From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling. You can assist by editing it now. A how-to guide is available.(November 2007)

Chelsea
OS grid reference	TQ275775
London borough	Kensington & Chelsea
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	SW3
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
London Assembly	West Central
European Parliament	London
List of places: UK • England • London

Coordinates: 51°28′55″N 0°09′47″W / 51.482018, -0.162918

Chelsea is an area of west London, England bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above Sloane Square tube station. The modern eastern boundary can be said to be Chelsea Bridge Road and the lower half of Sloane Street, including Sloane Square. To the north and northwest, the area fades into Knightsbridge and South Kensington, but it is safe to say that the area north of the King's Road as far northwest as the Fulham Road is part of Chelsea.

The district is now part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. From 1900, and until the creation of the Greater London in 1965, it formed the Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea in the County of London.

Note also that Stamford Bridge, the famous headquarters of the Chelsea Football Club, though on the border of Chelsea, is actually in nearby Fulham Broadway. Fulham therefore hosts two Premiership teams.

The word 'Chelsea' means landing place [on the river] for chalk or limestone" (Old English). Anglo-Saxon Cealc-h3ð = "chalk wharf". The first record of the Manor of Chelsea precedes the Domesday Book and records the fact that Thurstan, governor of the King's Palace during the reign of Edward the Confessor, gave the land to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster. Abbot Gervace subsequently assigned the manor to his mother, and it passed into private ownership. Modern day Chelsea was the site of the Synod of Chelsea in 787 AD.

Henry VIII acquired the manor of Chelsea from Lord Sandys in 1536, (Chelsea Manor Street is still extant). Both Catherine Parr and Anne of Cleves lived in the Manor House, Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth I) was a resident, and Sir Thomas More lived more or less next door at Beaufort House. James I established a theological college on the site of Chelsea Royal Hospital (which was founded by Charles II).

Figure Court of Royal Hospital Chelsea

By 1694, Chelsea — always a popular location for the wealthy, and once described as "a village of palaces" — had a population of 3,000. Even so, Chelsea remained rural and served London to the east as a market garden, a trade that continued until the 19th century development boom when the district was finally absorbed into the metropolis. The street crossing what was known as Little Chelsea, Park Walk, linked the Fulham Road to the King's Road and continued to the Thames and Local Ferry down Lover's Lane, renamed Milmans Street in the 18th century.

Statue of King Charles II on the site of the Chelsea Flower Show.

The King's Road was named for Charles II, recalling the king's private road from St James's Palace to Fulham, which was maintained until the reign of George IV. One of the more important buildings in the King's Road is Chelsea Town Hall, a fine neo-classical building containing important frescos. Part of the building contains the Chelsea Public Library. Almost opposite is the Odeon Cinema, with its iconic façade, which carries high upon it a large sculptured medallion of the now almost forgotten William Friese-Greene, who claimed to have invented celluloid film and cameras before any subsequent patents.

Statue of Thomas More on Cheyne Walk. Chelsea Old Church in background. (January 2006)

According to Encyclopædia Britannica "the better residential portion of Chelsea is the eastern, near Sloane Street and along the river; the western, extending north to Fulham Road, is mainly a poor quarter". This is no longer the case, with parts of Fulham such as Parson's Green attracting equally high house prices and being deemed desirable places to live. The areas to the west (and particularly around Cadogan Square) now attract similar prices.

The memorials in the churchyard of Chelsea Old Church (All Saints), near the river, illustrate much of the history of Chelsea. These include Lord and Lady Dacre (1594-1595); Sir John Lawrence (1638); Lady Jane Cheyne (1698); Francis Thomas, 'director of the china porcelain manufactory'; Sir Hans Sloane (1753); Thomas Shadwell, Poet Laureate (1692). Sir Thomas More's tomb can also be found there.

Chelsea was once famous for the manufacture of Chelsea buns (a Chelsea bun is made from a long strip of sweet dough tightly coiled, with currants trapped between the layers, and topped with sugar). Chelsea is still famous for its "Chelsea China" ware, though the works, the Chelsea porcelain factory — thought to be the first workshop to make porcelain in England — were sold in 1769, and moved to Derby. Examples of the original Chelsea ware fetch high values.

The best-known building is Chelsea Royal Hospital for invalid soldiers, set up by Charles II (supposedly on the suggestion of Nell Gwynne), opened in 1694. The beautifully proportioned building by Wren stands in extensive grounds. There was also until recently the Duke of York's Barracks off the King's Road, now a shopping mall. Chelsea Barracks, at the end of Lower Sloane Street, was also in use until recently - primarily by ceremonial troops of the Household Division.

Chelsea Bridge from the south bank.

Chelsea's modern reputation as a centre of innovation and influence originated in a period during the 19th century when the area became a veritable Victorian artists' colony (see 'Borough of artists' below). It also became prominent once again as one of the centres of 1960s 'Swinging London' (see 'Swinging Chelsea' below).

