Basil Street, originally known as North Street, is a street in London's Knightsbridge. It was laid out in the second half of the eighteenth century on land belonging to Lord Cadogan and runs between Sloane Street in the north and the junction of Walton Place and Hans Road in the south. It is joined on its east side by Pavilion Road and Rysbrack Street and crossed by Hans Crescent. Architecturally, it is notable for the design of its blocks of mansion flats. Fashion designer Charles Creed had his premises there after the war and in the 1960s, the first meetings that led to Monty Python's Flying Circus were held at a flat in the street.
Basil Street was laid out in the second half of the eighteenth century on land belonging to Lord Cadogan when it was named North Street. It was well developed by the time of Richard Horwood's map of 1794. [1] It retained the name North Street until the start of the twentieth century [2] when it was renamed Basil Street, the origins of which name are unknown. [3]
16 Basil Street was purpose built as Knightsbridge fire station for the London Fire Brigade, and operated as such from 1907 until it closed in 2014. [4] It was built in a "restrained free Baroque style", and the lead architects were Owen Fleming and Charles Winmill, who had previously worked for the LCC Housing Department. [5] The upper floors have been converted to residential use. [5]
The street was noted by Cherry and Pevsner for its "exuberant 1890s mansion flats sporting flurries of curvaceous bows and balconies". [6] Lincoln House, a pair of identical mansion blocks on the west side designed in 1903 by John A. Gill Knight for Harry Johnson, are grade II listed with Historic England. They were built in 1915-16 and are noted for their "idiosyncratic design, illustrative of the best of mansion block architecture in the period". [7] They were originally one block but were sub-divided by J. Hunt in 1947 following damage during the Second World War. [8]
The Capital Hotel, [9] a small 5-star hotel, along with The Capital Restaurant are located at 22–24 Basil Street [10] and further south the Embassy of Colombia is located on the corner of Hans Crescent and Basil Street. [11]
The west side of the southern end of Basil Street below Hans Crescent is entirely taken up by the rear of the Harrods department store. Opposite Harrods, there is an underground car park, and in October 2021 a space there was listed for sale at £250,000 for an 82-year lease with £780 a year in service charges. [12]
Fashion designer Charles Creed was at 31 Basil Street after the Second World War, having escaped the German occupation of Paris by hours. He had his premises there until his death in 1966. They were masculine in tone, with dark panelling on the walls and displays of Napoleonic toy soldiers (Creed had a fine collection that was later to be the subject of a British Pathé film). [13]
The Basil Street Hotel was at 8 Basil Street for many years before it was sold and closed in September 2005. The biographer Michael Holroyd, born in 1935, entitled his memoirs Basil Street Blues, based on his having been conceived there. [14] According to the Rough Guide to London it had " a variety of idiosynchratically decorated rooms" and past guests included James Stewart during the Second World War. [15]
From 1968, John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth lived at Flat 28, Lincoln House, a mansion block in the street. [16] The earliest meetings that led to Monty Python's Flying Circus were held in the flat, in early May 1969. [17] Cleese practised "silly walks" in the corridor, leading one neighbour to question him about the strange noises. [16]
Fawlty Towers is a British television sitcom written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, originally broadcast on BBC Two in 1975 and 1979. Two series of six episodes each were made. The series is set in Fawlty Towers, a dysfunctional fictional hotel in the English seaside town of Torquay in Devon. The plots centre on the tense, rude and put-upon owner Basil Fawlty (Cleese), his bossy wife Sybil, the sensible chambermaid Polly (Booth), and the hapless and English-challenged Spanish waiter Manuel. They show their attempts to run the hotel amidst farcical situations and an array of demanding and eccentric guests and tradespeople.
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and presenter. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he cofounded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus. Along with his Python costars Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Graham Chapman, Cleese starred in Monty Python films, which include Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979), and The Meaning of Life (1983).
Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End. Knightsbridge is also the name of the roadway which runs near the south side of Hyde Park from Hyde Park Corner.
Belgravia is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Knightsbridge is a London Underground station in Knightsbridge, London. It is on the Piccadilly line between South Kensington and Hyde Park Corner, and is in Travelcard Zone 1.
Sloane Street is a major London street in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea which runs north to south, from Knightsbridge to Sloane Square, crossing Pont Street about halfway along.
Harrods Estates is a London-based estate agent which offer services for buying, renting and managing property. Harrods Estates was started in 1897 and has expanded gradually since then. In 2005 a second office was opened in Mayfair then in 2013 a third office opened in Chelsea. In May 2015 a fourth office opened in Kensington Church Street.
