Mixed company
Has any street in England been home to so many famous residents? Its attractions are obvious: until the 19th century, Cheyne Walk lay right on the banks of the Thames. Today, well-tended gardens screen it from the thundering traffic of Chelsea Embankment.
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Address Cheyne Walk, SW3 5LR | Public Transport Sloane Square (District, Circle Line); bus no. 170 from Victoria Station to Albert Bridge | Tip Chelsea Physic Garden at the eastern end of Cheyne Walk (April–Oct Tue–Fri and Sun 11am–6pm) was founded in 1673 to cultivate medicinal herbs. Lunch and afternoon tea are served in its café.
One of the first notables to discover the charms of Chelsea was Sir Thomas More, saint, scholar and Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII. From his estate to the west of Cheyne Walk, More could reach Westminster by boat to attend on his king. Although Henry had More beheaded in 1535, the king followed his adviser’s example a year later, buying a country house on the site that is now nos. 19 to 26, Cheyne Walk. Two of his wives, Catherine Parr and Anne of Cleves, as well as his daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth I, spent time here. Later the house belonged to Sir Hans Sloane, whose scientific collections formed the basis of the British Museum.
Most of the houses in Cheyne Walk date from the early 18th century. Many are sheltered behind creeper-covered walls and fine wrought-iron gates, but passers-by can glimpse rose gardens, columned entrances and Regency-style balconies with curved roofs. The roll-call of occupants is astonishing: Rolling Stone Keith Richards lived at no. 3, Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull spent a short time at no. 48 in 1968, and no. 13 was home to the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Artists also liked the spot: Dante Gabriel Rossetti lived at no. 16, James McNeill Whistler at no. 21, and J. M. W. Turner died at no. 119. Literature is represented by George Eliot (no. 4), the poet Swinburne (no. 16 again) and Henry James (no. 21). Not to forget a prime minister (David Lloyd George at no. 10), the great engineers Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (number 98), the footballer George Best, and John Paul Getty II. And around the corner on Oakley Street, Bob Marley wrote »I Shot the Sheriff«.
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