It is not known where the name comes from. Wild guesses include Ben Pimlico, a 16th century inn owner, and the Pamlico tribe of red Indians who exported timber to England in the 17th century. Pimlico was originally used to describe a small group of cottages in the area. It was mainly wasteland in the 18th century, with some market gardens. But it became an attractive proposition for house building when George IV decided to turn Buckingham House (bought by his father George III from the Duke of Buckingham) into the principal London palace for the court. The land belonged to the Grosvenor estate. Thomas Cubitt, who had already successfully developed Belgravia, obtained the right to develop Pimlico in the 1830s. It was always intended to be slightly downmarket from Belgravia. It was not a particular commercial success when it was completed, and remained an area of boarding houses and hotels for most of the 20th century.

Pimlico’s houses were mainly converted into flats or hotels in the mid-20th century. But in the last few years hotels have been giving way to flats, and have even been converted back into single houses. Cubitt streets run between St George’s Square and Sutherland Street, down to Lupus Street. These contain terraces of stucco or brick-and-stucco faced buildings, with some more modern building were original houses were destroyed by wartime bombing.

There are three large garden squares lining the west side of Belgrave Road: Ecclestone Square, Warwick Square and St George’s Square. These all contain terraces of stucco faced houses which look out onto central gardens. These have mostly been converted into flats. There are a large number of mews in Pimlico, built behind the main roads or squares, such as Warwick Square Mews, Moreton Terrace Mews (North and South), and St George’s Square Mews.

There is a cluster of streets between Bessborough Street and the river. Bessborough Gardens was a new garden square built after the Second World War near Vauxhall Bridge Road. There was more new building of town houses nearby in Lindsay Square and Balvaird Place. Between Belgrave Road and Vauxhall Bridge Road there are council-built properties in Lillington and Longmoore Gardens.

On the west side of Pimlico below Ebury Bridge Road are the Peabody properties built in Peabody Avenue and Turpentine Lane. The area between Lupus Street and the river generally contains larger developments and mansion blocks. The largest of all is Dolphin Square, built in the 1930s. Properties are generally for rent not to buy. The council-built Churchill Gardens Estate is at the west end of Lupus Street. Nearer the river, new developments have been slotted in wherever possible between Grosvenor Road and the river, or with views of the river. These include Crown Reach, The Panoramic, River Lodge, St George’s Wharf, the Belvederes, Eagle Wharf, and Grosvenor Waterside.