lain but spacious red-brick building, in Early
English style by Brierley and Demaine, with seats (free) for 850.
Adjoining is the Grosvenor Club and Grosvenor Hall, used for social
entertainments, etc. Nearly the whole of the south side of the road has
recently been demolished in view of the extension of Victoria Station.

Inhabitants--Stafford Row: W. Ryland, engineer, executed for forgery
1767; Mrs. Radcliffe, authoress of the "Mysteries of Udolpho"; Richard
Yates, d. 1796. Lower Belgrave Place: No. 3, George Grote, historian
(later 102, Buckingham Palace Road); 29 and 30, Sir Francis Chantrey,
1814-41 (later 98, Buckingham Palace Road); 27, Allan Cunningham, poet,
1824-42; 96, Henry Weekes, R.A. Buckingham Palace Road: E. B. Stephen,
R.A., 1882.

From the end of Buckingham Palace Road Chelsea was reached by the
present Pimlico Road, so called in 1871, when the old names of Jews'
Row, Grosvenor Row (1785), and Queen Street (1774) were abolished. The
origin of the name Pimlico is uncertain. There was one also at Hoxton,
where a certain Ben Pimlico kept a noted hostelry in Queen Elizabeth's
time. It is now officially used to denote the whole district south of
Knightsbridge, but is popularly confined to the part between Chester
Square and the Thames. It began to be sparsely inhabited in 1680, after
which date it is mentioned occasionally in the rate-books, and regularly
after 1739.

On the north side, near the east end, are two narrow streets--Clifford's
Row (1785), and King Street (1785). At the corner of Ebury Street stood
an old inn, the Goat and Compasses, now replaced by the Three Compasses
public-house. Further on is the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, built
about 1850 as a chapel of ease to St. Barnabas. Adjoining is the site of
the Chelsea Bun House, in its best days kept by Richard Hand, "who has
the honour to serve the Royal Family." It was celebrated by Swift in
1711, and was taken down in 1839. Opposite stood Strombelo or Stromboli
House, a minor place of amusement, at its height in 1788. Near here Nell
Gwynne is said to have lived, and her name is kept up by the Nell Gwynne
Tavern and a passage called Nell Gwynne Cottages.

Between the Pimlico and Commercial Roads are several small streets. In
Bloomfield Place stood St. John's School for girls, established in 1859
under the auspices of the Sisterhood of St. John; adjoining, under the
same management, St. Barnabas' Mission House and St. Barnabas'
Orphanag