Chelsea, London

Chelsea is a district of London, loosely defined by the area around the King's Road, beginning at Sloane Square at one end, and the "World's End" public house at the other, the River Thames and the Victorian artists' district to the south, and some parts between the King's Road and the Fulham Road. The eastern boundary is defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above Sloane Square Underground and Counter's Creek provided the original western boundary. The district is part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

The borough of artists

Chelsea once had a reputation as London's bohemian quarter, and likes to think of itself as the haunt of artists, radicals, painters and poets. Little of this seems to survive now: the comfortable squares off the King's Road are homes to the English military establishment, American investment bankers and film stars, and latterly the sexy pop siren Kylie Minogue.

Related Topics:
Bohemian - Establishment - Kylie Minogue

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In fact it has always reflected an odd mixture of the English upper class, and the cultural ever-so-slightly-avant-garde.

Related Topics:
Upper class - Avant-garde

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Chelsea's reputation stems from a period in the nineteenth century when it became a sort of Victorian artists' colony: painters such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, J.M.W. Turner, James McNeill Whistler, William Holman Hunt, and John Singer Sargent, as well as writers such as George Meredith, Algernon Swinburne, Leigh Hunt, and Thomas Carlyle all lived and worked here. There was a particularly large concentration of artists in the area around Cheyne Walk (pronounced Cheynee) and Cheyne Row, where the pre-Raphaelite movement had its heart.

Related Topics:
Dante Gabriel Rossetti - J.M.W. Turner - James McNeill Whistler - William Holman Hunt - John Singer Sargent - George Meredith - Algernon Swinburne - Leigh Hunt - Thomas Carlyle - Cheyne Walk - Pre-Raphaelite

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Jonathan Swift lived in Church Lane, Richard Steele and Tobias Smollett in Monmouth House. Carlyle lived for 47 years at No. 5 (now 24) Cheyne Row. After his death, the house was bought and turned into a shrine and literary museum by the Carlyle Memorial Trust, a group formed by Leslie Stephen, father of Virginia Woolf.

Related Topics:
Jonathan Swift - Richard Steele - Tobias Smollett - Leslie Stephen - Virginia Woolf

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Virginia Woolf set her 1919 novel Night and Day in Chelsea, where Mrs. Hilbery has a Cheyne Walk home.

Related Topics:
1919 - Night and Day

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A central part of Chelsea?s artistic and cultural life was Chelsea Public Library, originally situated in Manresa Road. Its longest serving member of staff was Armitage Denton, who joined in 1896 at the age of 22 ? and he remained there until his retirement in 1939. He was appointed Chief Librarian in 1929.

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Armitage Denton had two principal passions in his professional life: books and pictures. As Chief Librarian of the Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea, he was able to indulge and inspire both. His lasting achievements were to increase substantially the number of books on the Library shelves ? in one year alone by an extraordinary 2,981 volumes ? and to inject vigour and momentum into the Chelsea Collection.

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The Chelsea Collection is a priceless anthology of prints and pictures of old Chelsea. Begun in 1887, it contains works by artists as notable and diverse as Rossetti and Whistler. During his time at the Library, Armitage Denton built the Collection assiduously, so that by the time of his death in July 1949 it numbered more than 1,000 items. At the end of the 20th century, the Collection totalled more than 5,000 works, and it continues to grow.

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On his retirement on 10 June 1939, Chelsea Council paid tribute to Armitage Denton?s ?unfailing courtesy? not only to members of the authority, but also to the public. To commemorate his time in office, a framed etching of The Old Lombard, Cheyne Walk, by Henry Rayner, was donated to the Library by ?a Group of Chelsea Artists in appreciation of Mr A. Denton?s service as Librarian?.

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In a curious book, Bohemia in London by Arthur Ransome which is a partly fictional account of his early years in London, published in 1907 when he was 23, there are some fascinating, rather over-romanticised accounts of bohemian goings-on in the quarter. The American artist Pamela Colman Smith, the designer of A.E. Waite's Tarot card pack and a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, features as "Gypsy" in the chapter "A Chelsea Evening".

Related Topics:
Arthur Ransome - Pamela Colman Smith - Tarot - Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

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Chelsea shone again, brightly but briefly in the 1960s Swinging London period and the early 1970s. The Swinging Sixties was defined on the King's Road which runs the length of the area and both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones lived here at one time. In the 1970s the "World's End" of the King's Road was home to Vivienne Westwood's shop ("Sex"), and saw the birth of the Punk movement. Then Youth culture decamped forever, the Goths moving to the newly fashionable quarter of Camden Town and the hippies to Notting Hill.

Related Topics:
1960s - Swinging London - 1970s - Swinging Sixties - The Beatles - The Rolling Stones - Vivienne Westwood - Punk - Youth culture - Goth - Camden Town - Hippies - Notting Hill

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