*Belgravia* tells the story of the birth of London’s “city of the rich,” built in the 19th century in what was then marshland southwest of Mayfair.

Back to the Drawing Room

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes on why his new period drama, Belgravia, is darker than its predecessor

By Benji Wilson

Television is a glutton. Give it a hit and it wants more and more of the same until it makes itself sick. So when, almost a decade ago, Downton Abbey came along and showed that a soapy period drama could command a global audience, TV wanted more of it.

It got six series and was followed by a stream of fast-paced period pieces, including Victoria, the rebooted Upstairs Downstairs, Poldark and Outlander. The man who created Downton, Julian Fellowes, went off to write a novel. Called Belgravia and published in 2016, it was about the birth in the early 19th century of the stucco-fronted “city of the rich”, built by the Cubitt brothers in what was then marshland southwest of Mayfair.