Tuesday 22 November 2005

Thomas Cubitt: Belgravia & beyond

Grosvenor Crescent, Belgravia (right), just part of the high-density suburb of Belgravia (left and below) that was just one largely knocked up across London by rapacious developer Thomas Cubitt in the days before zoning was invented. Cubitt might almost be said to have invented the high-density London suburb damn him. People hate them*, and pay enormous amounts of money to avoid having to live in them.

Isn't it amazing just what developers were allowed to get away with in the days before those nice planners began to rein them in, thank goodness!

*This, by the way, is irony, just in case you wondered.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I must say, Cubitt's privately owned creations look much better than the facade he designed for Buckingham Palace!

The main difference being that the Belgravian's seem to protect their investments by cleaning and painting them.

Last time I saw Buck house the first thing that struck me was the fact that the stone-work looked like it had an inch of soot on it.
S'pose that's what you get with "public" buildings.

Anonymous said...

I worked on many of these buildings when living in London. They were a real treat as they provided plenty of oportunity to show one's skill.

Retired Belgravian said...

Most property in Belgravia is subject legal repairing covenants that require lease holders to repair and paint the property on a 3- 5 year cycle . The Grosvenor Estate is fairly hot on maintaining a very high standard right down to stipulating the correct shade of paint and manufacturer