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 18^th 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.

Innovations included the provision of its own water supply from four boreholes, from which water was pumped to reservoirs in the gardens and tanks on the roof.

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

https://www.dolphinsquare.co.uk/