With Notices of its Immediate Neighbourhood. BY THE LATE HENRY GEORGE DAVIS. EDITED BY CHARLES DAVIS. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY J. RUSSELL SMITH, SOHO-SQUARE; AND TO BE HAD OF MR. DAVIS, ST. PAUL’S SCHOOLS, KNIGHTSBRIDGE. 1859. LONDON: TAYLOR AND GREENING, PRINTERS, GRAYSTOKE-PLACE, FETTER-LANE, HOLBORN....

In presenting the Memorials of Knightsbridge to the public, apology must be made for the delay in its appearance since the announcement of its intended publication.  This was occasioned by the sudden and protracted illness of its Editor: since his restoration, he has prosecuted the work with all the diligence which his time permitted. The book is published in the hope that its critics may treat its Author kindly, since the brain that indited it is, alas! no more.  It is the result of great assid

  PAGE Allen, John 181 Bennett, Rev. W. J. E. 97 Bensley, Richard 207 Birkhead Family 88 Blessington, Lady 138 Bellamy, G. A. 215 Bernal, Ralph 230 Bowles, Carrington 143 Broughton, Dr. 228 Buckingham, Anecdote of Duke of 27 Burton, Judge 115 & 185 Carlisle, Frederick Earl of 233 Caulfield, General 229 Chardin, Sir John 215 Cheselden, Mr. 182 Chudleigh, Miss 164 Clarendon, Hyde, Earl of 223 Clarke, Mrs. 265 Corbaux, Miss 266 Cornellys, Mrs. 156 Cromwell, Family of 75 Danvers, Family of 8

Albert Gate 100 All Saints’ Church 98 Avery Farm Row 252 Baber’s Floor-cloth Factory 106 Belgravia 216 Belgrave Chapel 237 Belgrave Square 224 Belgrave Street, Upper 242 Blomfield Terrace 253 Bridge, The 20 Brompton Park Nursery 132 Brompton Road 103 Cake House, The 121 Cannon Brewhouse, The 113 Cavalry Barracks 118 Chapel Street 226 Chatham House 103 Chelsea Bun House 259 Chesham Place and Street 228 Chester Street 228 College of St. Barnabas 250 Commercial Road, The 253 Compasses, The 263 Down

  PAGE Act for Building Albert Gate (Appendix) 277 Address to Liston by Rodwell 191 Anecdote connected with the Duke of Wellington 187 Assassination, Intended, of William III. 36 Bad State of the Roads 24 Boscobel Oak, Trees from 130 Cattle ordered to be Slaughtered at Knightsbridge 33 Churchwardens of St. Paul’s 97 Club at the Fox and Bull 112 Cromwell Tradition, The (Appendix) 275 Cross-road Burial, The last 237 Dangers of the Five Fields 220 Derivation of Name 2 Description of Communion-plate

Page 235 , line 19, for “Grosvenor Row” read “Grosvenor Place.” [0] “Instructed by the Antiquary Times, We are, we must, we cannot but be wise.” Shakspeare . Knightsbridge and Pimlico form the only suburbs west of the metropolis, whose history remains unwritten.  This neglect, perhaps, is owing to the fact that neither place, till of late, assumed sufficient importance to attract the topographical writer; nevertheless, I trust the following pages will show that Knightsbridge is far from destitut

The land constituting this district appears to have belonged originally to King Edward the Confessor.  There is, in the British Museum, a charter still preserved, a translation of which was printed by Mr. Faulkner, in which, giving to the church at Westminster the manor of Cealchyth (Chelsea), with various emoluments and privileges, the charter proceeds—“Besides, together with this manor, every third tree, and every horse load of fruits, grown in the neighbouring wood at Kyngesbyrig , which, as

—“Thus I entertain The antiquarian humour, and am pleased To skim along the surfaces of things, Beguiling harmlessly the listless hours.” Wordsworth . So small a place as our hamlet formerly was, it could not have many historical associations of which to boast, and this chapter must, therefore, be brief.  Too small and unimportant to be the scene of great contests, or of political intrigues, few notices of it in connection with history occur, but those few are far from being uninteresting. In th

