White stucco terraces ring private garden squares, with cobbled mews and embassy plaques behind them.
What Belgravia looks like
runs four white stucco terraces around a private central garden, three of eleven houses each and the fourth of twelve, with a detached mansion at three of the corners. Iron railings enclose the garden and lock it to registered keyholders, so anyone filming here works around the perimeter rather than inside. Cream stucco marks the projecting corner houses against the plain white fronts.
is the largest square in London. Its houses run four to five storeys over a basement and an attic, the same white stucco as Belgrave Square, though some are faced in quality brick behind the render. The old approach road to Buckingham Palace splits its own garden into six separate enclosures. A red K6 telephone box stands on the pavement outside number 103, black railings and white stucco on either side.
Behind the grand terraces, cobbled mews lanes run through arched gateways such as the one on , opening onto rows of lower buildings that once held stables and carriage houses. is reached the same way, through its own covered archway.
Many of the grand houses now carry brass embassy plaques rather than a single family's nameplate. The Egyptian consulate is one of them, its own flag flying above a columned porch on . reaches the southern edge of Belgravia, near Pimlico Road, well away from the formal squares.
Shot in Belgravia
Around the World in 80 Days used 17 Belgrave Square as Phileas Fogg's London home, a building being redeveloped into a private residence. The same film sent two other characters to place a bet outside the Grenadier on . The Fallen Idol shot its mews scenes at Belgrave Mews North, where the French ambassador's young son gets lost among the same cobbled lanes. The ITV series Downton Abbey filmed 35 Belgrave Square as Lady Rosamund's townhouse, exterior only, with the interior filmed at West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire.
Around the World in 80 Days, 1956
The Grenadier
Two characters place a bet on Phileas Fogg's progress while sitting outside this pub on its cobbled mews cul-de-sac. The bright red sentry box by the door is a fixture of the real pub rather than anything the production added. Street View
The Fallen Idol, 1948
Belgrave Mews North
The narrow mews streets just north of Belgrave Square are named by the film's own location record as Belgrave Mews and Kinnerton Street. Baines meets Julie here in secret, and the ambassador's son gets lost among the same lanes. Street View
Bath's Royal Crescent stood in for Grosvenor Square in Bridgerton. Its pale stone terrace and repeated columned porches present the same grand, uniform front as Belgravia's own stucco rows. The crescent curves where Belgravia's squares run straight, and the stone is left bare rather than painted white. A pale stone crescent terrace needs careful framing to keep the curve out of a straight-on shot. Try searching pale stone crescent terrace now.
Merrion Square in Dublin, Ireland
Merrion Square is ringed by redbrick Georgian townhouses from the 1780s and 1790s, four storeys over a basement in the same scale as Belgravia's own terraces. Its garden was locked to keyholders only until 1974, the same arrangement Belgrave Square keeps today. The redbrick Georgian townhouses and brightly painted front doors read differently from Belgravia's white stucco. The square is also now a public park, so modern railings and signage need dressing out of a period frame. Try searching redbrick Georgian townhouses square now.