Basil Fawlty is the main character of the 1970s British sitcom Fawlty Towers, played by John Cleese. The proprietor of the hotel Fawlty Towers, he is a cynical and misanthropic snob, desperate to attract hotel guests from the British upper class. His inept attempts to run an efficient hotel, however, usually end in farce. Possessing a dry, sarcastic wit, Basil has become an iconic British comedy character who remains widely known to the public despite only 12 half-hour episodes ever having been made.
The Harrods bombing refers to the car bomb that exploded outside Harrods department store in central London, England, on Saturday 17 December 1983. Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army planted the time bomb and sent a warning 37 minutes before it exploded, but the area was not evacuated. The blast killed three police officers and three civilians, injured 90 people, and caused much damage. The IRA Army Council said it had not authorised the attack and expressed regret for the civilian casualties. After the bombing, the IRA shifted its emphasis towards attacks on military targets in England.
Hans Place is a garden square in the Knightsbridge district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, immediately south of Harrods in SW1. It is named after Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, PRS, physician and collector, notable for his bequest, which became the foundation of the British Museum.
Pont Street is a fashionable street in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, traversing the areas of Knightsbridge and Belgravia. The street is not far from the Knightsbridge department store Harrods to its north-west. The street crosses Sloane Street in the middle, with Beauchamp Place to the west and Cadogan Place, and Chesham Place, to the east, eventually leading to Belgrave Square. On the west side, Hans Place leads off the street to the north and Cadogan Square to the south.
Cadogan Group Limited and its subsidiaries, including Cadogan Estates Limited, are British property investment and management companies that are owned by the Cadogan family, one of the richest families in the United Kingdom. They also hold the titles of Earl Cadogan and Viscount Chelsea, the latter used as a courtesy title by the Earl's eldest son. The Cadogan Group is the main landlord in the west London districts of Chelsea and Knightsbridge, and it is now the second largest of the surviving aristocratic Freehold Estates in Central London, after the Duke of Westminster's Grosvenor Estate, to which it is adjacent, covering Mayfair and Belgravia.
Cadogan Square is a residential square in Knightsbridge, London, that was named after Earl Cadogan. Whilst it is mainly a residential area, some of the properties are used for diplomatic and educational purposes.
The Carlton Tower Jumeirah is a 17-story, 186 room 88 suite luxury hotel in London, England. It is managed by the Emirati hotel operator Jumeirah.
The Embassy of Ecuador in London is the diplomatic mission of Ecuador in the United Kingdom. It is headed by the ambassador of Ecuador to the United Kingdom. It is located in the Knightsbridge area of London, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is in an apartment building which also houses the Embassy of Colombia as well as a number of residential apartments, near Harrods, Hyde Park, and Hans Place, at 3 Hans Crescent at the intersection with Basil Street, and it is close to Knightsbridge Underground station.
The Embassy of Colombia in London is the diplomatic mission of the Republic of Colombia in the United Kingdom. It is headed by the Ambassador of Colombia to the United Kingdom. It is located in the Knightsbridge district in a building it shares with the Embassy of Ecuador, near Harrods, Hyde Park, and Hans Place, precisely at 3 Hans Crescent at the intersection of Basil Street, and it is serviced by Knightsbridge station.
The Gleneagles Hotel was a hotel in Torquay, Devon, England. The 41-bed establishment, which opened in the 1960s, was the inspiration for Fawlty Towers, a British situation comedy first broadcast in the mid-1970s. John Cleese, and his then wife Connie Booth, were inspired to write the series after they had stayed at the hotel, where they witnessed the eccentric behaviour of its co-owner, Donald Sinclair, who ran the hotel with his wife, Beatrice, until they sold it in 1973. Later the hotel was managed by Best Western. The hotel closed in February 2015 and replaced by retirement apartments.
The Knightsbridge Apartments is a luxury apartment complex in Knightsbridge, London.
Charles William Stephens was a British architect. As architect to the Harrods department store in London from 1892 until his death, he was responsible for the store's famous Baroque-style façade on Brompton Road. His other designs include Harvey Nichols department store, the new Claridge's hotel, 54 Parkside, and the Park Lane Hotel, all in London.
One Hans Crescent, formerly the Hans Crescent Hotel and then Knightsbridge Crown Court, is an apartment block, which previously served as a hotel and, later as a crown court, in Hans Crescent in Knightsbridge, London, England.