London’s ‘poshest neighbourhood’ now ‘ghost town’ as billionaires quit UK

An exclusive central London district where houses can sell for £50million is fast becoming a ghost town, an explorer claims.

According to the New York Times, the Central London spot of Belgravia is a region where “practically the only people who can afford to live there don’t actually want to”.

Podcaster Hannah Ricketts visited the ultra-posh enclave nestling between Chelsea and Westminster to find out why one of the UK’s most desirable districts is also one of its most empty.

She explains: “There’s hardly anybody here … the majority of people who own and live in Belgravia, it’s not their first home. They have multiple homes and they’re international…”

Belgravia has had a chequered history, Hannah explains, dating back to the Tudor era, when it was a notorious hunting-ground for bandits and highwaymen. It wasn’t until the early 19th Century, when Richard Grosvenor, then Marquess of Westminster, bought up most of the land in the area and laid out a series of elegant squares that the area became a sought-after neighbourhood.

Properties in Belgravia are among the most expensive anywhere in the world, according to most recent figures. As prices have soared, all but the wealthiest Brits have been priced out of the market, and many of the residential properties in the area have been brought up by Russian oligarchs and other overseas billionaires.

Well over a third of all London wealthiest buyers see their luxurious Belgravia townhouses as investments, rather than homes, visiting for just a couple of weeks a year if at all.

The few shops remaining in the area appear to be catering largely to billionaires’ wives. Hannah says they’re mainly “posh shoe shops, posh hairdressers and everything in-between.”

Belgravia is home to top peoples’ florist, Neill Strain,where a Christmas wreath for your door will set you back over £600. Hannah marvels at a bouquet of roses priced at £375, saying: “I’m telling you, Aldi and Lidl, they do really good roses and they’re about three quid – granted they don’t quite look as nice as that.”

Even the coffee shops are catering for a super-wealthy clientele, with a hot chocolate likely to cost you the better part of a tenner. “Ooh,” says Hannah, “Iced matcha with almond milk £7.35. Welcome to Belgravia!”

The sky-high prices go some way to explaining why there are never queues in Belgravia’ shops. The Lanesborough hotel’s restaurant, Celeste, became known as “The Marie Celeste” because of its lack of customers, and that nickname has spread to the rest of the area, because of its deserted streets.

The term is often used to refer to a place where people have mysteriously disappeared, referring to a US cargo ship of the same name that was found abandoned in 1872 a US cargo ship that was found abandoned in the North Atlantic in 1872. The fate of the 10 people on board, and the reason for the abandonment, remain a mystery.

Except to the constant noise of builders digging out vast basement rooms beneath the rows of stucco townhouses, Belgravia is an eerily quiet enclave in the very centre of London.

It will be a long time, if ever, before life returns to Belgravia, Hannah says: “Even if you win the lottery, guys I hate to break it to you, but you might not even be able to afford to live here.”