Chelsea Insider Low - Cadogan

16 | STREETS & SIGHTS |said to have detested. Much of his workwas experimental.• The Pheasantry at 152 King’s Road isa Chelsea landmark with a long historyas a hub for creative artists – includingdancers, actors, writers and musicians.The building’s name comes from itsearlier use as a site to breed pheasants.Ballet dancer Princess SeraphineAstafieva (1876-1934) lived and taughtthere from 1916-1934. She was a relativeof Tolstoy and her pupils includedMargot Fonteyn and Alicia Markova.The basement housed a club andrestaurant from the 1930s up until themid-1960s and it counted DylanThomas, Francis Bacon, LucianFreud, Gregory Peck and PeterUstinov among its members.Eric Clapton lived on the top floor inthe late 1960s, and the Pheasantry alsohosted early UK gigs by Lou Reed,Queen and Hawkwind. The buildingnow houses a Pizza Express, whichcarries on the tradition by continuing tohost live music.• The Markham Arms pub at 138 King’sRoad was frequented by East End crimefigures the Kray twins in the 1950s. Thebow-fronted building is now a bank.• The Chelsea Drugstore – mentionedin the Rolling Stones’ You Can’t AlwaysGet What You Want and featured inStanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orangeas the Musik Bootick – opened in 1968.It was a trendy, American-style complexbased on Le Drugstore in Paris, withspaces to eat, drink, dance and shop,and had a very modern glass and aluminiumlook.It was open 16 hours a day, sevendays a week, and even offered a ‘flyingsquad’ delivery service, where girls onmotorcycles would deliver purchases. Itclosed in 1971 after pressure from localresidents, and although a pale imitationopened later, it failed to revive the glorydays. The site is now a McDonald’s.• Christian the Lion was a real lionthat lived in a basement flat on theKing’s Road. He was bought as a cubfrom Harrods’ pet department by JohnRendall and Ace Bourke in 1969, andvisited restaurants and exercised in thegrounds of the Moravian church onthe King’s Road. But he was growingfast, and Rendall and Bourke workedwith Born Free stars Bill Travers andVirginia McKenna and conservationistGeorge Adamson to return Christian tothe wild. He was released in Kenya in1971 and the footage of the emotionalreunion with his former owners whenthey visited a year later has sincebecome a YouTube hit.• Ian Fleming’s iconic fictional spyJames Bond lived in a unnamed squareoff the King’s Road.Lawrence StreetPorcelain was manufactured in Chelseain a house in Lawrence Street, establishedaround 1745. It was known forhigh-quality tableware and figures, andwas run by craftsmen including formersilversmith Nicholas Sprimont and laterChelsea Methodist ChurchWith its striking blue and gold front,Chelsea Methodist Church might catchyour eye amid the shops on the King’sRoad. The church and pastoral centrerun a variety of different activities foryoung and old throughout the week andthe building is also the hub of WestLondon Churches Homeless Concern, aseparate charity.Methodists started meeting in Chelseain a local woman’s house in the 18thcentury, where the movement's founder,John Wesley, preached to them severaltimes. As the movement grew, they firstrented rooms in Ranelagh Gardens, thenleased and converted a slaughterhousein the Sloane Street area and had apurpose-built chapel in Sloane Square(now the site of the Royal Court Theatre)in the early 19th century.Their second chapel was in SloaneTerrace, on the present site of CadoganHall. They built here on the King’s Roadin 1903, but a bomb destroyed thesanctuary in 1941, and the whole site wasredeveloped in 1983.The new design created 21 flats for theelderly and sanctuaries designed byBernard Lamb, including the narthex(welcoming area) in front of the church’smain sanctuary.Today, the upstairs hall is used by communitygroups, play sessions and classes,and office space on the top floors is rentedout to charities. The narthex welcomeseveryone, from the homeless to people whojust need to see a friendly face (9-4pm onMondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays). Thechurch also takes part in the winter nightshelter for the homeless run by WestLondon Churches Homeless Concern.It is open every day for prayer and thereare services from 11am on Sundays, with adiverse congregation.155a King’s Road, SW3 5TX. T: 0207352 9305. www.chelseamethodist.org.uk