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Facts and places of interest in and around Chelsea

Interesting Facts about Chelsea

• In Old English the word ' Chelsea ' means landing place [on the river] for chalk or limestone.

• The first record of the Manor of Chelsea precedes the Domesday Book

• The King's Road was named for Charles II, and relates to the king's private road running from St James's Palace to Fulham, which was maintained until the reign of George IV.

• Chelsea was once famous for the manufacture of Chelsea buns.

• In the 19th century Chelsea was known as a 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.

• Virginia Woolf's novel ‘ Night and Day' (1919) was set in Chelsea , where Mrs. Hilbery has a home in Cheyne Walk.

• In the mid- 1970s Bob Marley composed his hit ‘I Shot the Sheriff' in a one-bedroom flat off Cheyne Walk.

Places of Interest in and around Chelsea

Carlyle's House

Carlyle House is a fine example of an 18 th century town house built in 1708. The house is still much as it was when Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle, known as the ‘Sage of Chelsea ', lived here from 1834 – 1865.

Charles Dickens, Robert Browning and Alfred, Lord Tennyson all came to visit Carlyle in this house. Displays include the desk at which Carlyle wrote his books, and an early piano played by Chopin.

Chelsea Embankment  

Wide riverside road, opened in 1874, running directly from Chelsea Bridge to Albert Bridge . Embankment Gardens flourish on land reclaimed from the muddy river foreshore.

Chelsea Old Town Hall  

Hall built in 1886, extended in 1906. Houses early 20 th century murals, painted by several artists, illustrate Chelsea 's connection with science and the arts. Mural on literature nearly destroyed in 1914 because it depicted Oscar Wilde. The Hall is now used for antique, design and craft fairs throughout the year.

Chelsea Physic Garden  

Exotic trees, shrubs and herbs line Britain 's second oldest botanic garden, founded by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1673. Covers four acres. First English cedar trees were planted here in 1683. Still a botanic laboratory; plants and seeds are exchanged with gardens throughout the world. Country's earliest rock garden is made of building stone from the old Tower of London and Icelandic lava.

Chenil Galleries  

Distinguished antique stalls that specialise in fine furniture, 17 th century and 18 th century paintings, Art Nouveau and Art Deco objects, porcelain and antique toys.

Cheyne Walk  

A fine row of early 18 th century houses, many with wrought iron fences and gates. Henry VIII's Manor House, built in 1537, once occupied the site of numbers 19-26. Several 19 th century authors and artists lived here including Dante Gabriel Rossetti at number 16, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of writers and artists. There is a quiet street of unspoilt terraces in Cheyne Row, developed in 1708.

The Natural History Museum  

The lofty halls of Waterhouse's impressive neo-Gothic building provide nearly four acres of gallery space, with 50 million exhibits. The story of evolution is told from dinosaurs to man with bones of mammoths in the Fossil Galleries, a 91ft long model of a blue whale in the Whale Gallery, and spiders in the Creepy-crawlies Gallery. There are many computerised audiovisual displays.

Victoria and Albert Museum  

Seven miles of galleries form the world's largest decorative arts museum. National collections in a gentle ambience, from water colours to wallpaper. Fashions come and go in the Dress Collection, while lasting treasures include Medieval and Byzantine art, an array of oriental carpets, Chinese thrones and samurai swords. Designed by Sir Aston Webb. Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone in 1899.

Science Museum  

Opened in 1857 the Science Museum is an all-embracing panorama of science through the ages. Interactive displays recount discoveries and inventions, from the Industrial Revolution to the Space Age. Holograms, space exploration and a gallery on nutrition. Measure your heartbeat, shake hands with yourself and star in your own special effects video. Also includes Vickers Vimy aircraft, which made the first transatlantic flight in 1919.