Editing Pimlico (section)

==History==
===Early history and origin of name===
[[Image:Greenwood 1827 cropped.jpg|thumb|left|Greenwood's 1827 map showing parts of Pimlico and [[Millbank, London|Millbank]] prior to development]]
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Manor of Ebury was divided up and leased by the Crown to servants or favourites. In 1623, [[James VI and I|James I]] sold the freehold of Ebury for £1,151 and 15 shillings.{{efn|£1,151.75, about £{{Inflation|UK|1151.75|1623|2021|r=-3|fmt=c}} in 2021, indexed by retail price inflation. Property price inflation has been considerably greater.}} 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, at the age of twelve, married [[Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 3rd Baronet]]. The Grosvenors were a family of [[Normans|Norman]] descent long seated at Eaton Hall in Cheshire who, until this auspicious marriage, were of but 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 seventeenth or early eighteenth century, the area ceased to be known as Ebury or "The Five Fields" and gained the name by which it is now known. While its origins are disputed, it is "clearly of foreign derivation.... [[William Gifford|[William] Gifford]], in a note in his edition of [[Ben Jonson]], tells us that 'Pimlico is sometimes spoken of as a person, and may not improbably have been the master of a house once famous for ale of a particular description'."<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45221 'Pimlico', Old and New London] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903035545/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45221 |date=3 September 2014 }}: Volume 5 (1878), pp. 39–49.</ref> Supporting this etymology, [[E. Cobham Brewer]] describes the area as "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".<ref>Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, [http://www.bartleby.com/81/13282.html/ ''Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908010928/http://www.bartleby.com/81/13282.html |date=8 September 2015 }}, 1898 edn.</ref>

[[H. G. Wells]], in his novel ''[[The Dream (novel)|The Dream]]'', says that there was a wharf at Pimlico where ships from America docked and that the word Pimlico came with the trade and was the last word left alive of the Algonquin Indian language ([[Carolina Algonquian language|Pamlico]]).

===Development and decline===
[[Image:belgrave district.jpg|thumb|Belgravia and Pimlico in 1903]]
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. The land up to this time had been marshy but was reclaimed using soil excavated during the construction of [[St Katharine Docks]].<ref>''I Never Knew That About London'': Christopher Winn; {{ISBN|978-0-09-191857-6}}</ref>

Cubitt developed Pimlico as a grid of handsome white stucco terraces. The largest and most opulent houses were built along St George's Drive and [[Belgrave Road, Westminster, London|Belgrave Road]], the two principal streets, and Eccleston, Warwick and [[St George's Square]]s. Lupus Street contained similarly grand houses, as well as shops and, until the early twentieth century, a hospital for women and children. Smaller-scale properties, typically of three storeys, line the side streets.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

An 1877 newspaper article described Pimlico as "genteel, sacred to professional men… not rich enough to luxuriate in Belgravia proper, but rich enough to live in private houses." Its inhabitants were "more lively than in Kensington… and yet a cut above Chelsea, which is only commercial."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www3.westminster.gov.uk/spgs/publications/Pimlico%20design%20guide.pdf|title=Pimlico design guide|website=westminster.gov.uk|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303194017/http://www3.westminster.gov.uk/spgs/publications/Pimlico%20design%20guide.pdf|archive-date=3 March 2016}}</ref>

Although the area was dominated by the well-to-do middle and upper-middle classes as late as [[Charles Booth (social reformer)|Charles Booth]]'s 1889 Map of London Poverty,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.umich.edu/%7Erisotto/partialzooms/sw/50swe910.html|title=50swe910.html|work=umich.edu|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512082939/http://www.umich.edu/%7Erisotto/partialzooms/sw/50swe910.html|archive-date=12 May 2008}}</ref> parts of Pimlico are said to have declined significantly by the 1890s. When Rev Gerald Olivier moved to the neighbourhood in 1912 with his family, including the young [[Laurence Olivier]], to minister to the parishioners of [[St Saviour, Pimlico|St Saviour]], it was part of a venture to west London "slums" that had previously taken the family to the depths of [[Notting Hill]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=tjM1zjZ6qUoC&dq=Gerard+Kerr+Olivier+saviour's&pg=PA10 ''Olivier''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220032905/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tjM1zjZ6qUoC&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=Gerard+Kerr+Olivier+saviour's&source=bl&ots=EXAe64ZB9Q&sig=d4AjAtnT1I3xKENyvK03eECV8aE&hl=en&ei=ZceiSYaGIeLEjAfZo8TGCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result |date=20 December 2016 }}. Coleman, Terry p. 10, Macmillan 2006.</ref>

In 1908, [[G. K. Chesterton]] described Pimlico as "a desperate thing" in his philosophical treatise ''Orthodoxy''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Chesterton |first=G.K. |title=[[Orthodoxy (book)|Orthodoxy]] |date=1908 |chapter=The Flag of the World}}</ref>

Through the late nineteenth century, Pimlico saw the construction of several [[George Peabody|Peabody Estates]], charitable housing projects designed to provide affordable, quality homes.

