Pimlico is one of our oldest estates. The first 26 blocks date from 1876 – and we can learn about the early tenants from the national census taken every 10 years.

In 1881, around 2,000 people lived there, many of them working in the nearby Chelsea Barracks. There were also lamplighters, messengers, charwomen, policemen and plumbers. Charles Sutton, who lived in C Block, was even employed as a porter at Buckingham Palace.

Pimlico is one of four of our estates to have a plaque commemorating those who died on active service in the First World War. In November 2005, a Channel 4 TV series, entitled Not Forgotten, featured the war memorial. Presenter Ian Hislop interviewed the granddaughter of William Buckland, the first man from the estate to be killed.

During the Second World War, Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited the estate to see the damage caused by an air raid.

New blocks were built on the Pimlico estate in 2011.