Belgravia, a jewel in the crown of London property
Belgravia in the London Borough of Westminster (and partly in Kensington & Chelsea) is one of my personal favourite areas of the PCL enclave, with elegant streets lined with beautiful stucco townhouses and some fabulous garden squares. With a chequered and violent past, home to highwaymen and robbers, it’s now a residential jewel with some of the highest value property in the UK, if not the world.
A violent past
The original settlement was built to follow the former course of the River Westbourne, a tributary of the River Thames and was known as Five Fields being a series of fields used for grazing, intersected by footpaths. The area had a bit of a bad reputation back in the day, with the Westbourne being crossed by “Bloody Bridge”, so called because it was a favourite of robbers and highwaymen, and pretty perilous at night with some pretty gruesome murders. It was also a popular spot for duelling, but despite this reputation, it was actually a lovely market garden area by day!
Aristocracy and new money
Belgravia as it became in the 1800s, took its name from the village of Belgrave, Cheshire, near the Grosvenor family's main country seat of Eaton Hall. It was built up after George III moved to Buckingham Palace and constructed a row of houses on what is now Grosvenor Place. In the 1820s, Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster asked Thomas Cubitt to design an estate. This began in 1826 and was largely complete by the 1840s.
It was an extremely fashionable and prestigious place to live in, both for the landed gentry and for the growing number of wealthy businesspeople, industrialists, artists and authors. In fact, Belgravia is the subject of an upcoming period drama television series, based on the novel of the same name by Julian Fellowes. The series, a co-production between ITV and American cable network Epix, is set to be written by Fellowes, directed by John Alexander and will premiere in 2020.
Over the last century, many of its historic and prestigious London homes of the country gentry have given way to some of the capital’s most prestigious hotels, such as The Berkeley, Lanesborough, The Park Tower, Jumeirah Lowndes and Jumeirah Carlton Tower and Apartments, as well as the majority of international Embassies and High Commissions, largely due to which Belgravia has become incredibly popular with wealthy foreigners – both for residential property and business investment.
While a lot of businesses have disappeared from the area, replaced again by residential property, there is still a lovely mix of unique, interesting and specialist shops, including antique shops, furniture stores and some amazing galleries around Pimlico Road; as well as some of the most exclusive designer fashion and jewellery boutiques, domestic and international delis and shops. The doyenne of British retail, Harvey Nichols, however remains, tucked in Belgravia’s northernmost corner on the boundary with Knightsbridge.
Property market
The influx of international money in the last couple of decades has seen a significant rise in residential properties in Belgravia, which are now owned by wealthy foreigners often have an extensive portfolio in exclusive locations worldwide. For this reason, properties in Belgravia are some of the most expensive of anywhere in the world and land value is hugely elevated compared to the rest of the UK.
The most popular squares are Eaton Square, Wilton Crescent, Belgrave, Chester and Lowndes Squares, around which lie most of the embassies. Eaton Square has been home to billionaires, politicians and celebrities over the years and flats can sell for £30million, with former Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin both living there and more recently, George Soros, Charles Saatchi, Jose Mourinho and Sven-Goran Eriksson.
Wilton Crescent Garden, built in the early 19th century, is thought to be Belgravia's only Portland Stone crescent and has been home to royals, political leaders and celebrities, including Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma.
Belgravia is consistently in the top ten most expensive areas of London, if not the UK, with Eaton Square, Chester Square, Belgrave Square and Wilton Crescent being the most desirable addresses; Wilton Crescent having achieved three sales of over £25million in the last two years. While Wilton Crescent consists predominantly of houses, we have just listed a rarely available 2-storey apartment for £7.75m.
Since the peak, prices have levelled out, but Belgravia continues to be a safe long-term investment, particularly with flats which are extremely popular both for foreign and domestic buyers.
For more details of current on-market properties, go to our OntheMarket page here. For off-market sales and buyer enquiries, please call Simon on 07752 727957.