Wilton Crescent , Belgravia

Wilton Crescent is considered one of the best addresses in central London. It forms a semi-circle of houses round a beautiful central garden, containing many mature trees and shrubs. It is entered in the north from Wilton Place and this is the northern access to Belgravia when coming from Knightsbridge. On the south side is Belgrave Square.
The houses on the north-west and north-east parts of the Crescent are stone clad, having been refaced about a hundred years ago. They are imposing houses, five storeys high with a semi basement. No. 16 at the north-eastern end has particularly attractive trees and shrubs in front of it.
The houses on the southern part of the Crescent are completely stuccoed. They are also five storeys high with semi basements. Houses are built in classical style with columns and pilasters. Nos. 41-43 and 48 have stuccoed balconies at first floor level, but the rest of the houses have iron balconies. No. 48 also has particularly attractive stucco mouldings above the second floor windows.
There is a magnificent three-storey mansion at the south-west access to the Crescent (although actually numbered 11 A Belgrave Square).
At the south-east access from Belgrave Square, No. 32 is a very substantial stone-clad double-fronted three-storey house. It is in neo-Elizabethan style so it has small leaded window panes and wooden surrounds. There is an attractive bow window on the first floor. Next door, No. 33 is also a magnificent double fronted stuccoed house on three storeys with a semi basements. It has five sweeping front steps leading up to the front door. No. 31 is also a most attractive building.
The name commemorates the ‘Grey de Wilton’ family name of the Wilton family. The first Marquess of Westminster named it after his wife, Lady Eleanor Edgington, whom he married in 1794. Lady Eleanor was the daughter of the first Earl of Wilton.
Wilton Crescent was designed by Thomas Cundy II in the early 1820s when he had taken over as the estate's surveyor. The crescent was constructed from 1825 onwards. Seth Smith built most of the houses.
Most of the houses were built with brick or stucco facings and received their present stone facings in a mass face-lift between 1908 to 1912.
Mountbatten, Earl of Burma (1900-1979) and Countess of Burma (1901-1960) Last Viceroy and Vicereine of India lived at No 2. Algernon Charles Swinburne stayed here in 1856. Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo, twice President of Colombia, also lived at No 33.