in the King's Road (for example, Bona Books in series 4). Pet Shop Boys met in an electronics shop on King's Road in August 1981. The eastern part of King's Road is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. King's Road is part of A3217. Buses 11 , 19 , 22 , 49 , 211 , 319 , 328 , and C3 all go down King's Road, yet most of these turn off
1040-481: The 1960s the street became a symbol of mod culture , evoking "an endless frieze of mini-skirted, booted, fair-haired angular angels", one magazine later wrote. Mary Quant opened her boutique BAZAAR at 138a King's Road in 1955. King's Road was home in that decade to the Chelsea Drugstore (originally a chemist with a stylised chrome-and-neon soda fountain upstairs, later a public house , and more recently
1092-613: The Bolivian Embassy is at No. 106 while the Belgian Embassy is at No. 103. At the east end of the square is St Peter's Church . It was designed by Henry Hakewill and built between 1824 and 1827 during the first development of Eaton Square. The first church was destroyed by fire in 1836 and rebuilt by Hakewill, and again in 1987, when it was restored by the Braithwaite Partnership. It
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#17327940955981144-538: The Navigator , the 1st Marquess of Westminster, a bust of Basevi and a sculpture entitled "Homage to Leonardo, the Vitruvian Man", by Italian sculptor Enzo Plazzotta . Eaton Square is one of three garden squares built by the Grosvenor family, and is named after Eaton Hall, Cheshire , the family's principal seat. It is longer but less grand than Belgrave Square, and is an elongated rectangle. The first block
1196-573: The Stokes extension in 1994 and it began to hold a series of annual exhibitions there showing work by both professional and non-professional artists. An internal refurbishment of the rooms in the Brydon building was completed by Ark Build in February 2019. King%27s Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road , especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as
1248-524: The UK average and has left the area empty and isolated. Belgrave Square , one of the grandest and largest 19th-century squares, is the centrepiece of Belgravia. It was laid out by the property contractor Thomas Cubitt for the 2nd Earl Grosvenor , later to be the 1st Marquess of Westminster, beginning in 1826. Building was largely complete by the 1840s. The original scheme consisted of four terraces, each made up of eleven grand white stuccoed houses, apart from
1300-553: The area, especially in Belgrave Square . In the early 21st century, some houses are being reconverted to residential use, because offices in old houses are no longer as desirable as they were in the post-war decades, while the number of super-rich in London is at a high level not seen since at least 1939. The average house price in Belgravia, as of March 2010, was £6.6 million, although many houses in Belgravia are among
1352-411: The buildings were constructed by Cubitt in the 1820s and 1830s. Walter Bagehot , a writer, banker and economist, lived at No. 12 during the 1860s. Alfred, Lord Tennyson lived at No 9 in 1880–1881. John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan lived at No. 46, and disappeared without trace from there in 1974 after his children's nanny was found murdered. Hope Portocarrero , the wife of Anastasio Somoza ,
1404-474: The current complex is the vestry hall in Chelsea Manor Gardens, which was designed by John McKean Brydon in the neoclassical style and built by a local builder, Charles Wall; it was officially opened on 12 January 1887. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays facing onto Chelsea Manor Gardens; the central section of three bays featured three windows above which there was
1456-501: The east is Westminster . The area is mostly residential, the particular exceptions being Belgrave Square in the centre, Eaton Square to the south, and Buckingham Palace Gardens to the east. The nearest London Underground stations are Hyde Park Corner , Knightsbridge and Sloane Square . Victoria station , a major National Rail , tube and coach interchange, is to the east of the district. Frequent bus services run to all areas of Central London from Grosvenor Place. The A4 ,
1508-767: The east lies Buckingham Palace . The play Major Barbara is partly set at Lady Britomart's house in Wilton Crescent. In 2007, Wilton Garden, in the middle of the crescent, was awarded a bronze medal by the London Gardens Society. Lowndes Square is named after the Secretary to the Treasury William Lowndes . Like much of Belgravia, it has grand terraces with white stucco houses. To the east lie Wilton Crescent and Belgrave Square. The square runs parallel with Sloane Street to
1560-571: The east, east of the Harvey Nichols department store and Knightsbridge Underground station . It has some of the most expensive properties in the world. Russian businessman Roman Abramovich bought two stucco houses in Lowndes Square in 2008. The merged houses, with a total of eight bedrooms, are expected to be worth £150 million, which exceeds the value of the previous most expensive house in London. George Basevi designed many of
