Essential Hotels > England > London > Belgravia

After a number of years in the limelight there is still no getting away from the fact that Belgravia remains one of London’s most fashionable districts, home to some of the most expensive houses in the world. Belgravia covers a fairly small area, with Sloane Street, Pimlico Road, Buckingham Palace Road, Grosvenor Place and Knightsbridge forming its boundaries. Hyde Park is set to the north while Buckingham Palace and Harrods are just a stone’s throw from this prestigious London destination.

Amid the streets of Belgravia you can expect to find a wealth of embassies, a series of top hotels and classy places in which to dine, grand terraces with white stucco houses and a good level of peace and quiet. It is likely that if travelling round this part of the nation’s capital visitors may catch a glimpse of a famous face or two; several world renowned names have made their home in this part of the city. Roman Abramovich, Lady Thatcher and Joan Collins all have homes here while in years gone by the likes of Neville Chamberlain, Mozart, Sir Sean Connery and Mary Shelley lived in the area.

And this is all thanks to the Duke of Westminster, one of the richest people in the UK, who owns much of Belgravia. This title stems from the Grosvenor family and it is they who inherited the 400-acre piece of land in the 18th century. They named the land Belgravia after the village of Belgrave in Leicestershire, the location of their family estate.

In the 18th century this area of London was known as the Five Fields and was used little more than for sheep grazing, while swamps and orchards were also commonplace. Put short it was a far cry from the place we see today. In 1825 the Grosvenors decided they would take steps to develop the land with houses and other buildings as well as sewers and pavements, in doing so introducing much of the necessary infrastructure.

The Earl of Essex was the first person to buy a home on Belgrave Square and others followed suit, marking the beginnings of a more fashionable place to be. Georgian homes were built and stables were converted while larger Victorian properties that now house embassies were later constructed. And it is against this backdrop that today’s impressive Belgravia district was introduced to London and from which it has developed into what we now witness at the heart of the capital.