Chelsea is an area inWest London, England, due south-west ofCharing Cross by approximately 2.5 miles (4 km). It lies on the north bank of theRiver Thames and for postal purposes is part of thesouth-western postal area.
Chelsea historically formed a manor andparish in theOssulstone hundred ofMiddlesex, which became theMetropolitan Borough of Chelsea in 1900. It merged with theMetropolitan Borough of Kensington, forming theRoyal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea upon the creation ofGreater London in 1965.
The exclusivity of Chelsea as a result of its high property prices historically resulted in the coining of the term "Sloane Ranger" in the 1970s to describe some of its residents, and some of those of nearby areas. Chelsea is home to one of the largest communities of Americans living outside the United States, with 6.53% of Chelsea residents having been born in the U.S.[2]
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The wordChelsea (also formerlyChelceth,Chelchith, orChelsey,[3]) originates from the Old English term for "landing place [on the river] for chalk or limestone" (Cealc-hyð:chalk-wharf, inAnglo-Saxon). Chelsea hosted theSynod of Chelsea in 787 AD. The first record of theManor of Chelsea precedes theDomesday Book and records the fact that Thurstan, governor of the King's Palace during the reign ofEdward the Confessor (1042–1066), gave the land to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster. From at least this time, up to 1900, the Manor and Parish of Chelsea included a 144-acre (0.58 km2) exclave which is now known asKensal Town. The exclave, which was once heavily wooded, was sometimes also known asChelsea-in-the-Wilderness.[4]
Abbot Gervace subsequently assigned the manor to his mother, and it passed into private ownership. By 1086 the Domesday Book records that Chelsea was in thehundred ofOssulstone inMiddlesex, withEdward of Salisbury as tenant-in-chief.[5]
King Henry VIII acquired the manor of Chelsea fromLord Sandys in 1536;Chelsea Manor Street is still extant. Two of King Henry'swives,Catherine Parr andAnne of Cleves, lived in the Manor House; Princess Elizabeth – the futureQueen Elizabeth I – resided there; andThomas More lived more or less next door atBeaufort House. In 1609James I established a theological college,"King James's College at Chelsey" on the site of the futureRoyal Hospital Chelsea, whichCharles II founded in 1682.
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 amarket garden, a trade that continued until the 19th-century development boom which caused the final absorption of the district into the metropolis. The street crossing that was known asLittle Chelsea, Park Walk, linked Fulham Road to King's Road and continued to the Thames and local ferry down Lover's Lane, renamed "Milmans Street" in the 18th century.
King's Road, named for Charles II, recalls the King's private road fromSt James's Palace toFulham, which was maintained until the reign ofGeorge IV. One of the more important buildings in King's Road, the formerChelsea Town Hall, popularly known as "Chelsea Old Town hall" – a fineneo-classical building – contains importantfrescoes. Part of the building contains the Chelsea Public Library. Almost opposite stands the formerOdeon Cinema, nowHabitat, with its iconic façade which carries high upon it a large sculptured medallion of the now almost-forgottenWilliam Friese-Greene, who claimed to have invented celluloid film and cameras in the 1880s before any subsequent patents.
The memorials in the churchyard ofChelsea Old Church, near the river, illustrate much of the history of Chelsea. These includeLord andLady Dacre (1594/1595);Lady Jane Cheyne (1698);Francis Thomas, "director of the china porcelain manufactory";Sir Hans Sloane (1753);Thomas Shadwell,Poet Laureate (1692). The intended tombSir Thomas More erected for himself and his wives can also be found there, though More is not in fact buried here.
In 1718, the Raw Silk Company was established inChelsea Park, with mulberry trees and a hothouse for raising silkworms. At its height in 1723, it supplied silk toCaroline of Ansbach, then Princess of Wales.[6]
Chelsea once had a reputation for the manufacture ofChelsea buns, made from a long strip of sweet dough tightly coiled, with currants trapped between the layers, and topped with sugar. TheChelsea Bun House sold these during the 18th century and was patronised by theGeorgian royalty. At Easter, great crowds would assemble on the open spaces of the Five Fields – subsequently developed asBelgravia. The Bun House would then do a great trade in hot cross buns and sold about quarter of a million on its final Good Friday in 1839.[7][8]
The area was also famous for its "Chelsea China" ware, though the works, theChelsea porcelain factory – thought to be the first workshop to makeporcelain in England – were sold in 1769, and moved toDerby. Examples of the original Chelsea ware fetch high values.
