David Gray's pictures of the week 28-5-2007

DAVID GRAY photography
	P I M L I C O
	P I C T U R E S O F T H E W E E K 2 8 - 5 - 2 0 0 7

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This week's pictures feature Pimlico in London. Adjacent to Westminster and between Victoria and the river, Pimlico could hardly be more central, yet most of its streets are remarkably quiet and empty. Many famous people have lived here and, on the day in May 2007 when these pictures were taken, it was not surprising to see Tony Blair emerging from a health centre in Tachbrook Street. The history of the district, however, is by no means all about the rich and famous. Two hundred years ago, the public gardens of Pimlico were known for drunkenness and in the 1960s the area was rundown and full of brothels. Even now, though the elegant streets built by Thomas Cubitt are filled with exorbitantly priced apartments, there are also housing estates lived in by ordinary Londoners. Shirley Porter did her worst in the 1980s to winkle them out of the Churchill Gardens estate, but Pimlico today still has a proper London mixture, and long may this remain so.

Looking along the pillared entrances in St George's Drive (image 2729-66)

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