In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson’s “Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales” described Pimlico like this:
Pimlico, a section of St. George-Hanover Square parish, Westminster, Middlesex; extending from Buckingham-Gate to Chelsea, around a convergence of railways, three miles SW by W of St. Paul’s, London. It formerly was all open fields, belonging to the Grosvenors; it now is all a compact portion of the metropolis, well-built and well-aligned, with many magnificent edifices, and many fashionable squares, streets, and places; it contains Buckingham Palace, Belgrave Square, Eaton Square, Chester Square, Ebury Square, Eccleston Square, Warwick Square, and Wilton Crescent; it has recently acquired various splendid extensions or reconstructions; it contains Victoria rail station, hence railway communication goes in all directions, into the city, across the Thames and into the country; it has post-offices and postal pillar-boxes under London SW; and it contains a police station, Tattershall’s rooms, the Grosvenor basin and a canal to the Thames, wharfs, machinery works, white lead works, cement works, saw-mills, four chapelries, four proprietary chapels, various dissenting chapels, St. Barnabas College with chapel and schools, St. Peter’s Grammar School in Eaton Square, St. Michael’s schools in Tudor architecture, Ebury proprietary school, St. George’s Hospital, rebuilt in 1829, and other institutions. The four chapelries are St. Peter, St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Saviour, with a population of respectively 14, 328, 10, 371, 7, 658, and about 8,000; and the four proprietary chapels are Belgrave, Ebury, Eaton, and Charlotte Street. The livings are per curacies in the diocese of London. Value of St. Peter, £700; of the others, not reported. Patron of St. Peter, the Bishop of London; of St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Saviour, the Marquis of Westminster; of Eaton Chapel, the Rev. J. Rashdall; of Charlotte Street Chapel, P. R. Hoare, Esq.; of the others, not reported. St. Peter’s Church was built in 1824-7, at a cost of £5,556. St. Gabriel’s church was preceded by a temporary iron church, erected in 1861; and was itself built in 1865-6, at a cost of about £12,000. St. Saviour’s Church was built in 1864, at a cost of £12,000, in the decorated English style; and consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with tower and spire 190 feet high. Campbell, the poet, lived in Victoria Square; and Wynne the engraver lived, and Mrs. Radcliffe died, in Stafford Row.
Rev. John Marius Wilson was a British writer and an editor, most notable for his gazettes. The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (published 1870–72), was a substantial topographical dictionary in six volumes. It was a companion to his Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, published 1854–57.
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