Knightsbridge has been associated with exclusive shops including Harrod’s and Harvey Nichols, banks catering to wealthy individuals, renowned restaurants, and high-end salons.

Property prices in the district are among the highest in the world, with the most expensive apartment at One Hyde Park selling for £100 million in 2007.

The district has been a target for high-profile crimes throughout history, including the Spaghetti House siege, the Walton's Restaurant bombing, and the Knightsbridge Security Deposit robbery.

Knightsbridge is an ancient name, spelt in a variety of ways in Saxon and Old English, such as Cnihtebricge (c. 1050); Knichtebrig (1235); Cnichtebrugge (13th century); and Knyghtesbrugg (1364).

The meaning is "bridge of the young men or retainers," from the Old English cniht (genitive case plural –a) and brycg.

[9] Japanese artisans illustrated "the manners, customs and art-industries of their country, attired in their national and picturesque costumes.

Knightsbridge had in its park side, east and west gold-coloured blocks of exceptional wealth in philanthropist Charles Booth's late Victorian Poverty Map, formerly excluding Brompton Road to the west but extending well into Piccadilly, St James's to the east.

Growing demand has since 2000 persuaded the authority to revise its planning policies to permit roof terraces and basement extensions, for residential facilities from leisure suites to private nightclubs, a degree of economic liberalisation documented by a non-tabloid paper in 2008.

[20] The Brompton Oratory, a place of Catholic worship, marks one of the transitions into Kensington, but Belgravia and Brompton have competing mapped neighbourhood status in the east and south of the neighbourhood, and as they have no eponymously named tube stations or historic parish boundaries, their limits are arbitrary and the triangular salient of Brompton, administratively in Kensington, as part of South Kensington, once coloured mid-wealth by Charles Booth, is now blurred with 'Knightsbridge', into which it long projected.

In November 1975, two civilians were killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the Walton's Restaurant bombing.

The case attracted extensive coverage in the media, and Clare's mother Patricia has since led a campaign to address flaws in the system, which allowed her daughter's murder to happen.

[22] Many residential buildings are heavily covered by CCTV and are staffed by security guards, and railings or bars on lower floor windows are commonplace.

[citation needed] To the north of the area, is the Hyde Park Barracks of the Household Cavalry, with a distinctive 33-storey tower by Sir Basil Spence.

Notably, two of the four London buildings of Hill House School are located here at Cadogan Gardens and Hans Place.

Knightsbridge is referenced in the story book Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman as a place the protagonists need to cross to go to the next floating market.

On his 2017 mixtape Working on Dying Swedish rapper Bladee references Knightsbridge in the title and lyrics of a song.

Bars, clubs and restaurants of Knightsbridge frequently feature in the Channel4's reality tv show Made in Chelsea.