Belvedere Crescent used to run off Belvedere Road.
Narrow Wall was a curved road next to a small open space called College Gardens, part of which is also now the Jubilee Gardens. At the end of College Gardens was Kings Arms Stairs, one of the many down to the river. In a redevelopment, the curve of Narrow Wall was straightened out, but the curve was retained and named Ragged Row and then Belvedere Crescent.
During the 1850s, William Driver operated a reformatory for reformed youths at Belvedere Crescent. A former ragged school teacher, Driver had established an "industrial home for outcast boys." Though capable of housing 60, limited funds meant that fewer sometimes resided there.
Belvedere Crescent was first swept away for the Festival of Britain in 1951. Then the whole area was redeveloped in 1961 for the Shell Centre.
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