Lowndes Close , Belgravia

Lowndes Close is a cobbled mews which runs east off Lowndes Place, through an arched entrance with the Grosvenor crest. It is a cul-de-sac. The Spanish Embassy backs onto it.
No. 11 on the north side is particularly pretty, with an unusual middle window on the first floor.
The Lowndes estate, which was just to the east of the Grosvenor Estate, was owned by the Lowndes family, who were originally from Buckinghamshire.
The creator of the estate was William Lowndes, who became Secretary of the Treasury. He bought the land in 1723. In the 1820s, his grandson, William Lowndes, was spurred into developing the land by the developments the Grosvenors were carrying out to the east and south.
In Mediaeval times this land had belonged to the Abbots of Westminster and it was a small wood where the monks cut their firewood. By the time of Charles II, it was a public garden, visited by Pepys.