Basil Street is split into two by Hans Crescent.
Basil Street (formerly North Street) was laid out on Lord Cadogan’s land in the late eighteenth century. Horwood’s map of 1794 shows building well advanced along both sides of Basil Street.
At the corner of North Street next to the entrance to the Queen’s Gardens School, the Friend at Hand public house was rebuilt in 1894 but disappeared along with its neighbours as Harrods bought up leases and expanded.
The transformation of Harrods into a vast department store was a piecemeal business - sites were acquired only gradually and business had to be kept going. Generally speaking, the rebuilding proceeded anti-clockwise from 1894 until 1912, from Basil Street and Hans Crescent round into the Brompton Road and so finally into Hans Road.
The architect of Harrods and thus a section of Basil Street was C. W. Stephens.
The bombings of the Second World War caused some damage to the area with buildings on Basil Street hit particularly badly.
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Basil Street is split into two by Hans Crescent.