1612-468: The eastern end of the street is Sloane Square , and Fulham Broadway lies at the western end, on the boundary between Chelsea and Fulham. King's Road, and the area of Chelsea as a whole, is known for having poor links to the London Underground . Due to this, the route of Crossrail 2 is proposed to have an underground station in this area, called King's Road Chelsea . Chelsea Harbour Pier
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1664-630: The houses in the square. Mick Jagger and James Fox once filmed in Leonard Plugge 's house in Lowndes Square. The square was used as a setting for the Edward Frederic Benson novel The Countess of Lowndes Square . The novels of Anthony Trollope (1815–1882): The Way We Live Now , Phineas Finn , Phineas Redux , The Prime Minister , and The Duke's Children all give accurate descriptions of 19th-century Belgravia. Flunkeyania or Belgravian Morals , written under
1716-462: The largest houses ceased to be used as residences, or townhouses for the country gentry and aristocracy, and were increasingly occupied by embassies, charity headquarters, professional institutions and other businesses. Belgravia has become a relatively quiet district in the heart of London, contrasting with neighbouring districts, which have far more busy shops, large modern office buildings, hotels and entertainment venues. Many embassies are located in
1768-526: The main hall. After civic leaders found that Pocock's vestry hall was structurally unsound, they elected to demolish it and construct a new structure to the designs of Leonard Stokes in the neoclassical style on the King's Road site. The works were carried out by A.N. Coles of Plymouth at a cost of £35,000 and completed in 1907. The design for this frontage involved 15 bays with two sections at either end with doorways with fanlights flanked by windows and by full-height Ionic order columns supporting pediments;
1820-404: The most expensive anywhere in the world, costing up to £100 million, £4,761 per square foot (£51,000 per m ) as of 2009. As of 2013, many residential properties in Belgravia were owned by wealthy foreigners who may have other luxury residences in exclusive locations worldwide, so many are temporarily unoccupied as their owners are elsewhere. The increase in land value has been in sharp contrast to
1872-526: The northern corner, No. 49, which was built by Cubitt for Sidney Herbert in 1847. The terraces were designed by George Basevi (cousin of Benjamin Disraeli ). The largest of the corner mansions, Seaford House in the east corner, was designed by Philip Hardwick , and the one in the west corner was designed by Robert Smirke , completed circa 1830. The square contains statues of Christopher Columbus , Simón Bolívar , José de San Martín , Prince Henry
1924-476: The pseudonym "Chawles", was one of the novels serialised in The Pearl , an allegedly pornographic Victorian magazine. A 1967 episode of the television series Batman is set in Belgravia. In the popular British television series Upstairs, Downstairs (1971–1975), the scene is set in the household of Richard Bellamy (later 1st Viscount Bellamy of Haversham) at 165 Eaton Place, Belgravia (65 Eaton Place
1976-473: The salon "Smile", at 434 King's Road. 535 King's Road was the headquarters of Cube Records , an independent record label of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The label folded in the mid-1970s, becoming part of Elektra Records . The building has since been demolished but the new building on the same site still houses a record company. The corner of Kings Road and Manresa Road was occupied from 1895 to 1985 by Chelsea College of Science and Technology before it
2028-403: The south-east terrace, which had twelve; detached mansions were in three of the corners and there was a private central garden. The numbering is anti-clockwise from the north: NW terrace Nos. 1 to 11, west corner mansion No. 12, SW terrace 13–23, south corner mansion No. 24, SE terrace Nos. 25–36, east corner mansion No. 37, NE terrace Nos. 38–48. There is also a slightly later detached house at
2080-657: The story of one of the main characters, Rose Buck , in 1936, as she returns to 165 Eaton Place to serve as the Holland family's housekeeper . The first episode of the second series of the television programme Sherlock is " A Scandal in Belgravia ", loosely based on the Arthur Conan Doyle short story " A Scandal in Bohemia ". Moreover, Conan Doyle's friend and literary collaborator, Bertram Fletcher Robinson , died in Belgravia in 1907. The Princess Switch ,
2132-635: The street at one point or another. The 11 and the 22 are the only routes which run the entirety of King's Road, with the 22 being the only route that runs all the way from Sloane Square to the end of New King's Road in Fulham. The western end of King's Road is close to Imperial Wharf railway station on the London Overground network, with connections to Willesden Junction and Clapham Junction . Southern also run direct rail services to Milton Keynes Central and East Croydon from this station. At
