Part 11

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 L100,000.

Beyond, on the north side, a row of large red-brick houses has been built since 1883, containing Buckingham Palace Mansions (flats), the National Training School of Cookery, and the City of Westminster Public Baths. Here also is St. Peter's Institute, in connection with St. Peter's, Eaton Square, which cost L15,000. It consists of a club for 600 men and 600 boys, with gymnasium, class-rooms, reading-room, concert-hall, etc.

Buckingham Palace Gardens, also on the north side, is a row of large, ornamental, red-brick houses, newly erected, adjoining the Free Library built by Bolton and opened in 1894. On the first floor is a natural history collection presented by a parishioner. St. Philip's Church, built 1887-90, is a plain but spacious red-brick building, in Early English style by Brierley and Demaine, with seats (free) for 850. Adjoining is the Grosvenor Club and Grosvenor Hall, used for social entertainments, etc. Nearly the whole of the south side of the road has recently been demolished in view of the extension of Victoria Station.

Inhabitants--Stafford Row: W. Ryland, engineer, executed for forgery 1767; Mrs. Radcliffe, authoress of the "Mysteries of Udolpho"; Richard Yates, d. 1796. Lower Belgrave Place: No. 3, George Grote, historian (later 102, Buckingham Palace Road); 29 and 30, Sir Francis Chantrey, 1814-41 (later 98, Buckingham Palace Road); 27, Allan Cunningham, poet, 1824-42; 96, Henry Weekes, R.A. Buckingham Palace Road: E. B. Stephen, R.A., 1882.

From the end of Buckingham Palace Road Chelsea was reached by the present Pimlico Road, so called in 1871, when the old names of Jews' Row, Grosvenor Row (1785), and Queen Street (1774) were abolished. The origin of the name Pimlico is uncertain. There was one also at Hoxton, where a certain Ben Pimlico kept a noted hostelry in Queen Elizabeth's time. It is now officially used to denote the whole district south of Knightsbridge, but is popularly confined to the part between Chester Square and the Thames. It began to be sparsely inhabited in 1680, after which date it is mentioned occasionally in the rate-books, and regularly after 1739.

On the north side, near the east end, are two narrow streets--Clifford's Row (1785), and King Street (1785). At the corner of Ebury Street stood an old inn, the Goat and Compasses, now replaced by the Three Compasses public-house. Further on is the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, built about 1850 as a chapel of ease to St. Barnabas. Adjoining is the site of the Chelsea Bun House, in its best days kept by Richard Hand, "who has the honour to serve the Royal Family." It was celebrated by Swift in 1711, and was taken down in 1839. Opposite stood Strombelo or Stromboli House, a minor place of amusement, at its height in 1788. Near here Nell Gwynne is said to have lived, and her name is kept up by the Nell Gwynne Tavern and a passage called Nell Gwynne Cottages.

Between the Pimlico and Commercial Roads are several small streets. In Bloomfield Place stood St. John's School for girls, established in 1859 under the auspices of the Sisterhood of St. John; adjoining, under the same management, St. Barnabas' Mission House and St. Barnabas' Orphanage, established in 1860. In Bloomfield Terrace lived at No. 1 Captain Warner, inventor of the "long range," d. 1853.

In Church Street (1846) stands the college of St. Barnabas, founded by Rev. W. J. Bennett. The buildings are of Kentish ragstone, were designed by Cundy, and contain a church, clergy house, and school-house with teacher's residence. The church, originally built as a chapel of ease to St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, is in Early Pointed style, and has a tower and spire of Caen stone 170 feet high, with ten bells. The edifice cost L15,000, and was at the opening signalized by ritualistic disturbances. The schools built on the site of the Orange Tavern and tea-gardens in the Pimlico Road were designed for 200 boys, 200 girls, and 200 infants, but a separate boys' school has been since built in Ebury Street.

Ranelagh Grove occupies the site of The Avenue, which led from Ebury Bridge to old Ranelagh House, but now ends in the blank wall of Chelsea Barracks.

In Ranelagh Terrace (now abolished), near Ebury Bridge, d. at No. 2 the Rev. T. Pennington, son of Elizabeth Carter, in 1852.

