In this guide
At a glance
- Vibe
- White stucco, embassies and almost nobody about
- Time needed
- Two to three hours
- Best day
- Any weekday; Sunday is beautiful and almost everything is shut
- Travel zone
- 1
- Walkability
- 5/5
- Typical spend
- £££
Best for
Nearest stations
- VictoriaVictoriaDistrictCircle
- Sloane SquareDistrictCircle
- Hyde Park CornerPiccadilly
Belgravia is the wealthiest square mile in London and one of the least visited, which is not a contradiction — there is nothing here to see. No museum, no landmark, no view. What there is instead is white stucco, embassy flags, garden squares you cannot get into, and streets so quiet on a weekday that the loudest thing is a delivery van.
That makes it a genuinely good walk and a poor destination. Two or three hours, on foot, ideally on the way somewhere else.
Belgravia has its own share of the commemorative plaques marking where notable people lived or worked - see them on our interactive map.
Why visit — and who should skip it
Come here if you like walking and architecture, you want the best blue-plaque route in London in a fifteen-minute loop, or you are staying nearby and want somewhere civilised to eat that is not Victoria station.
Skip it if you are on a short trip. Belgravia has no attraction, and on a three-day first visit every hour spent here is an hour not spent at the British Museum. It is a return-trip area, or a detour on the way from Victoria to Sloane Square.
One honest warning about Sundays. The streets are at their most beautiful and almost every shop is shut. Eccleston Yards keeps some life; Elizabeth Street largely does not.
Top sights and activities
- Elizabeth Street — The best short shopping street in this part of London: independent, walkable end to end in ten minutes, and not a chain in sight.
- Eccleston Yards — A converted industrial courtyard of food, coffee and design, five minutes from Victoria and the one place here with a crowd.
- The blue-plaque loop — Mozart, Mary Shelley, Ian Fleming and Tennyson, four plaques in fifteen minutes. The densest walk of its kind in Britain.
- Belgrave Square — The centrepiece: enormous, white, and ringed by embassies. The garden in the middle is private and you will not be getting in.
- Eaton Square — Longer and thinner than Belgrave, and the more handsome of the two if you only walk one.
Key streets and micro-districts
Elizabeth Street
The reason to come. A short run of independents between Eaton Square and Ebury Bridge Road — a milliner, a perfumer, bakeries, a butcher, florists spilling onto the pavement — with almost no chains and enough outdoor tables to sit down.
It is about ten minutes from Victoria station and most people arriving there walk the other way.
Eccleston Yards
A pedestrianised courtyard of converted industrial buildings, five minutes from Victoria, with independent food, coffee, a gym, design studios and a great deal of outdoor seating.
It is the least Belgravia-feeling place in Belgravia, which is precisely why it works and why it is the busiest corner of the area. If the stucco is starting to feel airless, this is the antidote.
Belgrave Square and Eaton Square
The set pieces, and the part people photograph. Belgrave Square is vast, white and almost entirely embassies — around twenty of them — which is why there are more police here than pedestrians.
The gardens in the middle are private. They are keyholders’ squares for the surrounding houses, locked, and no amount of walking round the railings changes that. Eaton Square is the better walk of the two: longer, thinner, and with more life at its Sloane Square end.
Motcomb Street and the mews
Motcomb Street is the third shopping street, smaller than Elizabeth Street and more expensive. Around it are the mews — Kinnerton Street, Wilton Row, Ebury Mews — which are where Belgravia is at its prettiest and quietest.
Wilton Row hides the Grenadier, a pub tucked so far into a mews that people who work in Belgravia walk past the entrance for years without noticing it.
The blue-plaque walk
This is the single best thing to do here and it takes about fifteen minutes.
Four plaques, close together: Mozart, who composed his first symphony in Belgravia as a child; Mary Shelley; Ian Fleming; and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It is the densest concentration of English Heritage plaques anywhere in Britain, and it is free.
Our blue plaques guide has the addresses and the order to walk them in.
Where to eat and drink
Belgravia eats expensively and quietly. There is no cheap end to speak of, which is worth knowing before you arrive hungry.
| Spot | Style | Price | Why go |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weezie’s | Pizza | ££ | Thin crust, Guinness and a serious wine list, in the Eccleston Yards courtyard |
| La Poule au Pot | French bistro | £££ | Trading since the 1960s on coq au vin and candlelight; the most reliably romantic room in London |
| The Goring | British, afternoon tea | ££££ | The last family-owned grand hotel in London, and the quietest of the big afternoon teas |
| Brooklands | French, rooftop | ££££ | Claude Bosi on the roof of The Peninsula, over Hyde Park Corner |
| Canton Blue | Cantonese | ££££ | Inside The Peninsula, themed on a 19th-century trading ship |
Weezie’s, in the Eccleston Yards courtyard — the one place in Belgravia where a good dinner does not need a reservation weeks out.
For anything under £20, walk to Eccleston Yards or back towards Victoria. The residential streets have nothing.
See all 5 places to eat and drink in Belgravia
Getting there
By Tube. Victoria (Victoria, District, Circle) is the practical entrance and puts you five minutes from Eccleston Yards and ten from Elizabeth Street. Sloane Square (District, Circle) is better for the western end and for combining with Chelsea. Hyde Park Corner (Piccadilly) is best for Belgrave Square and The Peninsula.
On foot. Belgravia is small — you can cross it in twenty minutes — and it is flat, quiet and almost entirely step-free.
Combine it with something. This is the important one. Belgravia works best as the middle of a walk rather than the point of one: Victoria to Sloane Square, or Hyde Park Corner down to Chelsea.
How long to spend, and when to go
| Time | What it gets you |
|---|---|
| One hour | Eccleston Yards and Elizabeth Street |
| Two hours | Add the blue-plaque loop and Belgrave Square |
| Half a day | Add the mews, Motcomb Street and lunch, then walk on to Chelsea |
Weekdays are best. Saturday is fine. Sunday is the trap — the streets look their best and almost everything is closed.
Map of Belgravia
Open the map11 places: 5 places to eat · 4 hidden spots · 2 places to stay
The map loads when you open this section.
Eat & drinkHidden LondonStay
Hidden Belgravia
Free, self-guided and easy to walk past without knowing it's there.
Ian Fleming's Belgravia Home
Blue plaqueIan Fleming (1908–1964), creator of James Bond
Fleming was born and grew up on this street - the plaque marks the creator of James Bond, a very different kind of London export from the writers nearby.
A private residential building - viewable from the street only.
Lord Tennyson's Belgravia Home
Blue plaqueAlfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892), Poet Laureate
Tennyson stayed here during his decades as Poet Laureate - The Charge of the Light Brigade and In Memoriam both date from his career.
A private residential building - viewable from the street only.
Mary Shelley's Belgravia Home
Blue plaqueMary Shelley (1797–1851), author of Frankenstein
Shelley spent her last years here, decades after writing Frankenstein at 18 - a very different London chapter from the Gothic summer that made her famous.
A private residential building - viewable from the street only.
Mozart's Belgravia Home
Blue plaqueWolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), composer
Mozart composed his first symphony here in 1764, aged eight, during his family's 15-month stay in London.
A private residential building - viewable from the street only.
Where to stay
Cheapest first. Prices are a typical starting rate per night, not a quote.
The Emory
££££HotelAccessible roomsSuite-only, from the Maybourne group behind Claridge's and The Connaught, with each floor given to a different designer - Andre Fu, Patricia Urquiola - and Jean-Georges overseeing the restaurant.
There are no standard rooms at all; the entry price is a suite. A rooftop Surrenne members' club sits on top.
The Peninsula London
££££HotelAccessible roomsA purpose-built Peter Marino design at Hyde Park Corner, overlooking Wellington Arch and the gardens of Buckingham Palace.
Filed to the Westminster guide because that guide covers Victoria and St James's; Belgravia has no guide of its own and this sits on its Hyde Park Corner edge.
Make a day of it
Combine Belgravia with
Walking times are from the centre of Belgravia. Each of these works as an afternoon once you have finished here.
Chelsea
12 min walkWest along Pont Street for Sloane Square and the King's Road.
Westminster
20 min walkEast past Victoria for Parliament and the Abbey.
Mayfair
15 min walkNorth across Hyde Park Corner, which is the hard part.
South Kensington
25 min walkWest through Knightsbridge for the three free museums.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Treating it as a destination. There is no sight here. Walk it on the way to somewhere else.
- Expecting the garden squares to be open. They are private, locked, and for residents.
- Arriving on a Sunday for the shops. Elizabeth Street is largely shut.
- Confusing it with Knightsbridge. Harrods is a different area, north-west across Sloane Street.
- Coming hungry with a budget. The cheap options are at Eccleston Yards or back at Victoria, and nowhere in between.
Common questions
Is Belgravia worth visiting?
For an hour or two, yes — but not for sights, because it has none. It is worth walking for the architecture, two genuinely good shopping streets in Elizabeth Street and Eccleston Yards, and the best blue-plaque route in London. If you want museums or landmarks, it is the wrong postcode.
What is there to do in Belgravia?
Walk it. Elizabeth Street for independent shops, Eccleston Yards for a converted-industrial courtyard of food and design, four blue plaques within fifteen minutes, and Belgrave and Eaton Squares for the stucco. Everything else here is a restaurant or a hotel.
Is Belgravia expensive?
Among the most expensive parts of London to eat and stay in, and free to walk around. The Peninsula and The Goring are at the top end of London hotels; the streets, squares and plaques cost nothing, which is most of what makes the area worth a visit.
What is Eccleston Yards?
A converted industrial courtyard between Victoria and Belgravia, pedestrianised, with independent food, coffee, design shops and a lot of outdoor seating. It is five minutes from Victoria station and the least Belgravia-feeling place in Belgravia — which is why it is the busiest.
Where is Elizabeth Street?
Running between Eaton Square and Ebury Bridge Road, about ten minutes' walk from Victoria station. It is a short street of independent shops — a milliner, a perfumer, bakeries and a butcher — and the most concentrated good shopping in the area.
Is Belgravia the same as Knightsbridge?
No, though they touch. Knightsbridge is north-west, has Harrods and Harvey Nichols, and is busy. Belgravia is south-east of Sloane Street, almost entirely residential, and quiet. The dividing line for most purposes is Sloane Street itself.
