page_title: Belgrave Square
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Belgrave Square / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Statue Of Prince Henry The Navigator-Belgrave Square London
context_page_description: Belgrave Square is a large, grandiose architecture 19th-century garden square in London. It is the centrepiece of Belgravia and its architecture resembles the original scheme of property contractor Thomas Cubitt who engaged George Basevi for all of the terraces for the 2nd Earl Grosvenor, later the 1st Marquess of Westminster, in the 1820s. Most of the houses were occupied by 1840. The square takes its name from one of the Duke of Westminster's subsidiary titles, Viscount Belgrave. The village and former manor house of Belgrave, Cheshire were among the rural landholdings associated with the main home and gardens of the senior branch of the family, Eaton Hall. Today, many embassies occupy buildings on all four sides.
context_section_description: The square is perfectly 650 feet (200 m) across, inclusive of small porch projections. It essentially four terraces, each of eleven grand white stuccoed houses save for cream-coloured projecting corner houses, apart from the south-east terrace, divided into twelve; detached mansions are in three corners; and a private central garden. 
  Numbering is anticlockwise from the north: NW terrace, №s1 to 11; west corner mansion, №12; SW terrace, №s13 to 23; south corner mansion, №24; SE terrace. №s25 to 36; east corner mansion, №37; NE terrace №s38 to 48. Slightly later north corner mansion №49 was drawn up by Cubitt (not to be confused with his son George, another architect, ennobled as Lord Ashcombe) for Sidney Herbert in 1851. 
  The terraces were designed by George Basevi — their level of praise such as listed building category is more common among noble families own 'town house' London houses rather than the speculative building leases which saw their creation. 
  The largest corner mansion, №37 (Seaford House), was designed by Philip Hardwick. №12 was designed by Robert Smirke. The square features statues of Christopher Columbus, Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín, Prince Henry the Navigator and the 1st Marquess of Westminster, a bust of George Basevi, and a sculpture entitled Homage to Leonardo by Italian sculptor Enzo Plazzotta.
  From its construction until the Second World War the square saw building rentals and longer leases by the upper echelons of capitalists seeking further influence, status or socialising in the capital. Such success was immediate. This was encapsulated by the decision of another of London's leading freeholders and estate planners, the Duke of Bedford, to choose №6 as London accommodation rather than any house on his own Bloomsbury, which had lost its aristocratic cachet.
  The square has hosted embassies since its first century, which has increased, including the German Embassy, which occupies three houses on the west sides. During World War II, the square was used as a tank park; afterwards most of the houses were converted into offices for charities and institutes. The 21st century has seen more domestic leases, such as three by the Grosvenor Estate in 2004. The present Duke of Westminster co-administers and enjoys a stake in billion-pound family trusts as the lease-encumbered freeholder i.e. reversioner, entitled to the ground rents and lease renewal premiums, of the family estate, which is largely intact, stretching from the Thames to Marble Arch and the remainder of Oxford Street but which omits Victoria Station, St James's and Buckingham Palace.
caption: Statue of Prince Henry the Navigator in Belgrave Square, erected in 2002
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