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Pimlico
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pimlico is a small area of central London in the City of Westminster that is primarily residental and well known for its collection of small hotels.
The area is roughly delimited by Victoria Station to the north and the River Thames to the south, spanned by Vauxhall Bridge, which allows ready access to Vauxhall. The entire district was formerly owned by the property owning Grosvenor family.
The large majority of the buildings in Pimlico are residential and were designed by the architect/builder Thomas Cubitt. A statue of Cubitt can be seen in the area.
Notable residents have included Sir Winston Churchill, Laura Ashley, Swami Vivekananda, Laurence Olivier, Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, Joseph Conrad and Richard Dadd.
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In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Manor of Ebury (from which Pimlico's Ebury Street gets its name) 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 (£1,151.75). 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 17th or early 18th century, Pimlico ceased to be known as Ebury or "The Five Fields", and gained the name by which it is now known:
- At one time 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. (Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1898 edn.).
The name may also derive from a Spanish word for drink, or even from the Native American Pamlican tribe, as many locals believe. By the 19th 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.
It was Cubitt who built Eaton Square, which typifies Pimlico's architecture with its white stucco houses and garden square.
As early as the latter half of the century, however, Pimlico saw the construction of several Peabody Estates - charitable housing projects designed to provide cheap, quality homes for the poor. In addition, in the post-war period, several large public housing estates were built in the area - on land cleared by German bombing - and many of the fine Victorian houses were converted to other uses, e.g. bed and breakfast hotels. This led to the area developing an interesting social mix, and an unusual character combining exclusive restaurants and residences with Westminster Council run facilities and working-class shopping arcades. In 1950, embarrassed by the slums and brothels with which Pimlico had become associated in the press and criminal courts, the Second Duke of Westminster sold the part of the Grosvenor estate on which it is built.
Now, as in Central London in general, Pimlico property prices are high, and the area is again fashionable. A large number of houses have once again been repurposed, being divided into one or two bedroom apartments intended for young professionals.
Pimlico's most famous attraction is the Tate Britain on Millbank. Millbank is a Ward independent of Pimlico. So the Tate is not on Millbank, it is in Millbank. This is the original Tate Gallery and is home, as the name suggests, primarily to art of specifically British origin. (This rule is frequently broken, however.)
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. This has also had the happy result of opening up the spacious college quadrangle so that the three extensive and elaborate red brick college blocks can be appreciated (see picture below).
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.
- Laura Ashley, designer - 83 Cambridge Street
- Aubrey Beardsley, illustrator - 114 Cambridge Street
- James Crump, founder of St. Aubyn's School, Woodford Green - 86 Cambridge Street
- Laurence Olivier, actor - 22 Lupus Street
- Barbara Pym, writer - 108 Cambridge Street
- Steve Hackett, former Genesis guitarist
Michael Howard, former leader of the Tory party
Currently Pimlico is home to one of London's most famous playwrights, Catherine Johnson, the creator of the musical Mamma Mia. The actress Claire Sweeney also resides in the area.
In Wilkie Collins' Armadale (1866), Pimlico is home to the conniving procuress Mother Oldershaw and the sly abortionist Doctor Downward. The address of their shady establishment is given as Diana Street, apparently fictional.
Post-war Pimlico was the setting of the story of the Ealing comedy Passport To Pimlico, as well as of the juvenile detective series The Pimlico Boys by Paul Dorval, and the online graphic novel The House in Pimlico.
Barbara Pym used St Gabriel's Church, Warwick Square, as her inspiration for St Mary's, an Anglo-Catholic church and the chosen place of worship of Mildred Lathbury, her narrator in Excellent Women. Mildred - unmarried, just over thirty and given to good works, finds herself naturally 'involved or interested in other people's business'. The arrival of exotic neighbours and an elegant widow at the Vicarage brings scope for a carefully observed social comedy.
I began to wonder what could have brought a naval officer and his wife to this shabby part of London, so very much the 'wrong' side of Victoria Station, so definitely not Belgravia, for which I had a sentimental affection, but which did not usually attract people who looked like Mrs Napier.
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym (Jonathan Cape, London, 1952)
Nearby places:
Nearest tube station:
- http://www.holyapostlespimlico.org/parish_info/history.shtml
- http://www.pimlicoschool.org.uk/index.asp?page=about-us
- http://www.st-gabriels.com
- http://www.barbara-pym.org
- http://www.stmarythevirgin.org.uk
- http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&z=15&ll=51.488545,-0.139732&spn=0.011437,0.028925
Secret London by Andrew Duncan (New Holland Publishers, London, 2001)
The Face of London by Harold P Clunn (Spring Books, London, 1970)