Like other villages around London, Chelsea always had its share of resident artists, attracted by its charm and its cheapness. According to the Victoria County History (2004), the most famous of these was J. M. W. Turner, who, in 1846, bought the lease of 6, Davis’s Place, one of a row of seven small cottages at the western end of Chelsea riverside.
He lived there until his death in 1851, but retained his house in Marylebone and kept his Chelsea address a closely guarded secret.
As Turner was breathing his last in his nondescript cottage at the west end of Cheyne Walk, a younger generation of artists was finding accommodation farther east.
The main period in the building of studio houses, ‘their styles as idiosyncratic and artistic as their occupants’, began at the end of the 1870s, when sites for building along the newly created Chelsea Embankment and Tite Street became available.
Individual artists’ houses continued to be built on the remains of Chelsea Park – the last open ground to be built on in Chelsea – and the adjoining parts of Upper Church Street, which was linked to The Vale by the addition of Mallord and Mulberry streets in about 1909.
Several studios were built in this group of streets before and after the First World War, among them the landmark 1, Mallord Street, which occupies the south-east corner of Mallord Street and Old Church Street and is now on the market through Savills (020–7578 9000) and Russell Simpson (020–7225 0277), at a guide price of £5.95m.
The striking three-storey studio house was designed by the architect Ralph Knott, of County Hall fame, and built in 1911 for the watercolourist Cecil Arthur Hunt, who abandoned a career as a barrister to become a full-time painter.
Described by Charlie Bubear of Savills as, basically, ‘an indulgent, very English, very elegant, one-bedroom house’, it’s the ultimate Chelsea pied-à-terre, exquisitely renovated by its current owner to create an entrance hall, a study/dining room, a kitchen, a spare bedroom and a garage on the ground floor, with a massive master suite on the first floor.
The former artist’s studio on the top floor, with its wonderful light and exceptional views, is now the drawing room, where recitals of classical music are enjoyed by the owner and her guests.
An immaculate apartment in one of London’s first purpose-built blocks of mansion flats
A short walk from Hyde Park, Albert Court was constructed in c1890 by Frederick Hemings.
A magnificent Regent's Park apartment being sold by the Agent Provocateur millionaire
Serena Rees made her fortune as co-founder of the Agent Provocateur lingerie shops; and this is the incredible London apartment
The real-life Peter Pan home – where Wendy and the boys lived – is up for sale
-
Five homes with their own orchards that will be the apple of your eye (almost literally)If you've been looking enviously this year at neighbours with apple trees that have been heaving with fruit, here is the solution: five lovely homes for sale that come with their own orchards.
-
Where in the world is this? — and other pressing questions. It's the Country Life Quiz of the Day, October 14, 2025Test your general knowledge in Tuesday's quiz.
-
Five homes with their own orchards that will be the apple of your eye (almost literally)
If you've been looking enviously this year at neighbours with apple trees that have been heaving with fruit, here is the solution: five lovely homes for sale that come with their own orchards.
-
A beautiful Victorian vicarage that was home to one of the Cadbury family heiresses is on the marketPenny Churchill tells the tale of Monks Bridge in Warwickshire.
-
An outrageously opulent mansion in London's answer to Beverly Hills, with a gym that 'wouldn't look out of place in a 7* hotel''One of the finest houses in St George's Hill' is on the market. Annabel Dixon takes a look at what's on offer.
-
Six homes with fantastic features, from pools and paddocks to waterside settings, as seen in Country LifeOur look at the best homes to come to the market via Country Life this week includes a Chipping Norton farm and a Cornish dream home
-
Queen Victoria's chaplain's house on the Isle of Wight is for sale, and it's a riot of colour, charm and joyA stone's thrown from Queen Victoria's beloved Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, the house where her chaplain lived is now on the open market.
-
An Art Deco masterpiece with five-bedrooms, a private pool, a cinema, a helipad and the ability to conquer oceansLady Christine is the very essence of opulence and could be yours for a cool €55.75 million.
-
The elegant 19th century townhouse where JFK and Jackie Kennedy dreamed of the presidency, and made their wish came trueThis beautiful five-bedroom house in Washington DC's Georgetown was once home to perhaps the most celebrated couple of the 20th century: John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie Kennedy.
-
This five-bedroom thatched cottage in the Chilterns looks quite like Claudia WinklemanMuch like everyone's favourite TV host, this property is beautifully presented.
