Chelsea, in the Olden & Present TimesBryan, George
History
Chelsea, in the Olden & Present Times
Bryan, George
Chelsea (London, England) -- History
The building is in the Italian style, with stone facings. The length is
about 140 ft., and between 60 and 70 feet in breadth. The great hall is
64ft. in length, and 40 ft. wide, and accommodates upwards of 1000
persons. The board room is about 45 ft. by 30.
* * * * *
The time appointed for the ceremonial was two o’clock in the afternoon,
and at half-past one o’clock the gentlemen invited to take part in the
day’s proceedings assembled in the Vestry-Room of St. Luke’s Church, and
proceeded from thence to the site of the proposed building, headed by the
juvenile band of the Royal Military Asylum, playing national and other
appropriate airs. The procession, on arriving at the spot, was received
with loud cheers by a large number of the inhabitants who were admitted
within the grounds.
* * * * *
Mr. Tite, M.P., opened the business of the day in an appropriate speech,
in the course of which he alluded to the kind gift of the freehold site
by Earl Cadogan, the money for the erection of the building having been
voted by the Vestry. The new hall, he said, when built, would not only
be useful as regarded parochial purposes, but it would be an ornament to
that locality. He was not disposed to introduce politics into a matter
so purely parochial, but he could not help saying that, in the event of
Chelsea obtaining a right to send representatives to Parliament—to which
it is fully entitled on account of the number, respectability, and
intelligence of its inhabitants—they could meet in their new hall, and
there canvass and consider the claims of the candidates who presented
themselves for their suffrages.
* * * * *
Mr. Hanbury and Mr. Byng then severally addressed the numerous assemblage
in suitable speeches.
* * * * *
Mr. Charles Lahee, the respected Vestry Clerk, then read the following
document, which was afterwards deposited in the bottle previously
referred to:—“This building, the foundation stone of which was laid by
the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Chelsea, on the 12th day of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and fifty nine, is intended for the transaction of
the parochial and municipal business of Chelsea, which contains at the
present time a population, by estimation, of seventy thousand persons.
It is built by the Vestry constituted by an Act for the better Local
Management of the Metropolis (18th & 19th Victoria, cap. 120) upon
freehold land presented them by the Lord of the Manor, and his heirs,
from the designs of Mr. Willmer Pocock, architect, by Thomas Piper and
Sons, builders. Contract sum £5630. Lord of the Manor, George, 3rd Earl
of Cadogan.” To which was attached the names of the Rector,
Churchwardens, Vestrymen, &c., &c.
* * * * *
The Rev. Richard Burgess, of Trinity Church, Sloane Street, then offered
an appropriate prayer, after which,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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