This neighbourhood represents a good chunk of the Pimlico area, a rhombus- slice of London, in between Vauxhall Bridge Road, Warwick Way, St. George’s Drive and Lupus Street. Belgrave Street cuts through the centre of the locality, paralleling Vauxhall Bridge Road and St. George’s Drive. The area is mostly residential, though Belgrave Street is home to numerous hotels, and some pubs around the area. A lot of the area’s architecture consists of well-built Victorian stucco houses, though to the east of Belgrave Street, near to Westminster, is the Lillington and Longmoore Gardens estate, one of the last high-density public housing estates to be built (construction started from the 1960s up to 1981). Despite its density, it is a medium-rise development, being no more than 6 stories high. It is today a conservation site. The estate is also one of the greener areas of the neighbourhood, with the other major green space being Warwick Square, nearer Victoria.

The area is considered a reasonably upscale area today, though when the residences were first constructed, it was meant for middle-class residents, as opposed to nearby Belgravia, which was far more affluent. Prior to that, however, Pimlico was a swampy area with a bunch of cottages. The increasing demand for property caused by the dramatic growth in London’s population began development westwards. The area was under the ownership of the Grosvenors by 1825, when Lord Grosvenor commissioned Thomas Cubitt (who also helped work on Buckingham Palace) to develop the area.

Warwick Square is one of the best examples of Thomas Cubitt’s work in developing the Pimlico area. Home to nearly 250 flats, the gardens are sadly not open to the public, but instead to prestigious ‘key-holders’, owners of the flats surrounding the gardens.

The neighbourhood is amongst the most well-designed and beautiful in London, and is well connected to various bus, rail and tube lines. However, the area does have a lack of green spaces, particularly if you are not fortunate enough to be a ‘key-holder’. High volumes of foot and vehicle traffic are also characteristic of the area, with the congestion faced by through traffic onwards to and from Vauxhall Bridge and the many tourists who base themselves in one of the area’s hotels.

Despite the area being mostly historical buildings, and therefore immune to façade redevelopments, many of its terraces, unlike nearby Belgravia, have been divided into flats. 3 Lupus Street, for example, only 50 metres from Pimlico underground station, was granted full Planning Consent for conversion to a 4-bedroom flat in 2017. Nearby, the Dolphine Square Estates are undergoing major refurbishment, the first phase of which began in 2021. The restoration is expected to be fully completed in 2029.