===Twentieth-century resurgence===
[[File:33 Eccleston Square, Pimlico - geograph.org.uk - 4423062.jpg|thumb|upright|33 Eccleston Square; Labour and TUC headquarters offices during the 1920s]]
Proximity to the [[Houses of Parliament]] made Pimlico a centre of political activity. Prior to 1928, the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] and [[Trades Union Congress]] shared offices at 33 [[Eccleston Square]], and it was here in 1926 that the [[1926 United Kingdom general strike|general strike]] was organised.

In the mid-1930s Pimlico saw a second wave of development with the construction of [[Dolphin Square]], a self-contained "city" of 1,250 up-market flats built on the site formerly occupied by Cubitt's building works. Completed in 1937, it quickly became popular with MPs and public servants. It was home to fascist [[Oswald Mosley]] until his arrest in 1940, and the headquarters of the [[Free French]] for much of the Second World War.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

Pimlico survived the war with its essential character intact, although parts sustained significant bomb damage. Through the 1950s these areas were the focus of large-scale redevelopment as the [[Churchill Gardens]] and [[Lillington and Longmoore Gardens]] estates, and many of the larger [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]] houses were converted to hotels and other uses.

To provide affordable and efficient heating to the residents of the new post-war developments, Pimlico became one of the few places in the UK to have a [[district heating]] system installed. District heating became popular after World War II to heat the large residential estates that replaced areas devastated by the Blitz. The [[Pimlico District Heating Undertaking]] (PDHU) is just north of the River Thames. The PDHU first became operational in 1950 and continues to expand to this day. The PDHU once relied on waste heat from the now-disused [[Battersea Power Station]] on the south side of the River Thames. It is still in operation, the water now being heated locally by a new energy centre which incorporates 3.1 MWe /4.0 MWTh of gas-fired CHP engines and 3&nbsp;×&nbsp;8 MW gas-fired boilers.

In 1953, the [[Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster|Second Duke of Westminster]] sold the part of the Grosvenor estate on which Pimlico is built.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101121205140/http://www.grosvenorestate.com/About/History/The+London+Estate.htm The Grosvenor Estate], archive.org. Accessed 9 December 2022.</ref>

In 1970, whilst Roger Byron-Collins was a partner in Mullett Booker Estate Agents in Albion Street on the Hyde Park Estate, he sold the entire 27 acre freehold Pimlico Estate for £4.4 million to Jack Dellal of Dalton Barton Bank in a JV with Peter Crane of City and Municipal Properties, being a consortium controlled by the Hanson Trust.  He was introduced to the owners of the Estate by the Hon Brian Alexander, son of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, who at that time represented Previews International, a part of Coldwell Banker.  Brian Alexander's friend, Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, owner of Mustique island in the Caribbean was friends with Henry Cubitt, Baron Ashcombe the chairman of the builders, Holland, Hannen and Cubbits who developed the estate comprising 480 homes in the 19th Century and were major shareholders in partnership with Harry Reynolds of Reynolds Engineering of then owners CR Developments.  Brian Alexander after leaving Previews International, eventually became MD of the Mustique Company for many decades..<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10497686/Lord-Ashcombe.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180308231819/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10497686/Lord-Ashcombe.html |archive-date=8 March 2018|url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Lord Ashcombe – obituary|date=25 December 2013|work=The Daily Telegraph}}</ref>

Pimlico was connected to the [[London Underground]] in 1972 as a late addition to the [[Victoria line]]. Following the designation of a [[Conservation area#United Kingdom|conservation area]] in 1968 (extended in 1973 and again in 1990), the area has seen extensive regeneration. Successive waves of development have given Pimlico an interesting social mix, combining exclusive restaurants and residences with [[Westminster City Council]]-run facilities.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

''For a history of street name etymologies in the area see: [[Street names of Pimlico and Victoria]]''