Chelsea, London

“ Since Stuart and early Hanoverian days, times have changed for Chelsea and Kensington; they are now,—as more distant Hammersmith and Fulham are rapidly becoming, and as Putney and Dulwich soon threaten to be,—integral parts of the "monster London," that, like a great irresistible flood, in spreading absorbs all the peaceful little pools that lie in its path. The squalor and the gloom, as well as the splendour and the riches of the great city, are now their heritage. Never more will the waves lap peacefully at Chelsea along the river's shelving shores ”

“ The vogue of Ranelagh lasted many years and only ended when the rotunda was pulled down at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Every now and then one meets pessimistic creatures, usually artists, who shake their heads and say that Chelsea is going to the dogs—by which they mean that all the old studios are being taken by speculators with the intention of converting them into flats.
But the Chelsea of to-day is as charming as it ever was. There are just as many famous inhabitants. ”

“ Chelsea, too, was a very picturesque village in old days,—when the "Old Chelsea Bun-House" was a favourite resort of the Court,—when "Ranelagh" and "Vauxhall" flourished in the neighbourhood,—and when the then fashionable race of London's "jolly young watermen" for their annual badge attracted, as the Oxford and Cambridge boat-race does nowadays, crowds of spectators. ”

“ Chelsea is certainly much the most pleasant part of London to live in if one is an ordinary mortal—not a title, I mean. The houses have lots of personality, and make me think of Beacon Hill all the time. ”

“ If much of London is extremely unlovely, much might fairly be called beautiful. The new Chelsea that has arisen on the ashes of the old might well arouse the admiration even of the most exasperated foreigner. ”

“ Instead, a modern, and, let us hope, a yearly more beautiful city will spread, gradually and certainly, over all the available area. Chelsea and Kensington in the past have had many glories; who can say what splendid fortune may yet be theirs? And we who lament the inevitable changes of time, must remember that they are still living cities, hallowed by their past, interesting by their present, but whose greater and more enduring magnificence is yet to come. ”

“ If a hurried traveller had only time to roam about one of the London boroughs I think he should choose Chelsea, because in that small area of houses built along a mile and a half of the Thames riverside there is much that is typical of quite different phases of London life, from the sixteenth century to the present day. ”

“ He knows how to create the right Chelsea atmosphere and he is most artful in leading his readers on, just as a little dog shows himself every now and then at a decoy and thus draws the inquisitive ducks after him till they drift in with all exit cut off. ”

“ The Chelsea Book Club is on the Embankment by Church Street—its delights must be sampled to be realised—and next door there is a queer handmade toy shop called Pomona—why Pomona?
Across the road is Chelsea Old Church, with{15} its high seventeenth-century tower. To me its interior is the most satisfying in London. The spirit of ancient days dwells there, untouched by modern currents of unrest, and in the tranquil beauty there is no jarring note. Sir Thomas More was one of its celebrated parishioners—you may see his monument and the epitaph he wrote himself. ”

“ Kensington, where you arrive after what seems hopeless straggling through the roaring thoroughfare prolonging the Fleet-and-Strand-derived Piccadilly, is of almost equal artistic and literary appeal, but is older and perhaps less actual in its claims upon the cultivated sympathies. In either of these regions the polite American of definite resources might, if banished from the republic, dwell in great material and spiritual comfort; but if he chose Chelsea for his exile, I do not know that I should blame his preference. ”

“ The house itself is eminent, antique, wainscoted to the very ceiling, and has been all new painted and repaired; broadish stair with massive balustrade (in the old style) , corniced and as thick as one's thigh; floors thick as a rock, wood of them here and there worm-eaten, yet capable of cleanliness, and still with thrice the strength of a modern floor.... Chelsea is a singular heterogeneous kind of spot, very dirty and contused in some places, quite beautiful in others, abounding in antiquities and the traces of great men—Sir Thomas More, Steele, Smollett, &c. ”