Commercial Road (1842) is occupied by works and industrial dwellings (Gatcliff Buildings, 1867, and Wellington Buildings). On the west side is the wall of Chelsea Barracks.

It leads by the Chelsea Bridge Road to the embankment at Victoria Bridge, a light and graceful suspension bridge designed by Page and opened in 1858. The structure, which cost L88,000, is built of iron, and rests on piers of English elm and concrete enclosed in iron casings. The piers are each nearly 90 feet in length by 20 feet in width, with curved cutwaters. The whole bridge is 915 feet long, 715 feet between abutments, the centre span 347 feet, side-spans each 185 feet, and there is a clear water-way of 21 feet above high-water mark. The roadway is made by two wrought-iron longitudinal girders extending the whole length of the bridge, suspended by rods from the chains. Toll-houses stand at each end, but it was purchased in 1879 for L75,000 as a free bridge.

Near the end of the bridge stood the White House, a lonely habitation much used by anglers; opposite, on the Surrey side, was a similar building, the Red House. A short way to the east stood the Chelsea Waterworks, incorporated as a company in 1724, though waterworks seem to have existed here before that date. They extended, with the Grosvenor Canal and basin (now occupied by Victoria Station), over 89 acres, and supplied water to Chelsea, Knightsbridge, Belgravia, Pimlico, and part of Westminster. The company has now removed to Kingston, and the site is occupied by the western pumping-station of the main drainage system of London, built 1873-75 at a cost of L183,000.

Graham Street (1827) incorporated with which in 1894 were Graham Street West and Gregory Street (1833), contains the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, a chapel of ease to St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, a red-brick building with a spire, built in 1872. Caroline Street (1834) is of no interest. Eaton Terrace (1826) was until 1884 named Coleshill Street. At the corner of Clieveden Place is an old proprietary chapel, Eaton Chapel, in Grecian style, built about 1800, with sittings for 1,200. A chapel existed here, however, before that date, known as the Five Fields Chapel.

Chester Terrace was in 1878 amalgamated with Minera Street (1830), and in 1887 with Newland Street (1836).

Chester Square is very long and narrow; it is five acres in extent, and was commenced about 1834. It has three enclosed gardens. At the west end is the handsome church of St. Michael, erected 1844-46 in the Decorated style from designs by Cundy. The tower has a lofty spire. The chancel was extended in 1874, and the building has on several occasions been enlarged and restored.

Chester Place, at the east end of the square, was incorporated with it in 1874.

The portion of our district lying between the Buckingham Palace Road and Grosvenor Canal and the eastern boundary forms an acute-angled triangle with the apex at Buckingham Palace. The streets north of Victoria Street, which lead into Buckingham Palace Road from the east, are narrow and unimportant. Here is Palace Street (1767), until 1881 called Charlotte Street, after Queen Charlotte, the first royal occupant of the Palace. In it is St. Peter's Church, a plain building with seats for 200, which existed as Charlotte Chapel in 1770. Its most famous incumbent was Dr. Dodd, who was executed for forgery in 1777. Subsequently it was held by Dr. Dillon, who was suspended in 1840. It was then a proprietary chapel, but is now a chapel of ease to St. Peter's, Eaton Square; also St. Peter and St. Edward's Catholic Chapel.

In Palace Place (until 1881 Little Charlotte Street) is St. Peter's Chapel School, established in 1830.

