Chelsea, Middlesex : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Chelsea. You may be able to find further references to Chelsea in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Chelsea parliamentary borough and parish with railway station Bartholomew
CHELSEA a London suburb, a parish, and a district Imperial

This additional information from our descriptive gazetteers is for locations within the parish or parishes associated with Chelsea.

Place Type of entry Source
Notting Hill district with railway station Bartholomew

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Chelsea within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
Daniel Defoe Letter 6, Part 1: Middlesex, Hertford and Buckinghamshire 6
William Camden Middlesex and London 2
Daniel Defoe Letter 5 (London), Part 1: Overview and Suburbs 2
Charles Wesley Jan. 1- Apr. 27, 1747: Yorkshire, Manchester and Bristol 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 2, Part 3: Hampshire and Surrey 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 5 (London), Part 3: The Court and Westminster 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 11: South-Eastern Scotland 1
John Wesley 1740-2: Preaching Incidents; Wesley's Labor Colony; Dispute with Whitefield 1
John Wesley 1746-8: Severe Weather; Ireland; Wesley's Protest against Lawlessness 1
Thomas Pennant Northampton to Gothurst 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Battersea 6 3
South Kensington 0 1
Brompton 0 2
West Brompton 0 2
Walham Green 0 2
Belgravia 0 3
Earls Court 0 2
Pimlico 0 2
Parsons Green 1 2
Knightsbridge 4 2
Victoria 0 1
Lavender Hill 0 1
Nine Elms 1 2
Northend 0 2
Kensington 21 3
Tothill Fields 0 2
Hyde Park 0 1
Campden Hill 0 1
Mayfair 0 4
Fulham 8 2

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Chelsea. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
CEALSCYTHE John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
CERCEHEDE John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
CHELCHED John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
CHELCHE HITH William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
CHELSEA John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
CHESLEY William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.