Draycott Avenue is one of the streets of London in the SW3 postal area.
Sloane Square Sloane Square station was opened on 24 December 1868 by the Metropolitan District Railway when the company opened the first section of its line. Bray Place, SW3 Bray Place is one of the streets of London in the SW3 postal area. Bury Walk, SW3 Bury Walk is one of the streets of London in the SW3 postal area. Cadogan Place, SW1X Cadogan Place was named after Earl Cadogan and runs parallel to the lower half of Sloane Street. Cadogan Square, SW1X Cadogan Square was built between 1877 and 1888, largely on the grounds of the Prince’s Club. Cale Street, SW3 Cale Street is one of the streets of London in the SW3 postal area. Clabon Mews, SW1X Clabon Mews is one of the streets of London in the SW1X postal area. First Street, SW3 First Street is one of the streets of London in the SW3 postal area. Glynde Mews, SW3 Glynde Mews is one of the streets of London in the SW3 postal area. Ives Street, SW3 Ives Street is one of the streets of London in the SW3 postal area. Kings Road, SW1W Kings Road is one of the streets of London in the SW1W postal area. Lewis Estate, SW3 Lewis Estate is one of the streets of London in the SW3 postal area. Lucan Place, SW3 Lucan Place is one of the streets of London in the SW3 postal area. Pelham Court, SW3 Pelham Court is one of the streets of London in the SW3 postal area. Pelham Crescent, SW7 Henry Pelham, 3rd Earl of Chichester was a former trustee of the Smith’s Charity Estate, upon which the road was built. Pelham Place, SW7 Pelham Place is one of the streets of London in the SW7 postal area. Pond Place, SW3 Pond Place is one of the streets of London in the SW3 postal area. Sloane Square, SW1W Sloane Square forms a boundary between the two largest aristocratic estates in London, the Grosvenor Estate and the Cadogan. Sydney Place, SW7 Sydney Place is one of the streets of London in the SW7 postal area. The Gateways, SW3 The Gateways is one of the streets of London in the SW3 postal area. Thurloe Street, SW7 Thurloe Street is named for John Thurloe, said to have been given this land by Oliver Cromwell for services during the Commonwealth. Tryon Street, SW3 Tryon Street is one of the streets of London in the SW3 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.
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