Much of the Pimlico area was used for market gardening from the early C17 and was known as the Neat House gardens after the nearby sub-manor of Neat. Owned by the Grosvenor family from 1677 it remained in use for market gardening until the 1820s when Thomas Cubitt (1788-1855) leased the land for development. His patron was Robert Grosvenor, later first Marquess of Westminster, whose major building initiative of Grosvenor Estate in Belgravia and Pimlico had a profound effect on the future development of London.
The development of Pimlico was due to Cubitt, who, following his successful developments in Belgravia, and together with three other major landowners, put together a very large estate which he called South Belgravia but which was nicknamed ‘Mr Cubitt's District’ and later became known as Pimlico.
Cubitt was one of the most respected and influential builders in London in the first half of the C19. He was approached by Prince Albert to design Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight, a scheme on which Cubitt collaborated with the prince. He not only built the mansion but also the considerable Italianate gardens and terraces which surround it, and he was given the government contract to build the extensions to Buckingham Palace. He also restored the grounds at his house Denbies near Dorking (Surrey) where Prince Albert visited him to plant a symbolic tree and Cubitt was instrumental in persuading Prince Albert to become patron of the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Cubitt was an astute and enterprising builder who was attuned to the aesthetic and practical benefits of inserting garden squares into new developments, which he often created, before the houses were built. He took a great interest in the layout and the planted character of squares and he also supplied gardens with trees and shrubs from his own nursery. He built three squares within the new district of Pimlico; Eccleston from March 1828 (List entry 1000802, Grade II), Warwick in 1842 (List entry 1000848, Grade II) and St George’s Square in 1844.
Unusually, St George's Square Garden extended down to the River Thames where the residents could board boats and steamers. It was laid out in 1839 as two parallel streets running north to south but by 1844 had been developed into a formal square lined on two long sides and two sides of an angle in the north. Residents did not move into the adjoining houses until 1854. Towards the end of the C19, the southern extent of the garden (south of Grovsenor Road) was transferred into local authority ownership and renamed Pimlico Gardens. The 1875 Ordnance Survey (OS) map shows this section of the gardens to be informally laid out with a single path running south to the pier.
The principal garden also first appears on the 1875 OS map, where it is laid out as three broadly rectangular grassed sections with a boundary path and crossing paths from east to west. The planting scheme appears to be around the boundary railings and in curved beds to the edges of the grassed rectangles. There was also an entrance to the south. The OS map of 1896 shows the garden foreshortened in the north in order to accommodate the building of the Church of St Saviour. A circular structure is added to the centre (probably a water feature). In the southern end of the garden the map shows a seating area along with a small rectangular structure. 1960s OS mapping shows evidence of a tennis court to the northern end and two circular structures to the south. By 1967, the church hall is evident and by the 1980s the layout is shown as it is today (2020).
An underground air-raid shelter was built for the Second World War at the northern end of the gardens, however this has now been covered over. The principal garden is now in the ownership of the local authority and open to the public.
The 1875 OS map shows the triangular section of the garden to the north of Lupus Street to have been heavily-wooded and with access paths from the east and west to a broadly triangular, meandering boundary path. The 1897 OS map shows the trees cleared from the central area and the boundary path moved out to the full extent of the triangle. The cabmen's shelter is also evident to the south side. The octagonal building is not shown on any historic maps and is thought to be a late-C20 addition. This triangle of garden is in private ownership and not open to the public. This area of the garden is very altered from its original design and so is not included in the registered area.