Chelsea, in the Olden & Present Times

by George Bryan

The river at Chelsea, some years since, presented in the summer season a very animating and pleasing scene. The sailing matches attracted numbers from London, and excited great interest amongst the inhabitants. As aged men, however, are said to see nothing now equal to “the days when they were young,”—and lest it should be thought I was magnifying the scene, making the sailing matches of former days something like, for excitement and enthusiasm, the present renowned Oxford and Cambridge Boat Races—I will endeavour to avoid the possibility of being charged with giving an exaggerated description of them. But, seriously speaking, it may be said, with truth, that Cheyne Walk and Battersea Bridge, on such occasions, were crowded with many of the nobility, and a vast number of ladies and gentlemen, either in carriages or on horseback. The fleet of sailing boats, with the little Spitfire generally ahead, and “Tom Bettsworth,” [41] the owner, on board, when seen at a short distance approaching Chelsea, with the sun shining on the white canvas sails, and other pleasure boats decorated with flags, in many of which were musicians playing various lively popular tunes, presented a sort of miniature resemblance to those delightful spectacles which are now only to be seen off Erith, &c. The steamboats have rendered such displays impracticable for some years past at Chelsea, and pleasures of this kind must give way to the transactions of business and public convenience. Commodore Capt. Harrison, a distinguished member of one of the first Yacht Clubs, took a great interest in the Chelsea Sailing Matches. He resided in the parish, and was highly esteemed for his conviviality and gentlemanly deportment. His remains were interred in the Brompton Cemetery.

I will now renew the notices of distinguished residents in this part of the parish, occasionally giving a short description of new public erections, and other interesting particulars.

Henry Sampson Woodfall, Esq., was born in Little Britain, in 1739, and when he retired from the active affairs of life, he took a house in Lombard Street, near the Old Church. At a very early age he had the honour of receiving from Mr. Pope half-a-crown for reading to him, with much fluency, a page of Homer. When twelve years old he was sent to St. Paul’s School, on leaving which he was apprenticed to his father, a printer in Paternoster Row; and at the age of nineteen he had committed to his charge the whole business of editing and printing the “Public Advertiser.” From this period till the beginning of 1793, he continued constantly in the exercise of this laborious function. During so long a time, when parties ran extremely high in politics, it is not surprising that a printer should have gotten into some difficulties. He used jocularly to say to his Chelsea friends that he had been fined and confined by the Court of King’s Bench; fined by the House of Lords and Commons, and indicted at the Old Bailey. He laid particular emphasis on the words “fined” and “confined.” His conduct respecting those celebrated letters, signed Junius, displayed great integrity and disinterestedness of character. He associated much with Garrick, Coleman, Bonnel, Thornton, Smollett, Goldsmith, and other wits of his day, and his own conversation overflowed with interesting anecdotes.

In this street resided for many years Mr. W. Lewis, bookbinder, the intimate friend of Dr. Smollett, and his fellow companion, on their journey from Edinburgh to London. It was by the advice of Smollett that he settled at Chelsea; he is pourtrayed in the novel of “Roderick Random,” under the character of Strap the Barber, and many facetious anecdotes are there related of his simplicity, vanity, and ignorance of the world. Mr. Lewis died about 1785.

Danvers Street was begun to be built in the latter end of the 17th century, on the site of Danvers Gardens, and from thence takes its name. Danvers House adjoined Sir Thomas More’s estate, if it was not actually a part of his property, or that of his son in-law, Roper; there existed anciently a thoroughfare or private way between the houses in Lombard Street, on the north side, towards the King’s Road, but to what extent cannot now be ascertained.

Sir John Danvers, who possessed this property as early as the reign of Elizabeth, was the younger brother of Sir H. Danvers, created Earl of Danby in 1625, and by reason of his noble birth was made Gentleman Usher to King Charles the First. In this promotion, having more pride than wit, he lived above his income, and finding himself plunged deeply in debt, and discarded by his family and his Sovereign for associating with the seditious, and propagating their principles about the Court, he, with hopes of gain, and of protection from his creditors, joined the rebels, always embraced the religion of the prevailing party, and at last submitted to that base office, to assist with his presence in the mock court of justice, and, with his hand and seal to the warrant annexed, to take away the life of that king whose bread he had eaten; being induced thereto (as a writer of that period states) chiefly through an expectation of ousting his brother, and seizing upon his estate for his own use, by the same authority and power as so unjustly cut off his Majesty’s head. He died a natural death in 1659, before the restoration.

Sir John married Magdalen, daughter of Sir Richard Newport, and relict of Sir Richard Herbert, by whom she was mother of the famous Lord Herbert of Cherbury.

After the death of her first husband this lady continued a widow twelve years, and was highly esteemed for her great and harmless wit, cheerful gravity, and obliging behaviour, which gained her an acquaintance and friendship with most people of eminent worth or learning in the University of Oxford, where she lived four years, to take care of the education of her eldest son, her children being all young at the death of their father. She died in 1627, and was buried at Chelsea. The Dean of St. Paul’s, whilst preaching her funeral sermon, could not refrain from tears, as Walton reports, who was present.

Danvers House passed from the Danvers family to the Hon. T. Wharton, who, by Queen Anne, in 1714, was created Marquis of Wharton. The house was pulled down about 1716. The garden and grounds extended to the King’s Road; considerable remains of this house were discovered on the site of Paultons Square in 1822, consisting of the foundations of walls, the remains of the great bath, and various fragments of stone pillars and capitals, the whole covering a great space of land, but being considered by the proprietor, Mr. Shepherd, nurseryman, too extensive to take up, they were again covered with earth. It was Sir John Danvers who first introduced into this country the Italian method of horticulture, of which his garden was a most beautiful specimen. Against the wall of the house at the south end of Danvers Street, is placed a stone thus inscribed:—“This is Danvers Street, begun in ye year 1696 by Benjamin Stafford.” In 1742 this was a public house, the sign of the Bell, which was suspended across the street. The house at the south-west corner was also, it is said, formerly a public house, known by the sign of the Angel.

Duke Street, as already indirectly intimated, was first built at the time when the Duke of Buckingham resided at the “greatest house in Chelsea,” and was thus named in compliment to that nobleman. There is nothing clearly known as to the origin of Lombard Street.