Famous for its writers , poets, painters and eccentrics who lived and chose to spend time there, Chelsea remained a peaceful, rural and secluded district of London until the 19th century.
The manor of Chelsea was acquired by Henry VIII in 1536. It was a London home for a time to two of his wives (Catherine Parr and Anne of Cleves) who both lived in the Manor House as did Henry's daughter, Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth I ).
Sir Thomas More built his house here in 1520 and was visited there by the painter Hans Holbein.
The King's Road in Chelsea was named for Charles II , recalling the king's private road from St James's Palace in central London to Fulham, which was maintained until the time of George IV's Reign.
The best-known building is Chelsea Royal Hospital for invalid soldiers, set up by Charles II (supposedly on the suggestion of Nell Gwynne ), opened in 1694. The beautifully proportioned building by Wren stands in extensive grounds. The Figure Court has a bronze statue of the founder, King Charles, by Grinling Gibbons
Chelsea Barracks, at the end of Lower Sloane Street, is still in use - primarily by ceremonial troops of the Household Division.
The artistic life of Chelsea thrived as many chose to make it their home - painters such as the eccentric Dante Gabriel Rossetti,who kept a menagerie containing armadillos and a laughing hyena in his garden at Cheyne walk, fellow eccentric - Oscar Wilde moved to Tite Street in 1184, J.M.W. Turner , James McNeill Whistler, the American wit and eccentric, settled in 1877, 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 and Cheyne Row, where the Pre-Raphaelite movement of the time, had its heart. 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 .
Chelsea shone again, brightly but briefly in the 1960s Swinging London period and for a time in the early 1970s. The Swinging Sixties was defined on the Kings Road which runs the length of the area and both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones lived here at one time.
