CHELSEA: The Marvellous Tragedy of Connections

Once upon a time, on a “landing place for chalk or limestone,” a medieval manor house sprouted beside the Thames. A vast market garden grew up around it to feed the nearby city of London. Before long, this dreamland became a “village of palaces.” After a few ups and downs, it can safely be described that way again.

Unique in London, on our walk we will see a sturdy, much‑coveted council estate standing next to “Britain’s most expensive development site,” created on what was once a wasteland. Edgar Allan Poe described it as “a marshy spot, where not a patch of green, no stunted scrub nor sickly flower was seen,” yet today it is home to the most glorious flower show in the world and to one of the oldest, most respected and fascinating walled gardens.

We will see a multi‑million‑pound house that crumbled overnight near King Charles II’s Royal Hospital, where Mrs (Baroness) T rests side by side with women soldiers of long ago, whose lives you will discover through true stories that defy anyone’s imagination.

Who would have thought that the likes of Laurence Olivier, Richard Rogers, Bram Stoker, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Bowie and Angie, and John Singer Sargent all lived within shouting distance of one another? You can still feel the creative sparks flying. And that is even before we arrive at the Thameside properties of the “rock royalty enclave,” rising from the site of one of King Henry’s long‑lost palaces and Thomas More’s vanished, sprawling estate.

I look forward to sharing these stories with you on this short walk, in moments that show London at its best.

This walk is on offer from 10:30am to 12:30pm on

Wednesday March 25

Sunday March 29 and

Saturday April 18

£15