From Westminster to Belgravia

This walk takes you from Westminster to Belgravia from the home of democracy to the home of the aristocracy via the home of the monarch. This one is quite long about 2 miles, so I hope you are full of energy.
We begin at Westminster Bridge, which you can’t miss coming out of Westminster tube station on the Jubilee line. The Corporation of London held back the building of Westminster Bridge for 70 years for fears of the damage it would do to the trade in Southwark and also because they were worried about impoverishing the ferrymen - they’d even write the King Charles II to oppose the building plans. The first Westminster bridge that opened in 1750 was dubbed 'the bridge of fools'. Corners were cut in its construction and its cheap, shallow foundations suffered from constant subsidence. Several of the piers had to be rebuilt before it was finally demolished in 1862 and completely rebuilt as the bridge that stands today. On the western end of the bridge you can see a statue of a fierce looking woman riding a chariot. This warrior Queen was the scourge of Roman Londinium.
Boudica, or Bodicea as we used to called her when I was a lad. She was Queen of the Iceni, a fierce tribe from East Anglia, and when she came charging into London they were so terrified they ran for their lives leaving just the women and the children to be slaughtered. In fact, when the archeologists came to look, they only thing they found from this period was a layer of red clay where the whole place had been burnt to the ground and a whole lot of skulls in the ? above. Nevertheless, in spite of the lack of stone, London was soon built up again and this time they made sure there were fortifications.
Behind you is, of course, the home of British government. This is the Palace of Westminster, which used to be a royal residence. From way back in the time of William the Conqueror all the way through to Henry VIII all the kings lived here, and then in 1512 it burned down and Henry VIII had to move out and the politicians took it over for the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
In 1834 another fire caused massive damage and very little of the old palace remained standing. In its place the Victorians built this - a wonderful gothic building. It was in Parliament Square that the world’s first traffic light was installed in 1868 even before the invention of the car. It was lit by gas and operated by a policeman but unfortunately it exploded after a few weeks.
Leave the Square by Great George Street, then turn right onto Horse Guards Road - you are about to discover the underground bunker from which Winston Churchill directed the British war effort. The people who ran the country didn’t really have much more protection than the average Londoner. There were plans to build deep underground shelters way outside London, but then people might think they were being deserted so in the end they came here to what had been the Office of Works. It was reckoned to be a strong building and, of course, it had a basement which is very handy. It was close-by number 10 Downing St and also the Houses of Parliament, and so this became the Central Emergency Headquarters, now known as the Cabinet War Rooms.
This is the War Cabinet Room. It’s quite exciting to be down here. This was where the cabinet met, for the first time on the 15th October 1940. At least that was the first time Churchill came down here because the day before a bomb had actually damaged 10 Downing St and he realised that the heads of government ought to be underground and a bit further away from the bombs. I’m sitting on the seat of the Cabinet Secretary, this is Churchill’s chair, that would be Attlee and there were the 3 chiefs-of-staff in the middle of the room.
Leaving the Cabinet War Rooms, head down Birdcage Walk. On your right is St James’s Park - the oldest royal park in London. The Tudors used to hold royal pageants and fetes here and it was turned into a more formal park by Charles II. On the left you’ll pass Wellington Barracks, used by the Guards brigade. There’s a small museum along the way explaining that these chaps in bearskins are certainly not toy soldiers. And finally we come to Buckingham Palace. Buckingham Palace is arguably the best known palace in the world. It was built by George IV, but the palace we see today is not how he or his architect John Nash envisaged it.
The original plan was that Nash had a U-shaped building - this is the back, sides of the U and at the front the marble arch as the main entrance. But when Queen Victoria moved in she started having children all over the place, so the palace was just too small. She added a new front and the arch had to go.
So in 1851 they moved it here. And the trouble is they never got round to finishing it. It was supposed to be wonderfully elaborate - gorgeous carvings commemorating the battle of Trafalgar, all that stuff ... and here we are a very plain arch in the wrong place. Maybe, maybe if I borrowed a chisel, I could improve it a bit.
I don’t know if I can improve this one, though. London has actually voted Buckingham palace their fourth most loathed building, so I think we better move swiftly on.
Now, passing the entrance to the Royal Collection and the Royal Mews on your right, head along Buckingham Palace Road and turn right down Lower Grosvenor Place, cross over Grosvenor Place then turn right up Upper Belgrave St and into the heart of Belgravia.
Thomas Cubitt was the son of a Norfolk farmer. At first he earned his living as a ship’s carpenter but when he'd saved enough money he came to London and opened a building firm on Gray’s Inn Road. Then in 1824 he was commissioned by this chap Robert Grosvenor to build a new development in Belgravia and it became Belgrave Square.
The Belgravia project would have made a modern day developer’s dream. It’s located south of Hyde Park and just a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace. The development was a success from the start and it got a huge boost when George IV decided to turn Buckingham House, just over there, into Buckingham Palace. Then the Square itself got the royal seal of approval when Queen Victoria decided to rent number 36 for her mum.
Now, I imagine your legs are pretty stiff after all that walking but salvation is close at hand. Head up Wilton Crescent on the North corner of Belgrave Square then turn right into Wilton Row, at last your final destination - The Grenadier. Here you can put your feet up and enjoy a pint of something refreshing and if you hear any strange noises, don’t worry, it’s probably just one of the resident ghosts. Did I mention that this is one of the most haunted pubs in England? I hope you’ve enjoyed this tour.
Don’t forget you can download more History Channel podcasts at thehistorychannel.co.uk/podcasts, Goodbye!