“ The entrance here into the parish, at the eastern end of Sloane Square, has been after years of delay considerably widened, and some spacious shops erected. There is also now an Underground Railway Station, and the West London Commercial Bank has likewise extensive premises in Sloane Square, both of which will confer very great advantages on the inhabitants of Chelsea, and the public in general. ”

“ If Eustace was not too unwilling, she said, she should go to Paris after a while. As a maffact, Paris was, of course, the place. London was only a makeshift. She would probably go on to Paris anyway—father or no father. Because one must be thorough. London was looking up—everybody said so—Chelsea had produced some wonderful things—but for an artist Paris was the true Alma Mater. Even Chelsea had had to go to Paris first. ”

“ Beyond Pimlico, Chelsea again is bracing, and as for South Kensington it stands to reason that it is bracing because it is very high, almost as high as Mayfair. If you pass from your Pimlico borderland of Belgravia to either of those regions you are certainly not sensible of any sharp accent, but there is no telling what a gradual rise of eight or ten feet may make in the quality of the air. To the stranger all London seems a vast level, with perhaps here and there the sort of ground-swell you may note from your car-window in the passage of a Western plain. ”

“ The gardens are now quite differently planned from what they were originally. The public is admitted to them under certain restrictions. One or two massive elms, which must have seen the Ranelagh entertainments blossom into life and fade away, are the only ancient relics remaining.
With this account of the Ranelagh Gardens we close our description of Chelsea, having wandered west and east, north and south, and found everywhere some memento of those bygone times, which by their continuity with the present constitute at once the glory and fascination of London, the greatest city in the world. ”

“ Perhaps as a physician his sanitary instincts were more alert than his feelings of sentiment.
There is just one corner of Beaufort Street where a realisation of the past may really be achieved in a very delightful and unexpected manner. Turn in at the iron gateway to Argyle Mansions (at the right-hand side of the street, where the tramlines end and the King’s Road crosses) , and you will find yourself in an undreamed of survival of a part of the Chancellor’s garden. You will find some old trees and a mulberry-bush, and some turf, that is Chelsea, not London, sward ”

“ The chief place of interest at Chelsea is the Hospital for retired invalid soldiers, an institution similar to the asylum for old seamen at Greenwich. The hospital, which is situated on a flat stretch of ground bordering the Thames, and was p. 144planned by Sir Christopher Wren, consists chiefly of one large edifice of red brick, several stories in height, forming a centre and two wings, or three sides of a square, with the open side towards the bank of the Thames. On the north, in which is the main entrance, the style of architecture is simple, being ornamented with only a plain portico. ”

“ There’s a charm in the sound which nobody shuns,
Of ‘Smoking hot, piping hot, Chelsea buns!’
This bunhouse had become so famous, not only throughout London, but for several miles round it, that not to visit Chelsea on Good Friday, and purchase some of the “rare buns,” was considered as unaccountable amongst a certain class—such as the servants of the nobility and gentry, shopmen, mechanics, and apprentices—as it would have been for them to acknowledge that they had never heard of Greenwich Fair. ”

“ Where King’s Road curves about to Millman’s Street—known on the old maps of those days as the Lovers’ Walk, “A Way to Little Chelsea”—an ancient gateway gave entrance to More’s back garden and stables, and through it we may now pass into the Moravian Burial Ground. Here, in the peacefullest spot in all London, lie in rows, men and women on opposite sides, our Moravian brothers and sisters, “departed,” as their little headstones, in their touching simplicity, tell us. Grass grows above them, great trees guard them ”

“ Chelsea has been made famous as the home of many authors and artists,—above all, as the residence of Carlyle during the greater part of his life. Its population, like that of most respectable suburbs, must belong mainly to the kind of citizens which resembles in many ways the better class,—as we sometimes dare to call it,—of one of our thriving New England towns. How many John Gilpins there must be in this population,—citizens of “famous London town,” but living with the simplicity of the inhabitants of our inland villages! ”

