watercolour of No. Fifty Cheyne, a Chelsea restaurant in London, SW3 5LR. It sits near the River Thames and is known for British/European dining.
Cheyne Walk was laid out in the early 18th century on land associated with the Cheyne family, and before the Chelsea Embankment was built it ran directly along the Thames. it takes its name from William Cheyne, Viscount Newhaven, who owned the manor of Chelsea until 1712. The houses along the walk were mostly built in the early Georgian period, and the street’s riverfront character changed when the Embankment was later constructed.
Cheyne Walk is famous for notable residents and nearby historic sites, including writers, artists, and figures such as Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Mick Jagger, and Bram Stoker.
Interesting facts....
Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s a renown Pre-Raphaelite painter lived at no.16. he was always odd but this intensified after his wife Lizzie Siddal’s suicide in 1862, turning the house into a bohemian menagerie that scandalized Chelsea .neighbors.
Rossetti filled the garden with noisy peacocks, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, marmots, armadillos, and even a raccoon that hibernated in drawers; his beloved wombat “Top” died soon after arrival in 1869 and was stuffed for display in the hall. He hosted raucous gatherings with poets like Swinburne, who slid naked down banisters; once brought his ailing wombat to the dinner table for coffee, cigars, and poetry readings.
Architectural Illustration: No. Fifty Cheyne, Chelsea. London
A3 on 300gsm paper
