The secret history of Belgravia’s smartest streets

In fact, Belgravia was not part of London at all, but a rural space between Chelsea and the capital. In the Middle Ages its marshland and grazing land was known as Five Fields, but as the city grew, market gardens were planted here to provide Londoners with fresh food.

The fields centred on the River Westbourn, a tributary that rose in Hampstead and flowed down towards the Thames. That river could only be crossed at the Bloody Bridge – close to modern-day Sloane Square – which gained its name from the dreadful murders committed here in the eighteenth century.

Five Fields had belonged to the Grosvenor family since the late seventeenth century. However, in 1826, Richard Grosvenor, the 2nd Marquess of Westminster, received permission to drain the ‘open and rural space known as the Five Fields and build a new and elegant town connecting London and Chelsea.’

By this point Chelsea was a prosperous village, linked to London via the King’s Road. That road ended at Buckingham Palace, a royal residence since George III acquired the house in 1762. So, Richard Grosvenor decided to construct a neighbourhood for the courtiers and aristocrats who wanted to live close to the monarch. He chose the name Belgravia after the village of Belgrave in Cheshire, a few miles from his family seat at Eaton Hall.

The new neighbourhood was structured around a series of squares. The most impressive was Eaton Square, laid out by Thomas Cubitt in 1827 and assembled from terraces of imposing townhouses with stucco facades and elaborate classical decorations. By 1830 work had started on the surrounding streets of Eaton Terrace, Eaton Place and South Eaton Place, which not only shared the name of the square, but also its architectural ambitions.

Eaton Square has been home to numerous royals and statemen over the years. However, the rest of these addresses have also attracted notable names. For instance, Anthony Armstrong-Jones – the society photographer who married Princess Margaret – was born on Eaton Terrace in 1930. The physicist Lord Kelvin lived on Eaton Place, as well as the liberal politician William Ewart, who first proposed the idea of commemorative blue plaques. On South Eaton Place, two of those plaques decorate the same house, recalling Lord Robert Cecil and Philip Noel-Baker, both winners of Nobel Peace Prize who lived at No.16.

The house next door, No.14, is currently for sale with Russell Simpson. Its interiors share the impressive proportions, lofty rooms and traditional design you would expect from this historic setting. But the house also provides off-street parking, thanks to a rear garden opening onto Minera Mews, which is far less common for this neighbourhood.

South Eaton Place is much quieter than the neighbouring square. Whereas most of those properties have been turned into flats, the houses on this street remain intact. But they still have the stucco facades and classical dressings appropriate to London’s smartest neighbourhood.

The street is also exceptionally well-positioned. From here, Sloane Square and Victoria Station are a short walk away, while the village-like collection of delis, cafes and food shops in the pedestrianised Pavilion Road are also close. Best of all, every Saturday morning nearby Orange Square hosts a popular farmers’ market, where locals come to collect vegetables, meat, fish and cheeses – all produced within a hundred miles of London.

Attractions like these give the streets of Belgravia a personal feel. They may contain some of London’s most aristocratic addresses, but they also offer a comfortable home – discreet yet convenient, grand yet intimate. Far removed from the Georgian neighbourhood that no respectable gentleman or lady would dare to visit after dark.