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    Chelsea The Fascination of London
    Chelsea The Fascination of London
    Chelsea The Fascination of London
    Ebook121 pages1 hour

    Chelsea The Fascination of London

    By G. E. (Geraldine Edith) Mitton and Walter Besant

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 25, 2013
    Chelsea The Fascination of London

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      Book preview

      Chelsea The Fascination of London - G. E. (Geraldine Edith) Mitton

      The Project Gutenberg eBook, Chelsea, by G. E. (Geraldine Edith) Mitton, Edited by Sir Walter Besant

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: Chelsea

      The Fascination of London

      Author: G. E. (Geraldine Edith) Mitton

      Editor: Sir Walter Besant

      Release Date: November 28, 2008 [eBook #27356]

      Language: English

      Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

      ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHELSEA***

      E-text prepared by Susan Skinner

      and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

      (http://www.pgdp.net)

      THE FASCINATION

      OF LONDON

      CHELSEA

      IN THIS SERIES.

      Cloth, price 1s. 6d. net; leather, price 2s. net, each.

      CHELSEA.

      By G. E. Mitton. Edited by Sir Walter Besant.

      WESTMINSTER.

      By Sir Walter Besant and G. E. Mitton.

      THE STRAND DISTRICT.

      By Sir Walter Besant and G. E. Mitton.

      HAMPSTEAD.

      By G. E. Mitton. Edited by Sir Walter Besant.

      CHELSEA OLD CHURCH.

      After an etching by Miss E. Piper.

      The Fascination of London

      CHELSEA

      BY

      G. E. MITTON

      EDITED BY

      SIR WALTER BESANT

      LONDON

      ADAM & CHARLES BLACK

      1902

      PREFATORY NOTE

      A survey of London, a record of the greatest of all cities, that should preserve her history, her historical and literary associations, her mighty buildings, past and present, a book that should comprise all that Londoners love, all that they ought to know of their heritage from the past—this was the work on which Sir Walter Besant was engaged when he died.

      As he himself said of it: This work fascinates me more than anything else I’ve ever done. Nothing at all like it has ever been attempted before. I’ve been walking about London for the last thirty years, and I find something fresh in it every day.

      He had seen one at least of his dreams realized in the People’s Palace, but he was not destined to see this mighty work on London take form. He died when it was still incomplete. His scheme included several volumes on the history of London as a whole. These he finished up to the end of the eighteenth century, and they form a record of the great city practically unique, and exceptionally interesting, compiled by one who had the qualities both of novelist and historian, and who knew how to make the dry bones live. The volume on the eighteenth century, which Sir Walter called a very big chapter indeed, and particularly interesting, will shortly be issued by Messrs. A. and C. Black, who had undertaken the publication of the Survey.

      Sir Walter’s idea was that the next two volumes should be a regular and systematic perambulation of London by different persons, so that the history of each parish should be complete in itself. This was a very original feature in the great scheme, and one in which he took the keenest interest. Enough has been done of this section to warrant its issue in the form originally intended, but in the meantime it is proposed to select some of the most interesting of the districts and publish them as a series of booklets, attractive alike to the local inhabitant and the student of London, because much of the interest and the history of London lie in these street associations. For this purpose Chelsea, Westminster, the Strand, and Hampstead have been selected for publication first, and have been revised and brought up to date.

      The difficulty of finding a general title for the series was very great, for the title desired was one that would express concisely the undying charm of London—that is to say, the continuity of her past history with the present times. In streets and stones, in names and palaces, her history is written for those who can read it, and the object of the series is to bring forward these associations, and to make them plain. The solution of the difficulty was found in the words of the man who loved London and planned the great scheme. The work fascinated him, and it was because of these associations that it did so. These links between past and present in themselves largely constitute The Fascination of London.

      G. E. M.

      CONTENTS

      CHELSEA

      PART I

      The name Chelsea, according to Faulkner and Lysons, only began to be used in the early part of the eighteenth century. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the place was known as Chelsey, and before that time as Chelceth or Chelchith. The very earliest record is in a charter of King Edward the Confessor, where it is spelt Cealchyth. In Doomsday Book it is noted as Cercehede and Chelched. The word is derived variously. Newcourt ascribes it to the Saxon word ceald, or cele, signifying cold, combined with the Saxon hyth, or hyd, a port or haven. Norden believes it to be due to the word chesel (ceosol, or cesol), a bank which the sea casteth up of sand or pebble-stones, thereof called Cheselsey, briefly Chelsey, as is Chelsey [Winchelsea?] in Sussex. Skinner agrees with him substantially, deriving the principal part of the word from banks of sand, and the ea or ey from land situated near the water; yet he admits it is written in ancient records Cealchyth—chalky haven. Lysons asserts that if local circumstances allowed it he would have derived it from hills of chalk. Yet, as there is neither hill nor chalk in the parish, this derivation cannot be regarded as satisfactory. The difficulty of the more generally received interpretation—viz., shelves of gravel near the water—is that the ancient spelling of the name did undoubtedly end in hith or heth, and not in ea or ey.

      BOUNDARIES

      The dividing line which separated the old parish of Chelsea from the City of Westminster was determined by a brook called the Westbourne, which took its rise near West End in Hampstead. It flowed through Bayswater and into Hyde Park. It supplied the water of the Serpentine, which we owe to the fondness of Queen Caroline for landscape gardening. This well-known piece of water was afterwards supplied from the Chelsea waterworks. The Westbourne stream then crossed Knightsbridge, and from this point formed the eastern boundary of St. Luke’s parish, Chelsea. The only vestige of the rivulet now remaining is to be seen at its southern extremity, where, having become a mere sewer, it empties itself into the Thames about 300 yards above the bridge. The name survives in Westbourne Park and Westbourne Street. The boundary line of the present borough of Chelsea is slightly different; it follows the eastern side of Lowndes Square, and thence goes down Lowndes Street, Chesham Street, and zigzags through Eaton Place and Terrace, Cliveden Place, and Westbourne Street, breaking off from the last-named at Whitaker Street, thence down Holbein Place, a bit of Pimlico, and Bridge Road to the river.

      In a map of Chelsea made in 1664 by James Hamilton, the course of the original rivulet is clearly shown. The northern boundary of Chelsea begins at Knightsbridge. The north-western, that between Chelsea and Kensington, runs down Basil and Walton Streets, and turns into the Fulham Road at its junction with the Marlborough Road. It follows the course of the Fulham Road to Stamford Bridge, near Chelsea Station. The western boundary, as well as the eastern, had its origin in a stream which rose to the north-west of Notting Hill. Its site is now occupied by the railway-line (West London extension); the boundary

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