Chelsea Then & Now, 5

Chelsea, Then & Now

South Kensington

"Dear Lena, I have sent your P & B off today, hope you will like it get Daddy to write your name on it, love from Anty Ally". Posted 12.15 am, Jan 20, 1906.  

To a Miss Alice in Rosary gardens "Wishing you many happy returns of the day with best wishes yours truly". Posted March 29, 1906.

St. Lukes Church, Sydney Street

To a Miss Griffith of Duke Street St. James; "This is the church we ought to go to tomorrow around about 3-30, Love in haste." posted 12.15,3 Sept, 1905.

St. Lukes Church, Sydney Street, was built by James Savage in 1831, an early example of the Gothic revival. It is the largest and tallest parish church in London. It's style is magpie like, drawing influences from Kings College Cambridge, Magdalen College Oxford, Bath Abbey and Exeter cathedral. According to Eastlake's "Gothic Revival" it is " the earliest groined church of the modern revival".

The novelists Charles Dickens and Jerome K Jerome were married in the church. The "K" stands for Klapka, after the hero of the 1849 Hungarian uprising General Georg Klapka.

The film director Steven Spielberg chose it for his opening sequence of "Empire of the Sun".

Fulham Road

Pelham Crescent

To a Miss Carey of Kensal Rise; "Dear Evelyn, Received postcard many thanks. Gertie and I will be over tomorrow, Wed." Jan 1909

The Crescent on the left was developed by the architect George Basevi and the builder James Bonnin between 1833 and 1845. This followed the bankruptcy of the tenant nurserymen in 1832. The landowner was the Smiths Charity which was sold to the Wellcome Trust in 1996 for £280 million. The Smiths Charity was initially set up in 1628 by a Henry Smith to raise money to pay the ransom for seaman held by Barbary pirates.

George Basevi built two Gothic churches in Chelsea, St. Jude and St. Saviour, and he designed Belgrave Square, developed between 1825 and 1841. 

Ian Nairn in his book "Nairn's London" described the crescent thus; "It makes a perfect urban unit, formal but not rigid, self contained but not sealed up".

Cecil Beaton lived at 8 Pelham Place from 1935 to 1974.

The 1930's block of flats on the right replaced "The Stag" public house.

"Love to a kiss from the Count" 1909 to Vivienne, 81 The Crescent Wisbeach Cambs. 

Sydney Place from Pond Place

to Mr. J Jury, Blackhall, Sevenoaks, Kent' " Dear John, Just a card to you at last. I hope you are a good boy. With love from e m." Feb. 1913 

Pond Place, from where the photo was taken, was named in 1865 after a large village pond that was part of the 37 acre Chelsea Common. This common land was, according to observers at the time, as agreeable as Clapham Common. Incidentally King Charles I reviewed his troops on this common.

It is also reported that Nell Gwynn's mother drowned, when drunk, in the pond. See "I Never Knew That About London" by Christopher Winn.

The Cadogan Family enclosed the land in 1790 where they built low grade houses, of which a few survive. These houses became slums and were replaced by early examples of social housing supported by private benefactors. Examples include The Samuel Lewis Housing Trust built in 1915 and The Sutton Trust in 1912 to designs by ECP Monson.

The Royal Marsden Hospital

The Royal Marsden Hospital was founded by William Marsden in1861, it was the first hospital in the world designed specifically for cancer patients. Initially called the Cancer Hospital it was named the Royal Cancer Hospital in 1936 and the Royal Marsden in 1954. 

The building opposite was the Hospital For Consumption and Diseases of the Chest was built in a Tudor style in 1844-46. It was designed by FH Francis featuring patterned red and blue brickwork and Caen stone. It was converted into luxury flats in 2004, called The Bromptons.

The Jewish Burial Ground next to the Cancer Research Centre was opened in 1813 [Blunt} or 1816 [George Bryan] and closed before the end of the century. George Bryan in his book "Chelsea in Olden Times and Present Times" published in 1869 included a rather strange anecdote told to him by the Rev. Owen, Vicar of St. Judes, about a Hebrew friend who gave a toast thus; " The Queen of the Jews and of no other nation:. His explanation was  "J [or I] , E, W, S makes Ireland, England Wales and Scotland and J.E.W.S. spells Jews, and makes Queen Victoria Queen of the Jews and of no other nation.

The family of Charles Dicken's wife, Catherine Hogarth, lived at 18 York Place. demolished to make way for the Royal Brompton Hospital, previously the Chelsea Hospital for Women.  

To Miss Walker; "Dear Dolly, I arrived home quite safe last night at 10 past 11 o'c. Love Maggi" March 1910

Elm Park Gardens

1915

The terraces of tall gault brick houses that form Elm Park Gardens were built in the 1990's to the designs of George Godwin. He, and his brother Henry, had made a significant contribution to the transformation of Brompton and South Kensington in the second half of the nineteenth century from market gardens to an elite residential area of London. He was editor for many years of "The Builder' magazine and is buried in Brompton Cemetery 

 Designed as single family houses they were converted into flats after the Second World War following their purchase by Chelsea Borough Council. Adopting a policy of scrap and rebuild half the houses on the right hand side were demolished in the 1960's and replaced by the current blocks of flats.

Past residents include the comedian Joyce Grenfell, sculptor Elizabeth Frink and painter John Bratby, a member of the Kitchen Sink School of painting. He did a painting of the houses in 1955. 

The poet Laurie Lee lived there and was a regular in the now sadly lost Queens Elm Pub. [ See; The Smell of Broken Glass by Sean Treacy]  In an article on Elm Park Gardens he described it as "one of those ante-chambers of experience through which we must all pass at some stage of our lives". Similar to Redcliffe Gardens!

Elm Park Gardens was the last part of Chelsea Park to be developed. The Park formed part of Sir Thomas More's estate which he purchased in 1524 whilst Lord Chancellor to King henry VIII. In the 18 th century a Dr Bloomfield built an elegant Georgian House in the park, following the demise of the Silk Farm in 1724. This was demolished in 1876 to be replaced by a high Victorian house which in turn was demolished in the 1960's and replaced by the somewhat dull modernist tower block.  

 Elm Park Gardens by John Randall Bratby, 1959

Fulham Road

Looking west, with  Mimosa Street to the immediate left, Rostrevor Road on the right in the middle distance and Munster Road beyond.