Chapter 4

Hamilton Place is a short but broad street, lined on the west with large and fashionable houses. The ground, then part of Hyde Park, was granted to Hamilton, Ranger of Hyde Park, 1660-84, who built a street of small houses, named Hamilton Street, a cul-de-sac. This was replaced in 1809 by a street built by the Adams. In 1871, to relieve the congestion of the traffic, the roadway was carried through the Park Lane.

Inhabitants: No. 1, Lord Montgomery, 1810 (Lord Chancellor Eldon built the present house); 2, Duke of Bedford, 1810-19, Earl Gower (Duke of Sutherland), Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, 1840-46, Duke of Argyle, 1847-51; 3, Earl of Cork, 1810-50, Earl of Dalkeith, 1870; 4, Earl of Lucan, 1810, Duke of Wellington, 1814, Lord Grenville, 1822, Messrs. Labouchere, 1823-29, Henry Bevan, 1840-48, Earl of Northbrook, 1895; 5, Earl of Buckinghamshire, 1810-25, Marquis of Conyngham, 1870, Baron Leopold de Rothschild, 1895; 6, Right Hon. John Sullivan, 1810, Earl of Belmore, Lord Montagu, 1829, Earl of Home, 1843, Lord Southampton, 1847, W. Munro, 1848, Hon. B. J. Munro, 1870; 7, Earl of Shannon, 1810-22, William Miles, M.P., 1840-50. Nos. 7 and 8 are now the premises of the Bachelors' Club, established 1881, one of the most fashionable young men's clubs in London.

The space between Hamilton Place and Apsley House is now occupied by six large houses.

It was up to the middle of last century a row of mean buildings, many of them public-houses. Next to Apsley House stood, up to 1797, a noted inn, the Pillars of Hercules. In 1787 M. de Calonne built a mansion on the site now occupied by Nos. 146 and 147.

Inhabitants: No. 142, Miss Alice de Rothschild, heiress of the late Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild; 145 was formerly Northampton House; 148, Nathaniel Meyer, first Baron Rothschild, G.C.V.O., P.C.

Apsley House was built in 1778 by Lord Chancellor Apsley, Earl Bathurst, 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.

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.