The best of Chelsea by the people who know - Cadogan

13 | STREETS & SIGHTS |
of Clarence, later King William IV, and
had at least ten illegitimate children with
him.
Cadogan Square
• Novelist Arnold Bennett (1867-1931),
who wrote The Old Wives' Tale and
Anna of the Five Towns, lived at
75 Cadogan Square.
Carlyle Square
• Dame Sybil Thorndike (1882-1976),
the famous actress and wife of actor and
theatre director Sir Lewis Casson, lived
at 6 Carlyle Square. George Bernard
Shaw wrote the play Saint Joan with
her in mind for the title role, which she
performed at the
London
premiere in 1924. The
production was a huge success. Her
remains are buried in Westminster
Abbey.
Chelsea Barracks
The 12.8-acre Chelsea Barracks site was
a former British army barracks which had
been closed to the public for more than
150 years. The Qatari Diar Real Estate
Investment Company, via its subsidiary
Project Blue Ltd, won planning permission
from Westminster City Council in
June 2011 to redevelop the land.
The masterplan went through a 21-
month consultation process and will
see the area turned into a residential
neighbourhood in a landscaped setting,
featuring houses, apartments, local
convenience shops, restaurants, a multipurpose
community and cultural centre,
a public sports and fitness facility and a
medical centre.
The development will also feature five
acres of new streets and gardens, and
around a third of the residential units
will qualify as affordable housing. The
architects behind the successful plans
are Dixon Jones, Squire and Partners
and Kim Wilkie Associates. The
planning permission was granted two
years after Prince Charles intervened
over a previous design, after which
the planning application was
withdrawn.
Chelsea Park Gardens
• Artist and Royal Academy
president Sir Alfred Munnings
(1878-1959), best known for
his paintings of horses and his
criticism of Modernism, lived at
96 Chelsea Park Gardens.
However, the plaque to mark
this fact is on the side of the
building, in Beaufort Street.
Chelsea Reach and Chelsea
Yacht and Boat Company
The Chelsea Yacht and Boat Company,
established in 1935, owns the residential
houseboat moorings that stretch between
Battersea Bridge and Lots Road, close
to Cheyne Walk. Celebrities including
Laurence Olivier and Nick Cave have
owned houseboats there and the
community is tight-knit and bohemian.
The Chelsea Reach Residents’
Association – which represents 59 boat
owners, with high-profile members
Royal Borough of Kensingon & Chelsea, Family & Children’s Service
Chelsea Embankment
Chelsea Embankment was built to improve the
sewer and drainage system in the area, protect
it from floods and provide a thoroughfare. It
changed the look of the riverside and some
streets were lost in the process, including some
of the scenes painted by Turner and other artists.
Joseph Bazalgette’s design for the embankment
was completed in 1874 as part of the
Metropolitan Board of Works’ plans to combat
the days of ‘the Great Stink’, when the smell of
raw sewage in the Thames became unbearable
in the hot summer of 1858.
Gardens were planted to soften the look of the
new embankment (see Green Spaces).
George Frederick Samuel Robinson (1827-
1909), 1st Marquess of Ripon and Viceroy of
India, lived at 9 Chelsea Embankment. He was
born at 10 Downing Street, the son of Prime
Minister Frederick John Robinson. Despite his
father being a Tory, he was a Whig and a Liberal,
serving in the cabinet and as Leader of the
House of Lords. He pushed for more legal rights
for native Indians while he was Viceroy of India.
Chelsea Reach houseboats
including artist Damien Hirst and YO!
Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe – are
trying to buy the Chelsea Yacht and
Boat Company after it was put up for
sale in 2011.
Cheyne Walk
Named after one of Chelsea’s first landlords,
Cheyne Walk has been home to a
roll call of famous people.
• Henry VIII’s manor house was on the
site of today’s 19-26 Cheyne Walk. He
built the Manor of Chelsea in 1536, and
residents included Princess Elizabeth,
Lady Jane Grey and Anne of Cleves at
various times.
• In 1655, Charles Cheyne married
Jane Cavendish, a wealthy lady whose
family owned land in London. With her
dowry, he was able to buy Henry VIII’s
former manor house, which the couple
modernised and renamed Chelsea
Place. When Charles died in 1698, their
son William inherited the property and
Sir Hans Sloane bought it in 1712.
• Number 6 Cheyne Walk was home to
Italian physician Dr Dominiceti in 1795,
who built a series of baths and claimed
that bathing in them would cure any
illness. Dr Samuel Johnson was not
impressed and said there was nothing at
all in his ‘boasted system’.
• Civil engineer Sir Marc Isambard
Brunel (1769-1849) and his son
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-
1859), who worked together on the
first tunnel under the Thames, lived at
number 98 from 1808 until 1825.
• One of the greatest English landscape
painters, Joseph Mallord William
Turner (1775-1851), lived at 119 Cheyne
Walk in his old age until his death. He
was inspired by the view of the river from
his Chelsea home and had a balcony
built so he could see it better. Mallord
Street is named after him.
• The Pre-Raphaelite poet and artist
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)