The Grosvenor Estate: Wilton Crescent

Wilton Crescent stands on ground that was once a marshy expanse known as the Five Fields. To make this prestigious development possible in the eighteen twenties, developer Thomas Cubitt had to radically transform the landscape. He raised the level of the entire site using massive amounts of earth excavated during the construction of St Katherine's Docks near the Tower of London. Without this industrial-scale landscaping project, the elegant crescent you see today would likely have remained unusable, boggy farmland.