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Pimlico

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{{otheruses}} {{infobox London place| |Place= Pimlico |Borough= City of Westminster Westminster |Traditional= Middlesex |Constituency= Cities of London and Westminster (UK Parliament constituency) Cities of London and Westminster |PostTown= LONDON |PostCode= London SW1 SW1 |DiallingCode= 020 |GridReference= TQ295785 |GLA= West Central London }} '''Pimlico''' is a district in London, England and part of the City of Westminster. The area is roughly delimited by Victoria Station (London) 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 Duke of Westminster Grosvenor family. The large majority of the buildings in Pimlico are residental 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 and Swami Vivekananda.

History
In the 16th century 16th and 17th century 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 of England 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 noble family of Normans Norman descent who lived at Eaton in Cheshire. 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 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. ([http://www.bartleby.com/81/13282.html/ Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, ''Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'', 1898 edn.]). Image:Pimlico_buttress_1.jpg thumb|left|200px|Pimlico was not all salubrious. This buttress commemorates the district's [[Millbank Prison (1816-1880). Originally, this was on the spot from which prisoners were transported to Australia.(October 2005)]] The name may also derive from a Spanish word for drink. 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 George Peabody Peabody Estates - charitable housing projects designed to provide cheap, quality homes for the poor. In addition, in the post-World War II war period, several large public housing estates were built in the area - on land cleared by Germany German bombing - and many of the fine Victorian architecture 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.

Attractions
Image:Wiki enviro 400 metroline.PNG thumb|right|250px|a enviro 400 is the new london bus icon and can be found in pimlico Image:Tate.britain.arp.750pix.jpg thumb|right|250px|The Tate Britain on Millbank. (November 2004). Pimlico's most famous attraction is the Tate Britain on Millbank, London, England 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 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.

Notable Residents
Image:Royal_army_medical_college_1.jpg thumb|right|250px|The former Royal Army Medical College (north block), now part of [[Chelsea_College_of_Art_and_Design|Chelsea College of Art and Design. (October 2005)]] Image:Pimlico street.jpg thumb|250px|A street in Pimlico which characteristically mixes grand Victorian town-houses with 1970s council housing. *Laura Ashley, designer - 83 Cambridge Street *Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister - 93 Eaton Square *Aubrey Beardsley, illustrator - 114 Cambridge Street *Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer, wrote his First Symphony at 180 Ebury Street *Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein - 24 Chester Square *James Crump, notable educator and founder of St. Aubyn's School, Woodford Green - 86 Cambridge Street *Barbara Pym, writer - 108 Cambridge Street

In fiction
Post-war Pimlico was the setting of the story of the Ealing Studios Ealing comedy ''Passport To Pimlico'', as well as of the juvenile detective series The Pimlico Boys by Paul Dorval. 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
Nearby places: * Chelsea * Millbank * Vauxhall * Westminster Nearest tube station: * Pimlico tube station on the Victoria Line

See also
* Thomas Cubitt

External links

- http://www.holyapostlespimlico.org/parish_info/history.shtml
- http://www.pimlicoschool.org.uk/ index.asp?page=history *http://www.st-gabriels.com *http://www.barbara-pym.org *http://www.stmarythevirgin.org.uk

Sources
''Secret London'' by Andrew Duncan (New Holland Publishers, London, 2001) ''The Face of London'' by Harold P Clunn (Spring Books, London, 1970) [http://www.grosvenor.com/ Grosvenor Property and Partnership (see About Us > History)] no:Pimlico Category:Districts of London Category:Westminster

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