What’s it got that we love?
In the classic Ealing comedy Passport to Pimlico, this central London district declares itself part of the House of Burgundy. Although fanciful, it picks up on the neighbourhood’s sense of elegant discretion. “Pimlico is extremely central, but also quiet and peaceful,” says Lucy Living of Savills Westminster and Pimlico, who lives in the area. “It’s one of the best locations in London.”
This is helped by housing stock that includes handsome terraces of white stucco townhouses and a location near the Thames’s eternal riverscapes, Tate Britain and the Houses of Parliament – which is why Pimlico has long been a favourite for politicians’ pieds-à-terre.
The area was built on market gardens. One origin story cites an apocryphal brewer called Ben Pimlico, but Pimlico really found its feet in the Regency era, when master builder Thomas Cubitt made it a raffish counterpoint to Chelsea and Belgravia. A sense of sophistication lingers on in its squares and in the intersecting terraces known as the Pimlico Grid. Victoria station offers a passport to the countryside – and, if the Nine Elms Pimlico Bridge is built, residents will be able to saunter to south London. But Pimlico will retain its sense of seclusion.