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2184-496: The stucco style, but such houses became stone clad during this renovation period. Other houses today have black iron balconies. Wilton Crescent lies east of Lowndes Square and Lowndes Street, to the northwest of Belgrave Square . It is accessed via Wilton Place , constructed in 1825 to connect it to Knightsbridge . It is adjacent to Grosvenor Crescent to the east, which contains the Indonesian Embassy. Further to
2236-420: The two end-sections also had windows on the first floor. The frontage also had a clock which projected over the street and central bellcote . The town hall continued to be used as a public venue and concert performers included the contralto singer, Kathleen Ferrier , who made an appearance on 15 April 1947. The complex ceased to be the local seat of government when the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
2288-411: The western section in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea . The district lies mostly to the south-west of Buckingham Palace , and is bounded notionally by Knightsbridge (the road) to the north, Grosvenor Place and Buckingham Palace Road to the east, Pimlico Road to the south, and Sloane Street to the west. To the north is Hyde Park , to the northeast is Mayfair and Green Park and to
2340-421: Was a series of fields used for grazing, intersected by footpaths. The Westbourne was crossed by Bloody Bridge, probably called so as it was frequented by robbers and highwaymen, and it was unsafe to cross the fields at night. In 1728, a man's body was discovered by the bridge with half his face and five fingers removed. In 1749, a muffin man was robbed and left blind. Five Fields' distance from London also made it
2392-580: Was formed in 1965. However the Brydon building became the main Kensington and Chelsea Register Office and subsequently hosted several famous weddings including the marriage of Judy Garland to Mickey Deans in March 1969. After being refurbished by Roderick Ham & Partners, the Stokes extension became the main Chelsea branch library in 1978. The Chelsea Art Society also decided to establish its home in
2444-475: Was laid out by Cubitt in 1826, but the square was not completed until 1855, the year of his death. The long construction period is reflected in the variety of architecture along the square. The houses in Eaton Square are large, predominantly three bay wide buildings, joined in regular terraces in a classical style, with four or five main storeys, plus attic and basement and a mews house behind. The square
2496-421: Was leaving No. 36. Upper Belgrave Street was constructed in the 1840s to connect King's Road with Belgrave Square. It is a wide one-way residential street with grand white stuccoed buildings. It stretches from the south-east corner of Belgrave Square to the north-east corner of Eaton Square. Most of the houses have now been divided into flats and achieve sale prices as high as £3,500 per square foot. Many of
2548-551: Was refurbished in 1997, to the layout that appears in the Ordnance Survey map of 1867. Past residents include the poet Matthew Arnold (1822–88) at No. 2, Mary Shelley (1797–1851) at No. 24, John Liddell (1794–1868) at No. 72, Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) at No. 73, and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (1880–1962) resided at No. 77 from 1940 until 1945. Wilton Crescent was created by Thomas Cundy II ,
2600-549: Was subsumed into King's College London and immediately sold into private hands. The road has been represented in popular culture on various occasions: "King's Road" is the title of a song by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers from the 1981 album Hard Promises and is name-checked in the song "Dick a Dum Dum (King's Road)" which was a hit for Des O'Connor in 1969. In Ian Fleming 's novels, James Bond lives in an unspecified fashionable square just off King's Road. In
2652-536: Was to become Belgravia, and came into agreement with Thomas Cubitt to design an estate. The construction of the stucco grand terraces took place between 1830 and 1847. Belgravia is characterised by grand terraces of white stucco houses, and is focused on Belgrave Square and Eaton Square . It was one of London's most fashionable residential districts from its beginnings. Towards the late 19th century, Belgravia ranked among other fashionable areas in London such as Tyburnia and Mayfair. After World War II , some of
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#17327940955982704-538: Was used for exterior shots; a "1" was painted in front of the house number). It depicts the lives of the Bellamys and their staff of domestic servants in the years 1903–1930, as they experience the tumultuous events of the Edwardian era , World War I and the postwar 1920s, culminating with the stock market crash of 1929 , which ends the world they had known. In 2010, filming began on a mini-series intended to pick up
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