Cheyne Walk

Before the construction of Chelsea Embankment reduced the width of the Thames here, it fronted the river along its whole length.

[1] The Walk runs alongside the River Thames until Battersea Bridge where, for a short distance, it is replaced by Chelsea Embankment with part of its former alignment being occupied by Ropers Gardens.

At the western end between Lots Road and Battersea Bridge is a collection of residential houseboats that have been in situ since the 1930s.

Chelsea Old Church dates from 1157 and Crosby Hall is a reconstructed medieval merchant's house relocated from the City of London in 1910.

In the 1960s, plans for the Greater London Council's London Motorway Box project would have seen the West Cross Route, a motorway standard elevated road, constructed from Battersea to Harlesden through Earl's Court.

Brunel House at 105-106 Cheyne Walk was designed by Frederick MacManus and Partners Architects in the 1950s and was awarded the RIBA London Architecture Bronze Medal for 1957.

[4] In 1972, number 96 Cheyne Walk, the then home of Philip Woodfield, a British civil servant, was the site of a top secret meeting between the British government and the leadership of the Provisional IRA aimed at ending the violence in Northern Ireland.

Cheyne Walk seen from across the river
Cheyne Walk circa 1800.
Maunders Fish Shop, Cheyne Walk, 1887 by Philip Norman
Turners House, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, 1887 by Philip Norman
Back of old houses Cheyne Walk 1907 by Philip Norman
4 Cheyne Walk, shown here in 1881, was briefly the home of George Eliot
4 and 5 Cheyne Walk
15 Cheyne Walk
16 Cheyne Walk, home to Dante Gabriel Rossetti