Chelsea history

The name may mean “chalk wharf” or “shelf of sand” in Anglo Saxon. Sir Thomas More first put Chelsea on the map as an attractive place to live when he built a country house here in 1520. He was followed by other aristocrats. In the 16th century it was known as “The Village of Palaces”. Henry VIII had a large house in Chelsea and Queen Elizabeth I was brought up there. In 1682 Christopher Wren established the Chelsea Hospital to be home for old soldiers, as it still is today. Chelsea Bridge was built in 1851. It was replaced by the present bridge in 1932. Chelsea Green is the remnants of the much larger Chelsea Common of the past. Chelsea Embankment, along with the rest of the of the Embankment, is a new road from Victorian times which serves the dual purpose of a main roadway through London, and also to house one of the largest sewers under London designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette.