London - Chelsea Travel Guides | London | Sub Regions | London - Chelsea

It’s easy to imagine why Hillary and Bill Clinton called their daughter Chelsea: the name has a pleasant sound and a familiar ring in certain social circles. As far as London is concerned, it means a very comfortable part of town with an impeccable bohemian pedigree, occasionally displaying bursts of street cred. Its High Street, the King’s Road, became one of the pivots of ‘swinging London’ in the 1960s and outraged middle England again a decade later by spawning the Sex Pistols, the shock troops of punk rock. Nowadays much quieter and more expensive, freighted with designer boutiques and the sleek Chelsea boys and babes they attract, the well-heeled King’s Road treads its well-worn path between the Fulham Road and the river, threading its way through a district characterized by smart residential squares and quaint cobbled mews. The most interesting streets to explore lie on its south side, freshened by river breezes, along Royal Hospital Road and the Chelsea Embankment up to the gorgeous Albert Bridge. Apart from the Royal Hospital itself, very grand almshouses for retired soldiers, this pretty area conceals the National Army Museum, the peaceful botanical delights of the Chelsea Physic Garden, and the pickled Victoriana of Carlyle’s House. Further down the King’s Road, around the World’s End, Chelsea loosens up a little to become fertile browsing ground for offbeat fashions and better-value restaurants.

Sights

Royal Hospital Rd, T 020-7730 5282, http://www.chelsea-pensioners.org.uk. Mon-Sat 1000-1200, 1400-1600, Sun 1400-1600 (not Oct-Apr). Free. M Sloane Sq.

Since 1689 about 400 veteran soldiers have been accommodated in the palatial building designed for them by Sir Christopher Wren. You can look around the central of its three elegant neoclassical courtyards, as well as the wood-panelled Great Hall and the Chapel. The Museum tells the story of the pensioners, a familiar sight in the area in their navy blue uniforms and peaked caps.

Royal Hospital Rd, T 020-7730 0717, http://www.national-army- museum.ac.uk. Daily 1000-1730. Free. M Sloane Sq.

Established in 1971, the NAM is an efficient public relations exercise as well as an important academic resource, chronicling the history of the British army since the reign of Henry VIII, illustrated with uniforms, memorabilia and antique oddities such as the skeleton of Napoleon’s horse, Marengo. Far from being triumphalist, the sobering impression made by the series of darkened rooms is that organized armed conflict has been a necessary, even if once glamorous, evil down the ages. An exhibition on the modern army displays some of the gizmos used recently in the Gulf.

Swan Walk T 020-7352 5646. http://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk. Apr-Oct Wed 1200-1700 Sun 1400-1800 (as well as daily throughout the Chelsea Flower Show and Chelsea Festival). Admission £5, £3 under-16s. Winter openings on two Sundays in February. M Sloane Sq.

One of Chelsea’s most enchanting places, this walled garden dates from the 17th century and still plays an important role in botanical research, hence the restricted opening hours. The charm of the place is its small scale, and the care that has clearly been lavished on its wide variety of rare plants, neatly divided up, labelled and laid out according to their preference for light or shade. As well as Europe’s oldest rockery, here are the plants that gave us painkillers, expensive perfumes and contraceptives. A statue from 1723 commemorates Sir Hans Sloane, who bought the garden around that time and gave it to the Society of Apothecaries ‘so that apprentices may better distinguish good and useful plants from those that bear resemblance to them but yet are harmful’.

24 Cheyne Row, T 020-7352 7087, http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk. Apr-Oct Wed-Fri 1400-1700, Sat, Sun 1100-1700. Admission £3.70, £1.80 concessions. M Sloane Sq.

Even though Carlyle’s florid historical works are little-read these days, the little house where the ‘awesome sage of Chelsea’ cohabited with his spirited wife Jane remains highly evocative of middle-class Victorian domesticity and mores. His writing room at the top of the house, the cosy parlour, kitchen and even the tiny back garden have been preserved by the National Trust much as the couple might have kept them.

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