
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Brompton_Road
landmark
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence
Coleherne House Coleherne House once stood on the corner of Brompton Lane (later Brompton Road) and Walnut Tree Lane (now Redcliffe Gardens). Earl’s Court Farm Earl’s Court Farm is pictured here as it was in 1867, before the opening of the underground station two years later. Farnell Mews, SW5 Farnell Mews is one of the streets of London in the SW5 postal area. Hesper Mews, SW5 Hesper Mews is one of the streets of London in the SW5 postal area. Ifield Road, SW10 Ifield Road is one of the streets of London in the SW10 postal area. Kramer Mews, SW5 Kramer Mews is one of the streets of London in the SW5 postal area. Racton Road, SW6 Racton Road is one of the streets of London in the SW6 postal area. Redcliffe Gardens, SW10 Redcliffe Gardens began life as Walnut Tree Walk, a pathway running through nurseries and market gardens. Roxby Place, SW6 Roxby Place is one of the streets of London in the SW6 postal area. The Little Boltons, SW10 The Little Boltons - originally called "The Grove" - connects Old Brompton Road with Tregunter Road. The Mansions, SW5 The Mansions is one of the streets of London in the SW5 postal area. Warwick Road, SW5 Warwick Road is one of the streets of London in the SW5 postal area.
Chelsea is an affluent area, bounded to the south by the River Thames.Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above Sloane Square tube station. The modern eastern boundary is Chelsea Bridge Road and the lower half of Sloane Street, including Sloane Square, along with parts of Belgravia. To the north and northwest, the area fades into Knightsbridge and South Kensington, but it is safe to say that the area north of King’s Road as far northwest as Fulham Road is part of Chelsea.
The word Chelsea originates from the Old English term for
chalk and
landing place on the river. The first record of the Manor of Chelsea precedes the Domesday Book and records the fact that Thurstan, governor of the King’s Palace during the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042–1066), gave the land to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster. Abbot Gervace subsequently assigned the manor to his mother, and it passed into private ownership. The modern-day Chelsea hosted the Synod of Chelsea in 787 AD.
Chelsea once had a reputation for the manufacture of Chelsea buns (made from a long strip of sweet dough tightly coiled, with currants trapped between the layers, and topped with sugar).
King Henry VIII acquired the manor of Chelsea from Lord Sandys in 1536; Chelsea Manor Street is still extant. Two of King Henry’s wives, Catherine Parr and Anne of Cleves, lived in the Manor House; Princess Elizabeth – the future Queen Elizabeth I – resided there; and Thomas More lived more or less next door at Beaufort House. In 1609 James I established a theological college on the site of the future Chelsea Royal Hospital, which Charles II founded in 1682.
By 1694, Chelsea – always a popular location for the wealthy, and once described as ’a village of palaces’ – had a population of 3000. Even so, Chelsea remained rural and served London to the east as a market garden, a trade that continued until the 19th-century development boom which caused the final absorption of the district into the metropolis.
Chelsea shone, brightly but briefly, in the 1960s Swinging London period and the early 1970s. The Swinging Sixties was defined on King’s Road, which runs the length of the area. The Western end of Chelsea featured boutiques Granny Takes a Trip and The Sweet Shop, the latter of which sold medieval silk velvet caftans, tabards and floor cushions, with many of the cultural cognoscenti of the time being customers, including Keith Richards, Twiggy and many others.
The exclusivity of Chelsea as a result of its high property prices has historically resulted in the term Sloane Ranger to be used to describe its residents. From 2011, Channel 4 broadcast a reality television show called
Made in Chelsea, documenting the ’glitzy’ lives of several young people living in Chelsea. Moreover, Chelsea is home to one of the largest communities of Americans living outside of the United States, with 6.53% of Chelsea-residents being born in the United States.
In the neighbourhood...
Click an image below for a better view...
