Statues - Hither & Thither

SIR ROBERT GROSVENOR KG
FIRST MARQUESS OF WESTMINSTER
1767 - 1845

[Coat of arms]

"when we build, let us think we build for ever"

john ruskin

under the direction of sir robert grosvenor, thomas gundy, the
grosvenor estate surveyor, presented the above layout to the
grosvenor board in 1825. from sir robert's vision arose the elegant
buildings, grand squares and colourful gardens that are now belgravia.

the classical terraces of belgrave square were designed by george
basevi, architect to the haldimand syndicate, most of the buildings
were erected under the control of the great victorian developer
thomas cubitt.

the grosvenor family
came to england with
william teh conqueror
and have held land in
cheshire since that time

in the seventeenth century,
sir thomas grosvenor,
third baronet, married
mary davies, a london
heiress. her dowry was
part of the manor of
ebury. the land developed
by their successors as
mayfair in the eighteenth
century, followed by
belgravia and pimlico in
the nineteenth century

[wheatsheaf]

in 1979, gerald cavendish
grosvenor became the
sixth duke of westminster.
he commissioned this
statue in 1997.

the hounds on the
monument are talbot
dogs, introduced to this
country by the normans
as hunting dogs. now
extinct, they were the
ancestral stock of the
modern bloodhound.

talbot dogs were added
to the grosvenor coat of
arms in the seventeenth
century. the gold
wheatsheaf, known in
heraldry as a 'garf',
appeared on the coat of
arms for the first time
in 1398.