Chelsea Then & Now, 4

Chelsea Then & Now

Kings Road

The Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York Square

To Miss Moullin Annesley of Guernsey; " Thanks for your nice long letter glad you are having nice weather and a nice rest and hope you are all feeling much better after a lot of rain yesterday it is much colder today but fine" J Brynatey Lt. August 30 1915

To a Miss Hunt of Cambridge Terrace, Hyde Park, London " Dear Ellen, I am sorry I have not written before but we have visitors here and the head housemaid is away so we are busy, but I like it very much at present have you seen Edie Latby. Will write you both a letter soon, love." 1912 

The Duke of York's Headquarters was named after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, the second son of King George III. It was opened in 1803 as a Royal Military Asylum, a boarding school for the orphans of British Soldiers. "The Dukies, How Tommy Atkins junior is trained", Daily Chronicle, 2 July 1896.
It was designed by John Saunders. Prince Frederick was "The Grand Old Duke of York" who, in the nursery rhyme, "marched ten thousand men to the top of the hill, and marched them down again". He had a chequered military career, as the rhyme applies, being responsible for a defeat in Flanders in 1799.
In 1909 the school moved to Dover, where it still operates, and the building was taken over by the Territorial Army. The running track was used by Sir Roger bannister when training for his "four minute mile" which her broke in 1954. In jJune 1970 the gym was used for rehearsals of Kenneth Tynan's  play "Oh Calcutta" of which an American critic said; "the kind of show that gave pornography a dirty name".
In 1999 the Ministry of Defence sold to the Cadogan Estates. They employed the architects Paul Davies & Partners to create the new Duke of York Square in 2003, and the Saatchi Art gallery which opened in 2008.

To Mrs. Galen, Jubilee Police Station, Fulham Cross, Fulham; " Dear Mrs Galen, I will meet you Monday about 6.30 ish by Timothy Davies. Hoping you are quite well, with love from here. I remain your affek. E. Davids" 30 August 1915

The Chapel on the corner of Cheltenham terrace was consecrated in 1824 by the Bishop of London. Previously there had stood a cottage on the site which, in 1797, became the rural retreat of a Mrs, Crouch, an accomplished singer who performed at Drury Lane and was a great success in Dublin. She died in 1806 in Brighton. It is now a shop.

Opposite is one of the few remaining coherent stretches of mid 19 th. century stucco buildings, stretching from number 72 Kings Road, formerly the Colville Tavern, to Anderson Street.

Kings Road at Dovehouse Green

To Miss Whitten; "Dear Lisa, Received your PC. Lets know when you are coming home. Very hot up here , I mean the weather. With love Mac" 1907

The black & white pub in the middle of the picture, known as the Six Bells pub, was built in 1898 on the site of a Tudor pub and bowling green. This earlier pub was much visited by the painters Whistler and Rossetti and the writer Carlyle whose wife did not allow him to smoke at home. 

The architect was CR Crickmay. Pevsner describes it thus; "a larger than life old English style in the manner of Shaw of George, two splendid lavish storeys of Ipswich windows below three picturesque jettied gables".

It is currently the Henry J. Bean.

The open space opposite is known as Dovehouse Green. Sir Hans Sloane gave the land to the Church     

as an overspill graveyard in 1727, it was enlarged in 1790 and closed in 1812. A mortuary chapel was built in the late 19 th. century and then became a workhouse. This was demolished in 1947, the tombstones cleared and opened as a public garden. In 1977 the old burial ground was landscaped and fully opened to the public as Dovehouse Green. The obelisk in the centre was erected in memory of Andrew Millar, a famous bookseller and publisher who died in 1785.