This riverside Westminster neighbourhood is a truly unique part of town that is home to the fantastic Tate Britain, the Chelsea College of Arts, and a great deal of high density former social housing. The redbrick Millbank Estate, completed in 1902, gives the streets just behind the Tate a notable character, but the most notable of the former council houses are the eccentric chequerboard blocks of flats on Page Street, designed by Edwin Lutyens and built in 1930. Beautiful rows of Georgian terraced houses occupy the streets to the south west, approaching the busy Vauxhall Bridge, and Millbank itself exists as a rumbling thoroughfare separating the buildings from the river in front of it. Pimlico tube station is a convenient transport hub on the Victoria line, and numerous bus routes traverse the congested local streets bringing commuters from areas further afield to the numerous important institutions that reside nearby.

The name Millbank derives from the medieval watermills that once stood on the embanked riverside until they were pulled down in the early 18th century. It was described by Samuel Pepys as a place of plague pits, bogs and quagmires, and perfect for shooting snipe. The area was sparsely covered with residential houses until Millbank Prison was built in 1816, becoming the largest prison in the country and infamous for its poor conditions. The mid-19th century Thames Embankment project was responsible for the construction of what we now know as Millbank. The prison was demolished in 1892 and the Tate built on its site, opened by sugar magnate Sir Henry Tate. The area was badly flooded in 1928, leading to a great deal of rebuilding, which has given the locality its appearance today. In 1973, the Provisional IRA detonated a bomb in front of the Home Office on Thorney Street injuring over 50 people. The Royal Army Medical College, where the first vaccine for typhoid was developed, was converted into the Chelsea College of Arts in 2005.

The art deco greasy spoon, the Regency Café, is located on Regency Street and has become a tourist attraction due to its use as a filming location for films such as Layer Cake, Brighton Rock, and Pride, because of its original interior. It also appeared in a photoshoot for Japanese Vogue. Despite its celebrity status, the café still serves down to earth British fare for a reasonable price, and it’s not uncommon to see artsy tourists and students eating a fry up alongside builders and elderly locals.

Beyond its architectural interest, the neighbourhood has little personality, and definitely no community feel, due in part to the high rent prices locally. Millbank can also prove noisy and polluted; a slight on the neoclassical idyll of the Tate Britain.

The iconic Millbank Tower is currently under development, after the Reuben brothers made a successful application in 2016 to convert it into a five-star hotel and 207 luxury apartments. The tower is a 118-metre Grade II listed tower and podium building from 1963 on the banks of river Thames. The British Film Institute has also accepted an invitation to be the Tower’s cultural partner, and are planning to create a new national centre for the future of the moving image. This will be a big selling point for a neighbourhood that is currently lacking in economic, culture and leisure activities. Development is set to begin in 2024, once existing tenancies cease. Not too far from the Tower, and still along Millbank, is another lucrative refurbishment. 7 Millbank in Westminster, which was built in two phases between 1912 and 1929 and was the head office of British American Tobacco, is getting a makeover designed by Make Architects. Work will involve dismantling, repairing and reconstructing the existing facade and building a new office building within.