The best-known building isChelsea Royal Hospital for old soldiers, set up by Charles II (supposedly on the suggestion ofNell Gwynne), and opened in 1694. The beautifully proportioned building byChristopher Wren stands in extensive grounds, where the Chelsea Flower show is held annually. The formerDuke of York's Barracks (built 1801–3) off King's Road is now part of Duke of York Square, a redevelopment including shops and cafes and the site of a weekly "farmers' market". The Saatchi Gallery opened in the main building in 2008.Chelsea Barracks, at the end of Lower Sloane Street, was also in use until recently, primarily by ceremonial troops of theHousehold Division. Situated on the Westminster side of Chelsea Bridge Road, it was bought for re-development by a property group fromQatar.
St Mark's College, Chelsea, was founded in 1841, based on the beliefs of The ReverendDerwent Coleridge, son of the poetSamuel Taylor Coleridge, its first principal: that its primary purpose was to widen the educational horizons of its students. During theFirst World War, St Mark's College was requisitioned by theWar Office to create the 2nd London General Hospital, a facility for theRoyal Army Medical Corps to treat military casualties.[9] It merged with St John's College, Battersea, in 1923, establishing a single institution in Chelsea as the College of St Mark & St John. In 1973 it moved to Plymouth, having outgrown the Chelsea campus. The former chapel of St Mark's College, designed byEdward Blore is on the Fulham Road, Chelsea, and is now a private residence.[10]
Dring the mid-1800s,Cremorne Gardens, London, was a popularpleasure gardens area established in 1845. It continued to operate until 1877. The area lay between Chelsea Harbour and the end of the King's Road.
Chelsea's modern reputation as a centre of innovation and influence originated in a period during the 19th century, when the area became a Victorian artists' colony (seeBorough of artists below). It became prominent once again as one of the centres of the "Swinging London" of the 1960s, when house prices were lower than in the staidRoyal Borough of Kensington.
Chelsea once had a reputation as London'sbohemian quarter, the haunt of artists, radicals, painters and poets. Little of this seems to survive now – the comfortable squares off King's Road are homes to, amongst others, investment bankers and film stars. TheChelsea Arts Club continuesin situ; however, theChelsea College of Art and Design, founded in 1895 as the Chelsea School of Art, moved fromManresa Road to Pimlico in 2005.
The Chelsea Book Club, at no. 65 Cheyne Walk (Lombard Terrace), a bookshop that also presented exhibitions and lectures, held the first exhibition of African art in London (sculpture fromIvory Coast and Congo) in 1920, and was the first bookshop to stock Joyce'sUlysses in 1922. Sold in 1928 owing to financial problems, it became the Lombard Restaurant.[11]
Its reputation stems from a period in the 19th century when it became a sort of Victorian artists' colony: painters such asJames Webb,Dante Gabriel Rossetti,J. M. W. Turner,James McNeill Whistler,William Holman Hunt, andJohn Singer Sargent all lived and worked here. There was a particularly large concentration of artists in the area aroundCheyne Walk andCheyne Row, where thePre-Raphaelite movement had its heart. The artistPrunella Clough was born in Chelsea in 1919.
The architectJohn Samuel Phene lived at No. 2 Upper Cheyne Row between 1903 and his death in 1912. He installed numerous artefacts andobjets d'art around the house and gardens and it was known locally as the "Gingerbread Castle". It was demolished in 1924.[12]
Chelsea was also home to writers such asGeorge Meredith,Algernon Charles Swinburne,Leigh Hunt andThomas Carlyle.Jonathan Swift lived in Church Lane,Richard Steele andTobias 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 byLeslie Stephen, father ofVirginia Woolf. Virginia Woolf set her 1919 novelNight and Day in Chelsea, where Mrs. Hilbery has a Cheyne Walk home.
In a book,Bohemia in London byArthur 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 artistPamela Colman Smith, the designer ofA. E. Waite'sTarot card pack and a member of theHermetic 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. In 1980, the building was purchased byChelsea College of Art and Design.
TheChelsea Society, formed in 1927, remains an active amenity society concerned with preserving and advising on changes in Chelsea's built environment. Chelsea Village andChelsea Harbour are new developments outside of Chelsea itself.
Chelsea shone again, brightly but briefly, in the 1960sSwinging London period and the early 1970s. TheSwinging Sixties was defined on King's Road, which runs the length of the area. The Western end of Chelsea featured boutiquesGranny Takes a Trip and The Sweet Shop, the latter of which sold medieval silk velvet caftans, tabards and floor cushions, with many of the cultural cognoscenti of the time being customers, includingTwiggy and many others.
The "Chelsea girl" was a symbol, media criticJohn Crosby wrote, of what "men [found] utterly captivating", flaunting a"'life is fabulous' philosophy".[13] Chelsea at this time was home tothe Beatles and toRolling Stones membersBrian Jones,Mick Jagger, andKeith Richards. In the 1970s, theWorld's End area of King's Road was home to Malcolm McLaren andVivienne Westwood's boutique "SEX" (at Number 430, the King's Road), and saw the birth of the Britishpunk movement.
