Chelsea Manor (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Chelsea.
In the historic county of London and Middlesex.
Modern Authority of London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
1974 county of Greater London.
Medieval County of Middlesex.

OS Map Grid Reference: TQ274777
Latitude 51.48380° Longitude -0.16644°

Chelsea Manor has been described as a probable Palace.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Royal manor acquired by Henry VIII in 1536. Henry VIII's manor house built in 1536, now the site of 19-26 Cheyne Walk, was a wedding present for Katherine Parr. It became home to Henry's children and to the tragic Lady Jane Grey, the nine-day queen. The last royal resident was Anne of Cleves, Henry's fourth wife, who died here in 1556. In 1712 it was bought by Sir Hans Sloane and demolished soon after his death.

There are a number of theories about this building. According to Colvin, Henry VIII acquired the Manor of Chelsea in 1536 from Lord Sandys and built a manor house. It was destroyed in 1700. However it is likely that the house was acquired with the manor, and is therefore late C15 to early C16 in date. The only work recorded is on the king & queen closets and the gardens. Other theories have the idea that this building was erected by Henry VIII, close to the original manor house, which was considered unsuitable. This new building would have been immediately east of the bishop of Winchester's palace. The building was freehold by the time of Charles I, 1639. It was destroyed by 1700. (Greater London HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 081645/00/00.

Books
- Thurley, Simon, 1993, The Royal Palaces of Tudor England (Yale University Press) p. 49, 78
  Weinreb, Ben and Hibbert, Christopher (eds), 1983 (rev edn 1993), The London Encyclopeadia (Macmillian) p. 146
  Colvin, H.M., Ransome, D.R. and Summerson, John, 1982, The history of the King's Works, Vol. 4: 1485-1660 (part 2) (London) p. 64
  Blunt, R., 1900, An illustrated historical handbook to the parish of Chelsea p. 104, 108
  Bryan, G., 1869, Chelsea, in the olden & present times p. 24- online copy
  Faulkner, T., 1810, An historical and topographical description of Chelsea and its environs Vol. 1 p. 263- online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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