Editing Pimlico (section)

===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.