The Landscape of the Churchill Gardens Estate, Pimlico, London

摘要

The land on which Churchill Gardens sits was once low lying boggy ground where the River Westbourne meets the Thames. In the late eighteenth Century it was part of the site of RanelaghTea Gardens, which appear to be separate to the nearby Ranelagh Pleasure Gardens. Soon after that it became built up and by the late nineteenth century was a mix of terrace housing, commerce and industry (distillery, lead works, saw mills etc.) including two docks and riverside wharves.By the 1930s the whole area was run down and the thirty-acre site was earmarked for possible redevelopment by Westminster City Council.The area was severely damaged by wartime bombing and, in a spirit of post war optimism, Westminster City Council announced an open competition to design a new housing scheme.