London/Chelsea
From World travel guide
Chelsea is an affluent and enduringly fashionable area of West London noted for its shopping (Sloane Square and the King's Road), restaurants and historical associations. It is also the location each spring of the renowned Chelsea Flower Show [1].
Contents |
Understand
Chelsea is a extensive riverside area of London that extends broadly from Sloane Square in the east to the World's End public house in the west and down to the River Thames Embankment. The King's Road marks the main thoroughfare of Chelsea.
History
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: artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, J.M.W. Turner, James McNeill Whistler, William Holman Hunt and John Singer Sargent, as well as writers such as George Meredith, Algernon Swinburne, Leigh Hunt and Thomas Carlyle all lived and worked here. A particularly large concentration of artists existed in the area around Cheyne Walk (pronounced Chey-nee) and Cheyne Row, where the pre-Raphaelite movement had its heart.
Chelsea became prominent once again as one of the centres of 1960s "Swinging London" - the King's Road became the definition of style and fashion and both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones lived in the neighbourhood. In the 1970s, the grittier "World's End" of the King's Road was home to Vivienne Westwood's shop ("Sex"), and witnessed the genesis of Punk. Thereafter, youth culture decamped, the Goths to the newly fashionable quarter of Camden Town (where they remain) and the hippies to Notting Hill. Chelsea seems to have settled back into stylish affluence and aspiration.
See
- Albert Bridge panorama
- Carlyle's House [2], 24 Cheyne Row. Now preserved by the National Trust [3], this 18th century house was the home of the historian Thomas Carlyle from 1834 and now houses a museum dedicated to his life and work
- Chelsea Old Church[4] and Roper's Garden, Cheyne Walk
- Chelsea Physic Garden [5], Swan Walk
- Cheyne Walk
- the King's Road
- the National Army Museum [6], Royal Hospital Road
- the Royal Hospital [7], Royal Hospital Road
- Sloane Square
Do
- Royal Court Theatre [8], Sloane Square
Eat
Gastropubs in chelsea.
All these pubs charge about the same and the quality is more or less the same too.
Pigs Ear (Old Church Street) Phoenix (Smith Street) Builders Arms (Britten Street) Coopers Arms (Flood Street) Admiral Codrington (Mossop Street)
Drink
Buy
The King's Road is one of London's smartest fashion streets.
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