Hidden Knightsbridge: A Walk Through Its Quiet Squares and Mews
The best way to find the quiet side of Knightsbridge is to step a few yards off Brompton Road and keep walking. Behind the department stores sit Regency squares, a great Victorian church, a former service street and a cobbled mews with one of London's best loved pubs. This route links them in about an hour on foot, starting at Knightsbridge station and finishing near Belgrave Square, with two places to stop for a drink.
Trevor Square
Leave the station by the Brompton Road exit and turn north up one of the narrow side streets towards Trevor Square. It is an elongated garden square laid out from the 1810s, chiefly by the architect William Fuller Pocock, and the houses on its two long sides, with their slate mansard roofs, went up in the 1820s and are listed. Look for the street sign on neighbouring Lancelot Place: it is named after Lancelot Edward Wood, the stonemason who worked on the square. Within a minute of the traffic, the noise simply drops away.
Montpelier Square
A short walk west brings you to Montpelier Square, a residential garden square of nineteenth century brick houses, partly finished in stucco, set around a private communal garden. Every house facing inwards is listed Grade II, which is why it looks so complete. There are no shops and no cafés here, only railings, front doors and plane trees, and it is x
Brompton Oratory
Turn right and walk a few minutes west to the Brompton Oratory, properly the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is a neo-classical, late Victorian Catholic church and home to the Congregation of the Oratory of St Philip Neri, a community of priests who also run it as a parish church. The scale of the nave surprises most first-time visitors, and the Oratory is known internationally for its sacred music, so a Sunday service with the choir is worth planning around. Check Mass and opening times on the London Oratory website before you go, as visiting is limited during services.
Kinnerton Street
Now head back east past Harrods, cross Sloane Street and follow Lowndes Street to Motcomb Street, where the narrow opening of Kinnerton Street leads off to the north. It was built as a service street for the grand houses of Wilton Crescent and Wilton Street on the Grosvenor Estate, named after Lower Kinnerton in Cheshire, a place tied to the Grosvenor family. Its tradesmen, servants and stables have long since given way to small, quiet homes, and the little courts off its west side are worth a look. Follow it north towards Wilton Place.
Wilton Row and The Grenadier
Turn into Wilton Row, a cobbled mews off Wilton Crescent, and you reach The Grenadier at number 18. Its own history page tells the legend of Cedric, a young soldier said to have been caught cheating at cards and beaten, whose ghost is blamed for odd happenings; visitors pin banknotes to the ceiling to settle his debt. The kitchen cooks pub classics and a Sunday menu of roasts, including a Beef Wellington. It is small and popular, so book ahead if you want a table rather than a pint at the bar. Hyde Park Corner station is a few minutes' walk away.
Motcomb Street and The Alfred Tennyson
If you would rather finish somewhere livelier, walk back to Motcomb Street, a cobbled street of boutiques and shops. The Alfred Tennyson, at 10 Motcomb Street, is a Cubitt House pub named after the Poet Laureate, with a dining room known as Alf's, which serves roasts on Sundays. Knightsbridge station is about ten minutes away on foot.
Good to know: the squares are residential and their gardens are private, so enjoy them from the pavement. The whole route is about two miles and almost entirely flat. Weekday mornings are quietest; Sunday afternoons bring families to the pubs. Pair the walk with an afternoon in Hyde Park, which is a short stroll north of Wilton Row.
