As with many parts of London, Chelsea & Kensington has a fascinating history dating right back to Saxon settlements, which are mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.

Chelsea actually started out as a small village on the Thames, developed as a riverside resort, for courtiers and wealthy Londoners from the 15th to the 17th Century. During this time it was known as a centre of artistic life in London, with a socially mixed and rather bohemian society, but by the end of the 20th was again largely an enclave of the rich and fashionable thanks to its royal roots.
It’s a borough with a strong regal heritage, starting when William III moved into Kensington Palace in 1689, then the arrival of Queen Victoria in 1819 who continued to reside there until her accession to the throne in 1837. It was Victoria who we can thank for the title “The Royal Borough”.
The borough has seen huge population growth, largely thanks to Victoria, with the census of 1801 indicating that there were just 8,500 residents in Kensington and 11,600 in Chelsea. By 1831 this had risen to 20,902 and 32,371 respectively.
In 1965 the two boroughs were united to form the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Today, Kensignton and Chelsea is the most affluent borough in Britain attracting stars of the fashion, music, film, political and sporting arenas.
There’s so much to see in the borough, here’s our top 5 historical sites to visit whilst you stay at Wyndham Grand Chelsea:

• Chelsea Old Church, part of which dates from the 13th cent., includes the Chapel of Sir Thomas More (1528).
• Royal Hospital for Soldiers – designed (1682-92) by Wren
• Kensington Palace & Gardens
• The Victoria and Albert has to be one of the greatest decorative-arts museum in the world
• Whitehall Palace, Horse Guards Ave., SW1 – probably the most sumptuous dining hall on earth

Plan of Chelsea, (1717) from Faulkner’s Chelsea and its Environs (2nd ed. 1829)
Map of Chelsea (1836), from a copy in the Chelsea Public Library Map of Chelsea, from the Royal Hospital to the Old Church based on the Ordnance Survey (1894–96)