Dolphin Square
One of our
stops on a recent guided walk around Pimlico was at a large, neo-Georgian apartment
complex on Grosvenor Road. This grand-looking block of flats dominating the
riverbank turns out to have quite a colourful history - well worth writing a
few words about!
Prior to the late 18th century this whole
area of Westminster was occupied by market gardens. These days it is a very
desirable residential district. Dolphin Square, a block of private flats dating
from 1935-7, was built on the site of the former works of the developer Thomas
Cubitt. Set up in 1839 and using the latest steam-driven technology, this vast
factory produced the joinery, glass, plasterwork, steel and marble needed for
the construction of the new district of Pimlico.
On Cubitt’s death in the 1850s, the works were leased
to the War Department and became an army clothing depot. In 1933, the leasehold
reverted to the Duke of Westminster, and three years later, in November 1936,
the current building (the work of architect Richard Costain) opened.
Whereas previous city blocks had been built for the
very rich (e.g. in Kensington) or the very poor (the Peabody houses that replaced
Victorian slums), Dolphin Square was conceived as a “high-class” residential
complex of dwellings for the professional classes – relatively modest in size, but
with a full range of services. This was a time in which apartment buildings in
Britain were sufficiently unusual that some people dubbed them “French flats.
In a
promotional booklet the development was described as “a city of 1,250 flats, each enjoying at the same time most of the
advantages of the separate house and the big communal dwelling place.” At
the time it was built it was the largest block of flats in Europe, built on a
7.5-acre site.
The accommodation consists of 13 blocks (or “houses”),
each named after a famous navigator or admiral, grouped round an internal
courtyard. When it opened, it had flats varying in size from one-bedroom suites
to larger ones with five bedrooms, a maid’s room and three bathrooms. On-site
facilities for residents included shops, sports facilities, a beauty parlour,
launderette, a children’s centre and nursery, a library and an underground car
park for up to 300 cars. The planned riverside wharf, which included a café,
marina and a terraced garden with steps leading from Grosvenor Road down to a
private jetty by the Thames, was never realised.
The proximity of Dolphin Square to the Palace of
Westminster and the headquarters of both MI5 and MI6 has always made it a
desirable address for politicians, peers, civil servants and intelligence
agency staff. At one time it was home to more than 70 MPs and at least 10 Lords. Famous residents include: Harold Wilson,
David Steel, Bud Flanagan, the actor Peter Finch, Princess Anne… not
forgetting, of course, Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies. In 1940 Oswald
Mosley and his wife were taken for internment from their flat in Dolphin
Square.
The complex suffered much damage during the war with
the area being bombed no fewer than 18 times, but was still used for various
purposes. Grenville House became the headquarters of de Gaulle’s Free French,
the garage used as an ambulance depot, and the gymnasium became a hospital. Between
1924 and 1946, Number 308 Hood House was used by the MI5 section responsible
for infiltrating agents into potentially subversive groups.
The
Dolphin Square estate today is still much sought-after. Facilities today
include a bar, brasserie, gymnasium and shopping arcade with a launderette and
car park in the basement, and a tennis court and croquet lawn overlooking the
river. In recent years it achieved notoriety when police investigations were
opened into alleged child abuse at the flats involving prominent MPs, but
witnesses were discredited and in the end no charges were brought.
In
1990 the site was designated as the Dolphin Square Conservation Area in
recognition of its historical significance as an early attempt at providing
high density housing. The 3.5 acres of communal gardens are very much as they
were at the time of construction in 1935 and are (unlike the flats) Grade II-listed.
Features include a central pool with a bronze sculpture of dolphins and a
raised “Spanish Garden”.
References:
BBC News website August 2015: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33785352
