For the first time in its history, the Royal Chelsea Flower Show takes place over six days in the Autumn.
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.
Eccleston Yards opens, offering various events such as screenings of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, Christmas markets, and outside yoga.
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.
Pavilion Road, London’s longest mews, becomes the pedestrianised paradise that is now a haven for brunch and boutiques.
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.
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.
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.
Charles Saatchi opens The Saatchi Gallery to exhibit his collection and it has since provided a springboard to launch many careers.
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.
The original London production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show premiers at the Royal Court Theatre.
Vivienne Westwood opens her evolving boutique which went through many a rebirth before settling as its current identity Worlds End in 1979.
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.
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.
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.
Paolozzi moves back to London and sets up his studio in Chelsea, from where he inspired the Pop Art movement in the 1950s.
The Ivy is opened by Abel Giandolini.
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.
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”.
Sloane Square tube station opens on December 24th.
Rossetti, the poet and painter, establishes the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais while living at 16 Cheyne Walk.
Mary Shelley, the mother of Frankenstein, moves to Chester Square.
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.
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.
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’.
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.