Chelsea once had a reputation as London's bohemian quarter, and likes to think of itself as the haunt of artists, radicals, painters and poets. Little of this seems to survive now: the comfortable squares off the King's Road are homes to the English military establishment, investment bankers and film stars, and more recently the pop singer Kylie Minogue.

Oscar Wilde's house on Tite Street, Chelsea

In fact it has always reflected an odd mixture of the English upper class, and the cultural ever-so-slightly-avant-garde.

Crosby Hall on Cheyne Walk. Parts of this building date back to the time of Richard III, its first owner. But it is not native to Chelsea — it is a survivor of the Great Fire of London. It was shipped brick by brick from Bishopsgate in 1910 after being threatened with demolition. (January 2006)

Chelsea's reputation stems from a period in the 19th century when it became a sort of Victorian artists' colony: painters such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, J.M.W. Turner, James McNeill Whistler, William Holman Hunt, and John Singer Sargent all lived and worked here. There was a particularly large concentration of artists in the area around Cheyne Walk (pronounced Cheynee) and Cheyne Row, where the Pre-Raphaelite movement had its heart.

Chelsea was also home to writers such as George Meredith, Algernon Swinburne, Leigh Hunt, and Thomas Carlyle. Jonathan Swift lived in Church Lane, Richard Steele and Tobias Smollett in Monmouth House. Carlyle lived for 47 years at No. 5 (now 24) Cheyne Row. After his death, the house was bought and turned into a shrine and literary museum by the Carlyle Memorial Trust, a group formed by Leslie Stephen, father of Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf set her 1919 novel Night and Day in Chelsea, where Mrs. Hilbery has a Cheyne Walk home.

In a curious book, Bohemia in London by Arthur Ransome which is a partly fictional account of his early years in London, published in 1907 when he was 23, there are some fascinating, rather over-romanticised accounts of bohemian goings-on in the quarter. The American artist Pamela Colman Smith, the designer of A.E. Waite's Tarot card pack and a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, features as "Gypsy" in the chapter "A Chelsea Evening".

A central part of Chelsea's artistic and cultural life was Chelsea Public Library, originally situated in Manresa Road. Its longest serving member of staff was Armitage Denton, who joined in 1896 at the age of 22, and he remained there until his retirement in 1939. He was appointed Chief Librarian in 1929.

The Chelsea Collection is a priceless anthology of prints and pictures of old Chelsea. Begun in 1887, it contains works by artists as notable and diverse as Rossetti and Whistler. During his time at the Library, Armitage Denton built the Collection assiduously, so that by the time of his death in July 1949 it numbered more than 1,000 items. At the end of the 20th century, the Collection totalled more than 5,000 works, and it continues to grow. Chelsea Village and Chelsea Harbour are very prestigious areas.

Chelsea shone again, brightly but briefly in the 1960s Swinging London period and the early 1970s. The Swinging Sixties was defined on the King's Road which runs the length of the area and both the Beatles and Rolling Stones members Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards lived here at one time. In the 1970s the "World's End" of the King's Road was home to Vivienne Westwood's boutique "SEX", and saw the birth of the punk movement. Elvis Costello even sang `I don't want to go to Chelsea`. Then Youth culture decamped forever, the Goths moving to the newly fashionable quarter of Camden Town and the hippies to Notting Hill.

Typical street in Chelsea

The King's Road remains the major artery through Chelsea and a very busy road, however, despite its continuing reputation as a shopping mecca, it is now home to many of the same shops found on any other UK high street, (Gap, Virgin Megastore, and McDonald's for example). Sloane Street and Knightsbridge are overtaking Bond Street as London's premier shopping destinations; housing a variety of high end fashion or jewellery (for example Cartier, Gucci and Graff) etc. (see Knightsbridge).

• Francis Bacon
• Lily Allen
• Hilaire Belloc (Cheyne Walk)
• Sir Marc Isambard Brunel and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (civil engineers) (98 Cheyne Walk)
• Phyllis Calvert (actress) was born in Chelsea
• Steve Clark (late Def Leppard guitarist)
• Agatha Christie
• Johnny Depp rented property from Thomas Golsong on the King's Road for the duration of filming Finding Neverland.
• George Devine & Jocelyn Herbert (Rossetti Studios, Flood St)
• Dominicetti (6 Cheyne Walk)
• Bernie Ecclestone (Chelsea Square)
• George Eliot (spent the last 3 weeks of her life at 4 Cheyne Walk)
• Judy Garland (Spent the last few months of her life there with her fifth husband until death on June 22, 1969)
• Elizabeth Gaskell (93 Cheyne Walk)
• Bob Geldof
• David Lloyd George (10 Cheyne Walk)
• Hugh Grant and Jemima Khan (Chelsea Square)
• Elizabeth Hurley
• Mick Jagger and all the Rolling Stones (Edith Grove, Cheyne Walk)
• Henry James (21 Cheyne Walk)
• Roger Keyes
• Mark Knopfler
• Bob Marley composed his hit "I Shot the Sheriff" in a one-bedroom flat off Cheyne Walk in the mid-1970s.
• Freddie Mercury (1 Logan Place, W8), the outer wall is covered in graffiti and messages by Queen fans from around the world, particularly from Japan.
• Kate Middleton (former girlfriend of Prince William)
• Kylie Minogue
• Thomas More
• John Camden Neild (5 Cheyne Walk)
• Gwyneth Paltrow
• Sylvia Pankhurst (Cheyne Walk)
• Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti (16 Cheyne Walk)
• Gerald Scarfe and Jane Asher
• John Shaw Junior, architect of the 19th century
• Mark Shuttleworth of ubuntu linux
• Sir Philip Wilson Steer (109 Cheyne Walk)
• Algernon Swinburne (16 Cheyne Walk)
• Margaret Thatcher (Flood Street)
• J. M. W. Turner (died at 119 Cheyne Walk on December 19, 1851)
• James McNeill Whistler (21, 96 & 101 Cheyne Walk)
• Oscar Wilde (today 34 Tite Street, 16 Tite Street in Wilde's lifetime)

