The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to give this area of London its complete name. To stroll within the Royal Borough is to walk within the footsteps of kings and queens, writers and revolutionaries, politicians and painters, thinkers along with thespians. During the centuries, Kensington and its neighbour, Chelsea, have been host to many important events and also significant figures, that a truly comprehensive history would run to many volumes.
Even a purely local history - the changes in geography, demography and architecture - would take a lot more space than we have here. Sadly, on these pages, we need to make do with sketching in a few of the key developments that have forged the unique place that is the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Both, Kensington and Chelsea originated as Saxon settlements. The origins of the name Chelsea is uncertain. One theory is that the name emanates from an old Anglo-Saxon word for gravel bank and as Chelsea lies on gravel this does seem plausible. Kensington is generally considered to be from ‘Cynesige’s farm'.
Chelsea is the first to appear in historical documents. It is mentioned in an eighth century charter but Kensington and Chelsea both show up in the Doomsday Book (1086). Kensington is referred to as among the manors granted to an Aubrey de Vere, while Chelsea was owned by one Edward of Salisbury.
In subsequent centuries, the Manor of Chelsea passed through various hands but the de Vere family, remained Lords of the Manor of Kensington until the 16th century. The elevation of the De Veres to the Earldom of Oxford in 1155 led people to start referring to the Manor’s court house as the Earl’s Court. The court house stood in the midst of the area which now carries its name. Earl’s Court is probably best known these days for its international exhibition centre and concert venue. The art deco exhibition centre started out in 1937. It stands on the site of the Earl’s Court Exhibition Ground, which from 1887 until the Great War, hosted a string of spectacular events like Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show.
One of Kensington's earliest inhabitants of note was Sir Walter Cope, a favourite of James I. In 1604 Sir Walter started work on his great mansion, Cope’s Castle. Renamed Holland House in 1661, the house became a glittering literary and also political salon. The house and gardens now form London’s most incredible public space, Holland Park.
Royalty took up residence in Kensington in 1689 when William III transferred into Kensington Palace. The presence of the royal court was a sharp spur to development. Wonderful Kensington Square, which dates from this time, was a failing venture until the arrival of courtiers searching for homes to lease near to the Palace.
By 1704 a John Bowack was able to write that Kensington was 'inhabited by Gentry and Persons of Note: There's also ample Shopkeepers and all of Artificers in it, that makes it appear rather like a part of London, over a Country Village.’
Although no reigning monarch was resident after 1760, Kensington Palace continued to influence the parish. On 24 May, 1819 the future Queen Victoria was born there, residing at the Palace until her accession to the throne in 1837. In 1901, in accordance with the late Queen’s wishes that her place of birth must have a distinction, King Edward VII conferred on Kensington the title ‘Royal Borough’.
Chelsea had its own links with royalty. Henry VIII acquired the manor of Chelsea in 1536 and the future Queen Elizabeth I used to be a resident there for a time. James I established a theological college on a site later to be occupied by The Royal Hospital. Established by Charles II for the care of permanently disabled soldiers, the Hospital is still there today and its uniformed residents have become known world-wide as the Chelsea Pensioners
Chelsea was the busier of the two parishes, its location on the River Thames making it easily accessible from London. Several notables developed or perhaps rented houses in Chelsea, such as the Lord Chancellor and Catholic martyr Sir Thomas More, who built a house there in about 1520. More also once owned Crosby Hall, a wonderful banqueting hall in Bishops gate that was relocated ‘brick by brick’, to Chelsea on 1908.
An account of Chelsea, by Dr John King, Rector of Chelsea, written in 1694 noted that 'the number of houses are mightily elevated of late years; for there are 350 houses in the Parish'. Regardless of this progress, neither Kensington nor Chelsea was particularly large, with most likely not around 2,000 to 3,000 populations in each. Both villages were predominantly rural, giving Londoners with days out: Samuel Pepys mentions trips to both Kensington and Chelsea in his diaries.
Over the seventeenth century, gardeners from Chelsea, Kensington and Fulham provided London with most of its vegetables and fruits. This trade with the big city didn't die out until the 19th century, when the two parishes were completely absorbed by London in the enormous building boom of the Victorian era.
Throughout 1712, Sir Hans Sloane bought the Manor of Chelsea from William, Lord Cheyne. Sloane’s wonderful collection of botanical, geological, numismatic, antiquarian, medical along with literary specimens helped constitute the nucleus of the British Museum collections. Sloane additionally assured the future of Chelsea Physic Garden, which is still available to the public nowadays. The garden - devoted to botany and its application - is on land leased to the Apothecaries ‘Company in 1673 by the Cheynes. In 1722, Sloane made over the land to the Company in perpetuity, on payment of an annual rent of £5.
At the outset of the 19th century both Kensington and Chelsea were largely handled by church vestries that dealt with civil and church affairs. There were only a few full-time paid officials. Several important municipal functions were handled by ad hoc organisations including turnpike trusts, sewers commissions and poor law authorities.
In an increasingly urban environment this form of local government was insufficient. Throughout 1855 the Metropolis Local Management Act heralded the very first of several major reforms. Under the Act, civil vestries were set up with paid staff and elected vestrymen representing wards. The powers of the vestries, as well as their successors, the metropolitan boroughs, were steadily increased over the decades.
As a result of the London Government Act 1963, the two boroughs were united in 1965 to develop the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
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