Wilde. Winnie-the-Pooh. Mary Poppins. Peter Pan. Spies, scandal, sex, a wombat and an exhumation.
Welcome to literary Chelsea.
Behind some of London’s most elegant facades lie stories that are anything but respectable.
Chelsea has been home to literary giants, bohemian rebels, notorious eccentrics and some of the most famous fictional characters ever created. On this walk, Dr Stephen lifts the lid on the extraordinary lives, loves, scandals and secrets behind the books.
Discover the shocking story of the woman who created Mary Poppins. Hear the tragic connection between Peter Pan and Sloane Square Underground Station. Find out how Winnie-the-Pooh began in Chelsea. Stand outside Oscar Wilde’s home and explore the Chelsea addresses associated with the world’s most famous fictional spies.
And that’s only the beginning.
There’s the extraordinary collector whose private library helped form the foundation of the British Library. There are Pre-Raphaelite passions and a Pre-Raphaelite wombat. There’s sex, scandal, heartbreak, espionage, a graveyard exhumation and some decidedly swinging Sixties surprises.
This is Chelsea with the curtains pulled back.
Think you know your favourite writers and characters? Think again. Their Chelsea stories are stranger, darker, funnier and far more surprising than the fiction.
The walk starts at Sloane Square Underground Station and finishes on the King’s Road near Beaufort Street.
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