Chelsea

A walk round Chelsea starting and ending at Sloane Square.
We start by walking along the King's Road past the John Lewis department store known as Peter Jones. This shop is the favourite shopping venue for young Chesea women (once known as Sloane Rangers) the aristocracy and member of the Royal Family.
From the King's Road we walk through the Royal Hospital, founded in 1862 by Charles II and still the home for the red and blue coated Chelsea Pensioners. You won't find many tourists in its grounds because there is a large guarded security gate, but I show you how to walk in as you have the right of entry. In fact, you will hear me visit the chapel and even pass through the dining room where the men are having lunch.
From here, we walk through the Chelsea Flower Show grounds onto the Embankment where there are views across the River Thames to Battersea and the Buddhist Peace Pagoda built in 1985.
The walk then takes us through the historic district of Old Chelsea. Here we can visit Thomas Carlyle's house, and see the site of the palace owned by Sir Thomas More and Chelsea Manor House built by Henry VIII in 1536. We also pass by Chelsea Old Church and hear how this area was famous for making porcelain until 1784.
The walk then continues along the King's Road, well-known in the 1960's with Carnaby Street as the source of all those wacky military-style fashions and mini-skirts before finishing at Sloane Square, home of the Royal Court Theatre which staged the first production of Osborne's Look Back in Anger in 1956.
Sloane Square Underground is on the District and Circle Lines, Zone 1.
Books referred to in this podcast:
London: A Pilgrimage by Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Dore with introduction by Peter Ackroyd (Anthem Press ISBN: 1 84331 193 3)
London's Underworld by Thomas Holmes with an introduction by Iain Sinclair (Anthem Press: ISBN 1 84331 219 0)