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Wilton Crescent is a street in Belgravia, London.
Contents
Map of Wilton Cres, Belgravia, London SW1X 8RX, UK
Overview
Wilton Crescent was created by Thomas Cundy II, the Grosvenor family estate surveyor, and was drawn up with the original 1821 Wyatt plan for Belgravia. It was named at the time of Thomas Egerton, 2nd Earl of Wilton, second son of Robert Grosvenor, 1st Marquess of Westminster on whose estate the road was built in 1825 by Seth Smith.
In the 19th and 20th century, it was home to many prominent British politicians, ambassadors and civil servants. Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1900–1979) lived at 2 Wilton Crescent for many years. Today there is a blue plaque on the house marking this. Like much of Belgravia, Wilton Crescent is characterised by grand terraces with lavish white houses which are built in a crescent shape, many of them with stuccoed balconies, particularly on the southern part of the crescent. The houses to the north of the crescent are stone clad and five stories high and were refaced between 1908 and 1912. Most of the houses had originally been built in the stucco style, but such houses became stone clad during this renovation period. Other houses today have black iron balconies.
Wilton Crescent lies east of Lowndes Square and Lowndes Street, to the northwest of Belgrave Square. It is accessed via Wilton Place which connects it to the main road in Knightsbridge. It is adjacent to Grosvenor Crescent to the east, which contains the Indonesian Embassy. Further to the east lies Buckingham Palace. The play Major Barbara is partly set at Lady Britomart's house in Wilton Crescent. In 2007, Wilton Garden in the middle of the crescent won a bronze medal by the London Gardens Society.
There are two diplomatic buildings in Wilton Crescent: the High Commission of Singapore at No. 9, and the Embassy of Luxembourg at No. 27 (formerly home to the Luxembourgish government-in-exile).