The St. George's Union Workhouse, a large red-brick building, built in 1884, stands in Wallis's Yard, off Princes Row (1767). Buckingham Palace (1840), Brewer Street (1811), and Allingham Street (1826) have no interest. The latter leads to Victoria Street, a broad thoroughfare opened in 1851, only the western end of which falls within the district. On the south side is the Victoria Station of the Metropolitan District Railway, commenced in 1863 and opened in 1868. The line runs in a curve underground from Sloane Square, crossing Ebury Street at Eaton Terrace, and Buckingham Palace Road at Grosvenor Gardens. From the Underground Station a subterranean passage leads to the Victoria terminus, the starting-point of the London, Brighton, and South Coast and London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Companies. The present station, which has no pretension to architectural beauty, is being greatly enlarged and partly rebuilt. It was built at a cost of L105,000, provided by the Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway Company, which, having acquired 91 acres of land, had built a temporary station and opened the line for the two companies' traffic in 1860. The bridge over the Thames was built about the same time by Fowler, and on it is the Grosvenor Road ticket-collecting station. The land occupied by the railways is freehold of the Victoria Company, and leased by the two lines. In 1863 the lines of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway were widened to enable their trains to come into the station independently. The lines of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway are now being extended. The station of the latter is a West End branch, the headquarters being at London Bridge; but the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway have here their principal starting-point. The ground between Victoria Station and the river occupies the site of the old manor of Neyte, which belonged to the Abbey of Westminster until confiscated by Henry VIII. in 1536. It was a favourite residence of the Abbots, and here also lived John of Gaunt, and here John, son of Richard, Duke of York, was born in 1448. In 1592 the manor became a farm and passed with the Ebury Estate into the possession of the Grosvenor family. The manor-house stood where is now St. George's Row, and in Pepys' time was a popular pleasure-garden. Between the Willow Walk (Warwick Street) and the river were the Neat House Gardens, which supplied a large part of London with vegetables. The name lingered until the present century among the houses on the river-bank, and is still commemorated by Neat House Buildings in Ranelagh Road. The whole area was low-lying and swampy, and the neighbourhood of Eccleston Square was occupied by a vast osier bed. In 1827, however, Cubitt raised the level of the district by depositing the earth excavated from St. Katharine's Docks, and the present houses and squares were gradually completed. The whole district is singularly uninteresting, the streets of good breadth, and the houses faced with plaster of the type we have seen in Belgravia. North of Belgrave Road the streets are occupied by the poorer classes, but the squares and principal streets in this neighbourhood are tenanted by the wealthy. The southern portion is dully respectable, and most of the houses are let in lodgings. The eastern end of Warwick Street and Lupus Street contain the only shops, and those of no great size or importance. The streets, with their principal buildings, are as follows:

The Vauxhall Bridge Road, commenced after 1816, but first mentioned under that name in 1827. The following terraces were incorporated with it in 1865: Bedford Place (1826), Trellick Place (1826), York Place (1839), Pembroke Place, Gloucester Place, Windsor Terrace, Shaftesbury Crescent (1826), Howick Place and Howick Terrace (1826).

Wilton Road (1833), with which, in 1890, was incorporated Wilton Terrace, skirts the east side of Victoria Station. In it stands the Church of St. John the Evangelist, a chapel of ease to St. Peter's, Eaton Square. It is a handsome red-brick edifice, built by Blomfield in 1875, and it accommodates about 900. Behind, in Hudson's Place, are St. Peter's Mission House and parish room.

Gillingham Street (1826), Hindon Street (1826), Berwick Street (1830), and St. Leonard's Street (1830) are mean and uninteresting.

Warwick Street occupies the site of the ancient Willow Walk, a low-lying footpath between the cuts of the Chelsea Waterworks, where lived the notorious Aberfield (Slender Billy) and the highwaymen Jerry Abershaw and Maclean. It is first mentioned in the rate-books in 1723.

Belgrave Road (1830) is a broad, well-built street, with large houses. In 1865 Eccleston Terrace, North and South Warwick Terrace, Upper Eccleston Place, and Grosvenor Terrace, were incorporated with it. Nearly opposite Eccleston Square is Eccleston Square Chapel (Congregational), in Classical style, with seats for 1,100. The railway is crossed by Eccleston Bridge. Eccleston Square is 4 acres in extent, and is long and narrow, with an enclosed garden, built in 1835.

Warwick Square, of 3 acres, is very similar, and was built in 1843. At the end stands St. Gabriel's Church, built by Cundy in Early English style, and consecrated in 1853.

St. George's Road is a broad street joined to Buckingham Palace Road by Elizabeth Bridge.

In Gloucester Street is the Belgrave Hospital for Children, founded in 1866 by the late Rev. Brymer Belcher, Vicar of St. Gabriel's, 1853-85. The objects of this charitable institution are: