Knightsbridge is the London neighbourhood with an enduring British character and an international flavour.
Refined or relaxed, this is a place of exceptional experiences, celebrating the world’s best food, culture, fashion, and architecture. From the starched linen of The Lanesborough to lunchtime sunshine in Hyde Park, Knightsbridge always feels special.
Landmark department stores Harrods and Harvey Nichols, renowned 5-star hotels, Michelin-starred restaurants and neighbourhood eateries, charming cafés, and award-winning wellbeing and beauty outfits all serve to make Knightsbridge distinct. Its personality is underscored by its charming streets, diverse locals, nearby museums and the storied Household Cavalry.
From the starched linen of the Lanesborough to lunchtime sunshine in Hyde Park
Knightsbridge — or Kyngesbrigg as it was known until 1361 — was once marshland scattered with bridges between the villages of Charing, Chelsey and Kensing Town. As London grew around the City of London proper, from the Tower of London to Whitehall, Knightsbridge remained a bit of a rural backwater where thieves preyed on unwary travellers - a very different place to the distinguished neighbourhood it is today.
While the origins of the bridge’s name remain shrouded in mystery, local legend has it that two knights returning from the Crusades had occasion to quarrel and fought on a bridge that crossed the Westbourne River (now an underground river that flows from Hampstead down through Sloane Square to enter the Thames at Chelsea). Watched from the banks by their retinues, the feud was fatal for both and the place has been called Knightsbridge ever since in remembrance.
A tale of two knights; how marshland became a destination of distinction
Spurred on by architect Henry Holland, who petitioned for paving in Knightsbridge to prevent ladies ‘from being lamed and crippled by the excessive pickedness and asperity of the stones and pebbles between Hyde Park Corner and Sloane Street’, it wasn’t until the 1800s that property developers started building in earnest and evolved from an obscure locality to become a part of London proper.
The 1831 opening Benjamin Harvey’s linen shop and the arrival of draper Charles Henry Harrod’s business in 1849 - and the subsequent evolutions into two of the world’s most renowned department stores, Harvey Nichols and Harrods - that really marked the nascence of the refined neighbourhood that is Knightsbridge today.
