Natural & Artistic Origins

A timeline of Chelsea

Chelsea Flower Show
Chelsea Flower Show
2021

For the first time in its history, the Royal Chelsea Flower Show takes place over six days in the Autumn.

2018

Hugh Grant marries Anna Eberstein at the Chelsea Registry Office, joining a long list of famous faces to tie the knot in Chelsea Old Town Hall.

2018

Eccleston Yards opens, offering various events such as screenings of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, Christmas markets, and outside yoga.

Pavilion Road
Elephant on Pavilion Road
Eccleston Yards
Eccleston Yards
2017

Claude Bosi at Bibendum is officially opened in March and is awarded two Michelin stars, an apt award as it is located in the original UK Michelin HQ.

2016

Pavilion Road, London’s longest mews, becomes the pedestrianised paradise that is now a haven for brunch and boutiques.

2011

The first series of Made in Chelsea is aired, chronicling the lives of an affluent group of young friends as they drop bombshells, cause drama, and declare their love to one another.

2010

Antiquity meets modernity as the art fair Masterpiece is founded for visitors to view and purchase the finest works of art, design, furniture, and jewellery.

The Ivy in Bloom
The Ivy
Saatchi Gallery
Saatchi Gallery
2006

Local shops and restaurants get into the floral spirit of the Royal Chelsea Flower Show by adorning their fronts for the first Chelsea in Bloom.

1985

Charles Saatchi opens The Saatchi Gallery to exhibit his collection and it has since provided a springboard to launch many careers.

1976

The head gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden collects 7lb of olives, a London crop record. The Chelsea Physic Garden allows non-native plants to flourish due to its special location and microclimate.

Rolling Stones fibreglass model
Vivienne Westwood’s
Iconic World’s End
Vivienne Westwood World's End
1973

The original London production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show premiers at the Royal Court Theatre.

1971

Vivienne Westwood opens her evolving boutique which went through many a rebirth before settling as its current identity Worlds End in 1979.

1968

The Rolling Stones move into the neighbourhood, with the parties of the century taking place on Cheyne Walk at the private residences of Brian Richards and Mick Jagger.

Penny Lane
Mary Quant
1962

On June 5th Four Liverpudlian lads, in preparation for their first recording session at Abbey Road, put their suitcases down in their hotel rooms at what is now Sloane Square Hotel. The Beatles soon became international superstars, but they returned time and again to this pocket of London.
Penny Lane was filmed along King’s Road, parties were attended at Club Dell’Aretusa, and wardrobes were extended at the boutiques that populated the area.

1955

Mary Quant opens her boutique, Bazaar, in the heart of the bohemian King’s Road. Her audaciously raised hemlines and shapeless sack dresses encapsulate the fashion revolution of the 1960s.

1949

Paolozzi moves back to London and sets up his studio in Chelsea, from where he inspired the Pop Art movement in the 1950s.

Chelsea Physic Garden
Chelsea Physic Garden
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
The Cadogan Hotel
The Cadogan Hotel
1917

The Ivy is opened by Abel Giandolini.

1895

On April 6th Oscar Wilde is arrested at the Cadogan Hotel, an establishment he often frequented to enjoy a cigar or spend the night.

Socialite and actress Lillie Langtry, rumoured to have been the mistress of Edward Prince of Wales, sells her adjacent house to the Cadagon Hotel with the understanding she could stay and entertain in the hotel for free thereafter.

1887

The Cadagon Hotel opens, described by the estate’s archivist as: “Both risqué and respectable, it is where artists, authors and intellectuals would meet and socialize over dinner or a drink”.

1868

Sloane Square tube station opens on December 24th.

Lady Lilth by Rossetti
Two Rossetti Masterpieces
A portrait by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1848

Rossetti, the poet and painter, establishes the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais while living at 16 Cheyne Walk.

1846

Mary Shelley, the mother of Frankenstein, moves to Chester Square.

Violin
Royal Hospital Chelsea
Royal Hospital Chelsea
1764

At 8 years old Mozart, “most extraordinary prodigy, and most amazing genius” according to his questionably biased father, writes his first symphony while at 180 Ebury Street in Chelsea.

1681

King Charles II authorises the building of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, home to the Chelsea Pensioners, to be designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren.

Painting by Hans Holbein
Thomas More
1539

Hans Holbein the Younger painted the portrait of Anne of Cleves, adding to his repertoire of famous faces painted as he captured the images of the inhabitants of the ‘Palace of Villages’.

1520

Sir Thomas More moves to Chelsea where he is soon followed by other prominent men such as the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Shrewsbury, and King Henry VIII.