A walk through Chelsea with History Today and ‘The writers block’

My travels around the history of buildings has recently brought about another collaboration with history magazine, History Today. A short time ago I went for a walk around the streets of Chelsea with History Today’s Kathryn Hadley, trying to ‘sum-up’ the extensive history of the area into bite-size snippets. The result was the first of a series of history walks for the History Today blog – Walking through Chelsea: then and now

Kathryn and I had a great time wandering past the Royal Chelsea Hospital, Sloane Square, Kings Road and of course Cheyne Walk and the old Chelsea by the river. I have had the opportunity to research a number of houses in this area and it is absolutely bursting with historic connections and famous residents. One of these is the mansion block, Carlyle Mansions.

The History of Carlyle Mansions

Carlyle Mansions - Cheyne Walk

Carlyle Mansions has been given the name ‘the writers block’ because of its many literary connections, as it has formerly been the home of T.S. Eliot, Ian Fleming and Henry James, amongst many others. Carlyle Mansions, named after another famous Chelsea author, Thomas Carlyle, was built in 1886 by Messrs Sandon Brothers to the designs of Walter Seckham Witherington.

Illustration of Carlyle Mansions - The Builder 1886

Ian Fleming moved to No.24 Carlyle Mansions in August 1950 and it was from here that he began the famous James Bond series of books, completing his first draft of Casino Royale in early 1952.

Henry James, American author of Wings of a Dove and The Potrait of A Lady, lived at No.21 Carlyle Mansions from January 1913 until his death in February 1916.

Poet, T.S. Eliot lived at No.19 Carlyle Mansions from 1946 until 1957, where he wrote Notes towards the Definition of Culture (1948), and plays The Cocktail Party (1949) and The Confidential Clerk (1953).

Other notable authors at Carlyle Mansions have included Erskine Childers, Irish author of The Riddle of the Sands and novelist and playwright Somerset Maugham, who briefly lived at Carlyle Mansions in 1904.

For more go to – The History of Carlyle Mansions

For more of the history of Cheyne Walk see my earlier post – ‘Desperate Romantics in Chelsea’