Was anciently attached to a Lazar-house or Hospital, with the history of which it is most intimately connected.  When or by whom founded is not known—at least, if such is recorded, it is not mentioned by any writer on ecclesiastical affairs; but as it appears always to have been attached to the Abbey of Westminster, we may conclude its foundation was connected with that establishment. The earliest mention I have met with of the Lazar-house is in a grant of James I., preserved in the British Muse

There are no registers of marriages here now, anterior to April 1st, 1658, but in the Bishop’s register are some earlier ones, the first of which is the following:— 16th April, 1632.  Thomas Herbert, of Hammond Head, com. York, Esq., bachelor, 24; and Lucy Alexander, spinster, 20, daughter of Sir William Alexander. The earliest in the Chapel register book is as follows:— 1658, April 1.  William Eaton and Jane Hurley were married. 1661, ffeb. 10.  Richard Steele and Eliza Cotterill per me Ant. Do

      “Belgravia! that fair spot of ground Where all that worldlings covet most is found! Of this stupendous town—this mighty heart! Of England’s frame— the fashionable part!” Belgravia : a Poem . Between the Hamlet of Knightsbridge and the district of Pimlico are a number of streets and squares to which the fashionable term of Belgravia has been given, and which is now the recognised name of the locality.  Southward of the old King’s Road has for 200 years been known as Pimlico.  To this bounda

“Nor rough nor barren are the winding ways Of hoar antiquity, but strown with flowers.” Warton . The district parish of St. Paul’s, Knightsbridge, stretching southward to the Thames, embraces in its bounds a considerable part of Pimlico.  When St. Barnabas’ Church was built, for the local management of the parish, this southern portion was allotted to its minister’s care, and therefore I follow a division most suitable for my plan, and give a brief outline of the history of this part of the pari

“The more carefully we examine the history of the past, the more reason shall we find to dissent from those who imagine that our age has been fruitful of new social evils.  The truth is that the evils are, with scarcely an exception, old.  That which is new is the intelligence which discerns, and the humanity which remedies them.”— Macaulay . Having with the previous chapter brought my account of Knightsbridge to a close, I cannot more appropriately conclude than by a few remarks on subjects com

In the Issue Roll of the Exchequer, edited by Frederick Devon, are several payments in the 43rd Henry III. to Henry de Knythebrig, Nicholas de Eye, and others, carpenters employed at the King’s Palace.  A Richard Knightsbridge was rector of Sheatham in 1640; and the name, though rarely, may still occasionally be met with....

Until the year 1853 there stood a curious and lonely mansion in the Brompton Lanes known as Cromwell House.  The original name was Hale House, but it was never called by it within the memory of any now living.  There are one or two versions of the story attached to this old house printed; but they do not entirely agree with that which I have always heard—to the effect, that on some occasion Cromwell’s troop was quartered at Knightsbridge; and he one day venturing to stray among the lanes of Brom

As the Act of Parliament which authorised the improvement at Albert Gate may prove hereafter to be one greatly affecting the inhabitants of the hamlet and the frequenters of the Park, the clause relating to Knightsbridge is here appended. The Bill passed May 10th, 1841, and received the Royal Assent a short time following:— “Anno Quarto Victoriæ Reginæ, Chapter XII.  An Act to enable Her Majesty’s Commissioners of Woods to make a new Street from Coventry Street, Piccadilly, to Long Acre, and for

The following brief notices are considered worthy of addition to the work.  In the first place, the days of the Old Chapel, with its present undignified appearance and circumscribed circle of usefulness, are numbered.  It is purposed, so soon as Dr. Wilson can procure the necessary funds, some £3,000, to pull down the present ruinous edifice, and erect a structure in its stead more worthy of the present position of Knightsbridge.  Seventy years ago it was a poor rural hamlet: it is now a wealthy