It was not just the Carlyles that embraced the charms of Chelsea.
In adjacent streets there are a host of blue plaques marking the famous talents who were drawn to the area. Among them are Dante Gabriel Rossetti, George Meredith and Algernon Charles Swinburne, who moved to 16 Cheyne Walk in 1862, and Henry James, who occupied nearby Carlyle Mansions. Mrs Gaskell, James McNeill Whistler, JMW Turner and Hilaire Belloc also spent time there.
Sir Thomas More was one of Chelsea's earliest and most famous champions, occupying a manor house long since demolished. His statue stands proudly outside Chelsea Old Church, which dates back to 1157 but was heavily bomb-damaged in World War Two and largely rebuilt in the 1950s. But the south chapel, built on the orders of Thomas More himself, survives. It is reputedly here that Henry VIII married Jane Seymour in advance of the state ceremony.
Walking along Chelsea Embankment, which runs beside the River Thames, there are places of interest at every turn.
One of the most beautiful places is the Chelsea Physic Garden, founded in 1673 and developed in the early 18th century by Sir Han Sloane to aid the creation and expand the knowledge of new medicines. Still used as an educational and research resource today, its plants include woad, yams and meadowsweets - ingredients for dye, contraceptives and aspirin respectively, as well as olive and cork trees growing outside.
Nearby is the National Army Museum, a modern building dedicated to the history of Britain's armed forces. Exhibitions include the Victorian Soldier and The Nation in Arms, looking at the services through two World Wars. It also includes a model of the Battle of Waterloo and portraits by Reynolds and Gainsborough.
Christopher Wren's Royal Hospital is one of London's most magnificent buildings and still home to more than 400 ex-servicemen, so-called 'Chelsea Pensioners'. Carlyle called the building, commissioned by Charles II in 1682, 'quiet and dignified and the work of a gentleman'. On warm days the old soldiers can be seen sitting outside in the gardens, wearing either day dress of navy blue or the ceremonial scarlet. It is possible to visit the museum, chapel and hall, while the grounds play host to the Chelsea Flower Show each May.
En-route to Carlyle's house from Sloane Square is the famous fashion street, King's Road, with plenty of designer shops. Wrapped around the top corner is the department store Peter Jones, one of London's first 'modernist' buildings and still going strong.
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