Wilton Place to William Street
The whole of this stretch of the road is occupied by a range
of shops and flats, Nos 55–93 Knightsbridge, built in the
early 1900s. This redevelopment, to allow the road to be
widened, was one of the first major street improvements
proposed by the new London County Council in 1889.
Statutory powers were initially obtained in 1891, but, to
avoid the expense of buying out the lessees, the work had to
wait until the last leases expired in 1902 and the freeholders, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (successors to the
Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey), could hand
over the strip of land required for the road with vacant
possession. (ref. 83)
By this time the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were taking the line that the 'gradual extinction' of the renewable
lease system (customary on church-owned properties) was
one of the objects for which they had been appointed. New
leases would be offered in the first place to occupiers only.
Dismayed, head lessees saw their leases extinguished and
premises on which they and their predecessors had spent
heavily, often over many generations, destroyed. (ref. 84)
The old houses were demolished in the late summer of
1902, and redevelopment (nearly all of it completed during
1903) was carried out by making building agreements with
the occupiers. By these agreements, leading to 80-year
leases for themselves or their nominees, occupiers undertook to rebuild on approved but evidently variable plans,
'adapting' the fronts to a master elevation (which included
the flank wall of No. 55. in Wilton Place) prepared by the
Commissioners' architect, W. D. Caröe. Nos 83–91 were
rebuilt by (Sir) William Houghton-Gastrell, occupier of
one of the old houses, on a similar agreement to the rest, but
he was somehow able to secure a 999-year lease, which he
apparently wanted because such a long lease from the Commissioners did not require assignments to be approved. The
new buildings consisted of shops with flats or maisonettes
above, Gastrell's section including Wilton House, No. 87
Knightsbridge, a group of private apartments. (ref. 85)
Also affected by the road-widening was a small wedge of
the Lowndes estate at the top of William Street, where the
northernmost house had to be cut back. A turret was added
on the corner, at No. 93, originally blending with the Caröe
range but now painted over (Plate 17c).
W. D. Caröe's façade (fig. 5), perhaps the most success
ful treatment of any of the late Victorian and Edwardian
blocks along both sides of Knightsbridge, is carried out in
two-inch brick with stone dressings. The rich and often
quirky detail includes six busts, set in pediments over the
first-floor windows: they portray Edward VII, Queen
Alexandra, Field Marshal Lord Roberts, his secondin-command in the Boer War, Lord Kitchener, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Frederick Temple, and the Prime
Minister, Lord Salisbury (Plate 38b, 38c, 38d, 38e, 38f, 38g, 38h, 38i). A plaque records
the year of building as that of Edward's coronation, 1902.
Figure 5:
Nos 55–91 Knightsbridge. W. D Caröe, architect, 1902. Shop fronts restored to presumed original appearance
Caröe's design, however, was made without much
regard for the views and requirements of the occupants of
the new block, one of whom, a butcher, complained that
The whole of the tenants have, either personally or through their
architects and solicitors, strenuously resisted the unheard-of and
unprecedented pretensions of the architect, who, not content
with having a free hand (which he has used unsparingly in
erecting these ornate and costly edifices at the expense of the
tenants . . .) desires to dictate and impose upon them shop-fronts
totally unsuited for their trades. (ref. 86)
Businesses in the newly built block included the Byzanotype Portrait Company, art dealers, Robersons Ltd, the
period-interiors specialists, a newspaper advertising agency, a theatre-ticket office, a bridge club, and one of Hamley
Brothers' toy-shops. (ref. 87)
The redevelopment proved far from beneficial for some
of the lessees, whose small businesses did not require large
premises but who had to pay ground-rent on their buildings regardless of whether tenants could be found for their
spare rooms. The problem became acute during the First
World War, and by 1917 all along the new row businesses
had closed; tenants decamped owing rent, and shops and
flats remained empty, in some cases for several years, or
were occupied at nominal rents. (ref. 88)
The Albert Café and Restaurant, an Italian-owned business founded here in the 1880s, was re-established at No.
77, but here there was a different problem: the lack of a
spirits licence. In the past if diners wanted spirits a boy
would run over the road to one of the public houses beside
Holy Trinity Church for them, but after the pubs were
demolished the Ecclesiastical Commissioners refused to
allow a licence to be taken out. This became a serious hindrance to the restaurant, which passed through several
hands before coming to an end during the First World War.
Its last proprictor was 'Sunny Jim' Califano, who had made
something of a name for himself at Romano's and the Savoy
and Cecil Hotels. (ref. 89)
Within a few years of the end of the war things seem to
have picked up and the block was again fully occupied.
From this time the upper floors were increasingly used as
offices. (ref. 90)
Since the Second World War the shops in the block have
been largely occupied by clothing and footwear retailers. In
the 1940s one firm. Margaret Marks Ltd, costumiers,
occupied four adjacent shops, Nos 71–79, and for part of
the '50s and '60s Harvey Nichols had its 'Little Shop' at
Nos 73–79. (ref. 91)
In September 1975 the attempted armed robbery of the
Spaghetti House restaurant at Nos 77–79 led to a six-day
siege of the building, where the robbers, who were linked to
the black rights movement, held hostages in the basement.