The joys and sorrows of living in Pimlico

Clive Aslet says Pimlico's central location brings some disadvantages

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(Image credit: Country Life)

The architects Powell and Moya were 23 and 24 when they got the commission to design Churchill Gardens, opposite Battersea Power Station. It was 1946, and the project would house 5,000 council tenants. They did a good job. Opening south, towards the Thames, the estate is sunny, varied, attractively green and has stood the test of time. I've walked through it twice recently: to attend a meeting whose time, on the first occasion, I got wrong. Alas, the meeting had been called after the murder of a 16-year-old boy on adjacent Lupus Street. A mob wielding knives and ‘swords' set upon him mercilessly, after he'd tripped over.

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A bright lad, according to his school, he nevertheless dealt drugs. The police think 10 people were involved. None lives locally. It's a penalty of Pimlico's good transport links that undesirables find it easy to convene here. Some time ago, there was even a ‘rumble', as it would have been called in West Side Story, in sedate Warwick Square. Residents-furious that Churchill Gardens' good name has been besmirched-are being reassured by extra police patrols. One woman was unconvinced. Mounted officers couldn't chase anyone: they wouldn't know what to do with their horses.

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Country Life

Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.