“ Burney, Fanny’s father, who was organist of Chelsea Hospital and buried in its now closed cemetery, may still haunt Chelsea; but the actual homes of the people of living memory make a more vivid appeal. Chelsea still keeps up the reputation of being the haunt of famous people. Unlike the inhabitants of the Paris Latin Quarter, artists and poets who have once breathed her air do not remove to more{11} fashionable Mayfair streets when they have “arrived.”
And what a brilliant band of them were found in the Chelsea of the nineteenth century! Meredith wrote The Ordeal of Richard Feverel at No. ”

“ The painter had many Chelsea houses, from 101 Cheyne Walk, where he lived for four years from 1873, to the White House in Tite Street which he built, and, after his quarrel with the architect, adorned with a truly Whistlerian inscription, now removed, “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. ”

“ It is within the reach of every inhabitant of London, and now as our country friends have the benefit of frequent railway excursions, almost every person in the country, may at any time give this home of England’s worn out and gallant defenders a personal inspection. Still it is necessary that a general sketch of the building and grounds should be given. I have therefore extracted most of the following particulars from Mr. Gleig’s admirable work.
Chelsea Hospital occupies, with the buildings, courts, gardens, and offices attached, an area of something more than 54 square acres. ”

“ Enwright about Chelsea had sufficed to turn Chelsea into Elysium, Paradise, almost into Paris. No other quarter of London was inhabitable by a rising architect. As soon as Haim had gone George had begun to look up Chelsea in the office library, and as Mr. ”

“ Chelsea House, Earl Cadogan’s town residence, is in the north-east corner, and is marked by its stone facing in contrast with its brick neighbours. Below Cadogan Place is a network of little, unimportant streets. Byron stayed in Sloane Terrace with his mother in 1799, when he came to London for medical advice about his foot. The Court theatre in the square has been erected within the last thirty years. Sloane Gardens runs parallel to Lower Sloane Street, and behind is Holbein Place, from which we started on our perambulations. ”

“ His Majesty then went on to explain that, now old age was creeping upon him, he proposed to devote his remaining strength to bringing about a keener sense of local patriotism in the various municipalities of London. How few of them knew the legends of their own [Pg 76] boroughs! How many there were who had never heard of the true origin of the Wink of Wandsworth! What a large proportion of the younger generation in Chelsea neglected to perform the old Chelsea Chuff! ”

“ Chelmsford (11) , the county town of Essex, on the Chelmer.
Chelsea (96) , a western suburb of London, on the N. of the Thames; famous for its hospital for old and disabled soldiers, and the place of residence of sundry literary celebrities, among others Sir Thomas More, Swift, Steele, and Carlyle.
Cheltenham (49) , a healthy watering-place and educational centre in Gloucestershire; first brought into repute as a place of fashionable resort by the visits of George III. to it; contains a well-equipped college, where a number of eminent men have been educated. ”

“ Hardly one charitable Society in London existed, to which his popular oratory did not essentially contribute credit and profit. He died in a good old age, and his remains were placed in the family vault at Chelsea. The Rev. Weeden Butler, his eldest son, occupied the same house for many years afterwards, as also the son of the latter, Thomas Butler, Esq., who was much esteemed by a numerous circle of friends while he resided in Cheyne Walk. ”

“ The iron entrance-gates (see Frontispiece) now stand in Tetcott Street, on the premises of the Royal Chelsea Brewery (Welsh Ale Brewery, Limited) , not far from the site of Cremorne.
[25a] Blunt’s Chelsea, p. 19.
[25b] About 1809 the Manor-House had been occupied by James Pilton, manufacturer of ornamental works for country residences (fences, summer-houses, etc.) , and the grounds were neatly laid out as an open-air showroom, with a small menagerie and aviaries. A view of the garden and house from the Gentleman’s Magazine is here reproduced. See also Faulkner’s Chelsea, 1829, ii., p. 215. ”