Chelsea (London, England) -- Description and travel
In the Pimlico Road, opposite to the barracks, there stood until 1887-88
a shop bearing the sign of the "Old Chelsea Bun House." But this was not
the original Bun House, which stood further eastward, outside the Chelsea
boundary. It had a colonnade projecting over the pavement, and it was
fashionable to visit it in the morning. George II., Queen Caroline, and
the Princesses frequently came to it, and later George III. and Queen
Charlotte. A crowd of some 50,000 people gathered in the neighbourhood on
Good Friday, and a record of 240,000 buns being sold on that day is
reported. Swift, in his Journal to Stella, 1712, writes: "Pray are not
fine buns sold here in our town as the rare Chelsea Buns?" In 1839 the
place was pulled down and sold by auction.
The barracks, on the south side of the road, face westwards, and have a
frontage of a thousand feet in length. As a matter of fact, they are not
included in the borough of Chelsea, though the old parish embraced them;
but as they are Chelsea Barracks, and as we are here more concerned with
sentiment than surveyor's limits, it would be inexcusable to omit all
mention of them.
The chapel stands behind the drill-yard at the back. It is calculated
that it seats 800 people. The organ was built by Hill. The brass lectern
was erected in 1888 in memory of Bishop Claughton. The east end is in the
form of an apse, with seven deeply-set windows, of which only two are
coloured. The walls of the chancel are inlaid with alabaster. Round the
walls are glazed tiles to the memory of the men of the Guards who have
died. The oak pulpit is modern, and the font, cut from a solid block of
dark-veined marble and supported by four pillars, stands on a small
platform of tessellated pavement. Passing out of the central gateway of
the barracks and turning northward, we come to the junction of Pimlico
Road and Queen's Road. From this point to the corner of Smith Street the
road is known as Queen's Road. Along the first part of its southern side
is the ancient burial-ground of the hospital. At the western end of this
the tombstones cluster thickly, though many of the inscriptions are now
quite illegible. The burial-ground was consecrated in 1691, and the first
pensioner, Simon Box, was buried here in 1692. In 1854 the ground was
closed by the operation of the Intramural Burials Act, but by special
permission General Sir Colin Halkett was buried here two years later. His
tomb is a conspicuous object about midway down the centre path. It is
said that two female warriors, who dressed in men's clothes and served as
soldiers, Christina Davies and Hannah Snell, rest here, but their names
cannot be found. The first Governor of the Royal Hospital, Sir Thomas
Ogle, K.T., was buried here in 1702, aged eighty-four, and also the first
Commandant of the Royal Military Asylum, Lieutenant-Colonel George
Williamson, in 1812. The pensioners are now buried in the Brompton
Cemetery. For complete account of the Royal Hospital and the Ranelagh
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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