I have always had a keen interest in etymology (the origin of a word and the historical development of its meaning) and decided to write a light-hearted post for Friday about the history of street names around our office in Belgravia.
Interestingly, a lot of the names are after landowners who owned land in different parts of Britain.
I won’t list them all, as there are quite a few, but will give you all a snippet of the more well-known ones:
- Belgrave Square – after local landowners the Grosvenors (titled Viscounts Belgrave), after their home estate of Belgrave, Cheshire
- Buckingham Palace Road – by association with Buckingham Palace, originally built for John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham
- Chesham Street – after the Lowndes family, former local landowners, whose seat was at Chesham, Buckinghamshire
- Chester Square – after local landowners the Grosvenors, who owned land in Chester
- Eaton Square, – after the Grosvenors, whose family seat is Eaton Hall, Cheshire
- Elizabeth Street – Elizabeth Leveson-Gower was the wife of Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster
- West Halkin Street – after the Grosvenors, who owned Halkyn Castle in Wales
- Motcomb Street – Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster owned land in Motcombe, Dorset
- Pimlico Road – as it leads to Pimlico, possibly named after Ben Pimlico, 17th century brewer
- Semley Place – after the Grosvenors, who owned a property called Semley
- Sloane Square – after Hans Sloane, local landowner when this area was built up in the 18th century
Have a great Bank Holiday weekend!
