Knightsbridge and Belgravia Knightsbridge as a reputation as the swankiest shopping area in London thanks to Harrods, one of London’s most popular tourist attractions over to the east, was transformed into Regency suburbs in the after Napoleonic Wars by the chief landowners, the Grosvenors.  Strategically close to Buckingham Palace, which George IV chose as his chief residence Belgravia had immediate cachet, and still does: it is London’s chief embassy land with at least twenty five scattered amongst the grid—plan stuccoed streets.

Around Knightsbridge
If you want more window-shopping, or you have a wallet equipped for top of the range designer clothing shops, Sloane Street, which runs due south of Knightsbridge tube, is the obvious next stop. Right on the corner of the street, facing the tube, is Harvey Nichols, another palatial department store, whose reputation has spiralled in recent years. Like Harrods, it has a wonderful food hail and a panoply of designer sections, while its fifth—floor café/restaurant is a favourite place to lunch for career shoppers. As you walk down Sloane Street, the names read like a fashion directory, including Giorgio Armani, Chanel, Christian Dior, Nicole Farhi, Gucci, Katharine Hamnett, Prada, Valentino Versace and YSL. For the shopping surfeited, Knightsbridge mews and squares are good for a quick stroll. Having been built to house servants and stables, converted mews houses like those in Pont Street Mews immediately behind Harrods, are among the most sought—after properties in the area. Built on a completely different scale are the red—brick four, five and six—storey mansions that flaunt their high Dutch gables off Pont Street proper. The most extreme examples of the "Pont Street Dutch” style are in fact in Harrington and Collingham Gardens to the west of South Kensington Tube built in 1870.
 

Harrods
Most people come to Knightsbridge for just one thing: to shop or gawp at Harrods (Mon—Sat l0am—7pm or later during the sales) www.harrods.com  on Brompton Road. Without doubt the most famous department store in London, it started out as a family-run grocery store in 1849, with a staff of two. The current 1905 terracotta building, which turns into a palace of fairy lights at night, is now owned by the Egyptian Mohamed Al Fayed, bête noire of the Establishment, and employs in excess of three thousand staff, including several ex-army bagpipers who perform daily. The store occupies four acres, and is made up of more than three hundred departments, a dozen bars and restaurants, and even its own pub, all spread over seven floors. Tourists flock to Harrods — it’s thought to be the city’s third top tourist attraction — with some thirty thousand customers passing through each day. Most Londoners limit their visits to the annual sales, with more than 300,000 arriving on the first day of the Christmas give-away bonanza, though the store also has its regular customers, drawn from the so-called “Tiara Triangle” of this very wealthy neighbourhood, who would think nothing of buying dog food at cordon bleu prices. To help keep out the non-purchasing riffraff, a draconian dress code is enforced: no shorts, no vest T—shirts, and backpacks to be carried in the hand. Once here, however, make sure you avail yourself of the first-floor ‘luxury washrooms” where you can splash on a range of perfumes for free. In truth, you can buy much of what the shop stocks a great deal more cheaply if you can do without the Harrods carrier bag, but the store does have a few sections that are architectural sights in their own right. Chief among these are the Food Hall, with its exquisite Arts and Crafts tiling and tempting oyster counter, and the Egyptian Hail, with its pseudo-hieroglyphs and sphinxes, both of which are on the ground floor. The Egyptian Escalator in the centre of the building is an added attraction, especially the Di and Dodi fountain shrine at its base. Here, to the strains of Mahler (and the like), you can contemplate photos of the ill—fated couple, and, preserved in a glass pyramid, a dirty wineglass used on the couple’s last evening and the engagement ring Dodi allegedly bought for Diana the previous day. 
 

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City of London - Bloomsbury/Holborn- Victoria- Earls Court- Docklands- Kensington - Knightsbridge - Bayswater/Paddington

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