The north block of Chelsea College of Art and Design (formerly the Royal Army Medical College) is actually in Pimlico

Chelsea consists of two main postcodes (SW3 and SW10) but also includes small sections of SW1. All of Chelsea is, by definition, in the London borough of "The Royal Borough Kensington and Chelsea" (RBKC). On the eastern side RBKC meets the equally fashionable and expensive borough of the City of Westminster (COW), this meets at Lower Sloane Street where the postcode is SW1W, with one side of the road being in COW and the other in RBKC. However it does give the strange result that some of RBKC is in SW1W. The Moore Park Estate in SW6 is also considered to be part of the Fulham/Chelsea border.

The vast majority of Chelsea is SW3. The far west of Chelsea is SW10 and SW5 but due to the absence of tube coverage in large parts of the Borough, most people in SW10 use Earls Court or Fulham Broadway tube stations.

The most desirable part of Chelsea is around Sloane Square and Knightsbridge tube. Around here, Chelsea meets Knightsbridge. This property market attracts considerable (international) attention, and is a very complex market as it consists mainly of short leases under Earl Cadogan as freeholder. The area around Cadogan Square has seen a massive boom in the prices of property (a 19% increase between 2005 and 2006) as is now very much viewed as a Global Ultra Prime Residential Area.

Chelsea pensioners in scarlet coats and tricorne hats at the Founder's Day parade in the Royal Hospital Chelsea

Much of Chelsea (SW3) and Knightsbridge (SW1X) is still owned by Earl Cadogan. Most of the property he owns is in and around Cadogan Square. This has a major influence on the markets as the Earl is the freeholder and generally has no desire to sell; although changes in legislation now mean the freeholder is obliged to sell lease extensions to a leaseholder at prices which are determined by the Leasehold valuation tribunal. Earl Cadogan is generally regarded as an effective and successful property developer/landlord being responsible, together with his management team, for bringing all of the fashion labels to Sloane Street, and also forward thinking developments on his own account at Duke of York Square on Kings Road, at Peter Jones and on Sloane Street. Earl Cadogan owns a considerable portfolio of retail property throughout Chelsea but notably on Fulham Road, Kings Road, and Sloane Street including Peter Jones, Harvey Nichols, and 12 hotels including the Cadogan Hotel. Earl Cadogan also maintains many of the garden squares, (to which local residents can gain access by subscribing for an annual fee - and optionally the tennis courts where applicable). The area is home to several open spaces including Albert Bridge Gardens , Battersea Bridge Gardens, Chelsea Embankment Gardens, Royal Hospital Chelsea: the grounds of which are used by the annual Chelsea Flower Show and Chelsea Physic Garden.

• Belgravia
• Brompton
• Knightsbridge
• Pimlico
• South Kensington
• West Brompton
• Fulham
• Fulham Broadway
• Battersea (south of the river)

• Imperial Wharf railway station (proposed)
• Sloane Square tube station
• South Kensington tube station
• Earls Court tube station
• Fulham Broadway tube station

• Cadogan Hotel
• Cadogan website
• Chelsea Information
• Council Tax charges 2007/08

v • d • e Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Districts	Belgravia · Brompton · Chelsea · Earls Court · Holland Park · Kensington · Kensal Town · Knightsbridge · Ladbroke Grove · North Kensington · Notting Hill · South Kensington · West Brompton
Attractions	Albert Memorial · Chelsea Physic Garden · Holland House · Kensal Green Cemetery · Kensington Palace · Natural History Museum · Olympia · Royal Albert Hall · Science Museum · Victoria & Albert Museum
Theatres	Chelsea Theatre · Finborough Theatre · Gate Theatre · Royal Court
Royal Parks	Brompton Cemetery · Kensington Gardens
Street markets	Portobello Road Market
Constituencies	Kensington and Chelsea · Regent's Park and Kensington North
Parks and open spaces in Kensington and Chelsea