Chelsea, once a farming district, is a very fashionable place to live, and many of the small houses and flats off the King's Road go for millions. With Fulham, and Kensington to the north, it's a place where posh restaurants and boutiques give way to antiques at the 'World's End' - a great walk is west along King's Road and back east up Fulham Road to South Kensington Station (and the museum district) - see our shopping page for details.
Many famous people of yore lived in Chelsea - most people now go there for the Chelsea Hospital (London's answer to Les Invalides in Paris), The Physic Garden and Carlyle's house during the day and to eat in the evening (far too many resturants to mention - see our Food page). The pioneering Royal Court theatre is above the tube station in Sloane Square - the spiritual home of the Sloane Ranger: a social type personified by the Late Diana Spencer.
Sloane Square tube is the best place from which to explore this area: the King's Road (the place to buy your clothes in the 1960s) spreads out west, running parallel to the river from the Square - Sloane Street heads north to Knightsbridge (passing the hotel where Oscar Wilde was arrested) with it's expensive range of shops like Harrods and Harvey Nicholls. At the other end, bordered by Flood St, Beaufort St, The kings Road and Cheyne Walk there is a cute Georgian 'village' that extends to the river. See also our Shopping page.