On 27 November 1974, the London unit of theProvisional Irish Republican Army exploded twin bombs on Tite Street, injuring 20 people.[14]
Chelsea Manor was served by theancient parish of Chelsea. (Such parish units were typically in place by the end of the twelfth century with their boundaries, based on those of the constituent manor or manors, rarely if ever changing.[15]) The manor and parish formed part of theOssulstoneHundred of the county ofMiddlesex.
The area covered by the civil parish became theMetropolitan Borough of Chelsea in 1900, part of a newCounty of London. At that time, theexclave ofKensal Town, which had been part of Chelsea since at least the time of the 11th-century Saxon KingEdward the Confessor,[16] was removed from Chelsea and divided between the new boroughs ofKensington andPaddington (each of which was otherwise based on its corresponding ancient parish). Theparliamentary constituency of Chelsea, which was identical to the parish, retained Kensal Town until 1918.
In 1965 the area merged with theMetropolitan Borough of Kensington to form the modernLondon Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
The parish and borough of Chelsea, which now forms the southern part of theRoyal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, was bounded by rivers on three sides with Fulham Road forming part of its northern boundary withKensington.
The eastern boundary withWestminster was formed by theRiver Westbourne, but was adjusted to followChelsea Bridge Road after the river was culverted.
The short western boundary withFulham was formed by the formerCounter's Creek, of which the mouth - Chelsea Creek - is the only surviving part, with the river's route now used by theWest London Line. Chelsea Football Club'sStamford Bridge home, lies just west of the Counter's Creek in Fulham, and takes its name from a bridge which carried the Fulham Road over the river. The bridge was also known as Little Chelsea Bridge.[17]
The southern Thames frontages run west fromChelsea Bridge along theChelsea Embankment pastAlbert Bridge andBattersea Bridge to Chelsea Creek.Lots Road is a major landmark on the Chelsea side of the confluence of Chelsea Creek and the Thames.
Chelsea also gives its name to nearby locations, such asChelsea Harbour in theLondon Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, andChelsea Barracks in theCity of Westminster. Chelsea includes large parts of the SW3 and SW10 postal districts, and a small section of SW1.
This former fashionable village was absorbed into London during the eighteenth century. Many notable people of 18th-century London, such as the booksellerAndrew Millar, were both married and buried in the district.[18]
King's Road is one of the district's major thoroughfares, a street which despite its continuing reputation as a shopping mecca, is now home to many of the same shops found on other Britishhigh streets, such asGap, andMcDonald's.Sloane Street and its environs is quickly catching up withBond Street as one of London's premier shopping destinations, housing a variety of high-end fashion or jewellery boutiques such asCartier,Tiffany & Co,Dolce & Gabbana,Prada,Gucci,Harrods,Dior,Louis Vuitton,Jimmy Choo,Giorgio Armani,Yves Saint Laurent,Chanel,Valentino,Bvlgari,Gianni Versace andGraff.
As well as a number of garden squares, Chelsea has several open spaces including Albert Bridge Gardens, Battersea Bridge Gardens, Chelsea Embankment Gardens, theRoyal Hospital Chelsea (the grounds of which are used by the annualChelsea Flower Show) andChelsea Physic Garden.[19]
In the 18th century,Chelsea Cricket Club was prominent for a time and played its home matches on what was thenChelsea Common, an area that virtually disappeared under building work in the 19th century.[20] Records have survived of five matches between 1731 and 1789 which involved the Chelsea club and/or were played on the common.[21][22]
Chelsea Football Club is located atStamford Bridge in neighbouringFulham, adjacent to the border with Chelsea. As a result of Chelsea's expensive location and wealthy residents, Chelsea F.C. has the wealthiest local supporters in England.[23]
Chelsea is served by manyTransport for London bus services.
Chelsea has no Underground station, but there are two stations close to its boundary;Sloane Square to the east andGloucester Road to the north (both of these on theDistrict andCircle lines). In addition, to the west is the London Overground stationImperial Wharf, on theWest London Line.
AChelsea railway station (later renamedChelsea and Fulham) previously existed on this line, located between theKing's Road and theFulham Road in neighbouring Fulham, but this was closed in 1940 followingWorld War II bomb damage and later demolished.[24]
There is a proposal to construct aChelsea Underground station on the King's Road as part of theCrossrail 2 project (also known as theChelsea-Hackney line). The project, run byTransport for London, has not yet been approved or funded but is at the consultation stage.[25] According to plans published by TfL in 2008, it is envisaged that the station would be located on the Dovehouse Green area of King's Road.[26] In late 2020 central government shelved plans to progress the Crossrail 2 project.[27]
[...] the most common mode of spelling for some centuries after the Conquest, was Chelceth or Chelchith; in the 16th century it began to be written Chelsey; the modern way of spelling seems to have been first used about a century ago.
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