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Chelsea Old Town Hall
£35,000. That's what it cost in 1907 to build the front half of the building you're standing before – equivalent to about £4.5 million today. But here's the wild part: Chelsea Old Town Hall is actually two buildings pretending to be one, and you can see the seam if you know where to look. The neoclassical facade facing King's Road was designed by Leonard Stokes, but walk around to Chelsea Manor Gardens and you'll find the older, grander rear section from 1886 – complete with a door that locals still use daily. The original 1860 Vestry Hall on this Earl Cadogan-donated site was deemed so structurally unsound in 1882 that they had to tear down the front and graft Stokes' extension onto John McKean Brydon's "luxurious" replacement. Those giant Roman Ionic columns? They're hiding a building that's literally inside-out, where the back became the front of Chelsea's most elegant architectural deception.
Did You Know?
- Chelsea Old Town Hall is actually a combination of two architecturally significant buildings: the original vestry hall in Chelsea Manor Gardens, designed by J.M. Brydon in the neoclassical style and opened in 1887, and the grander King's Road frontage, designed by Leonard Stokes and completed in 1907. The earlier hall was built after the previous vestry hall was deemed structurally unsound, and the later extension features a striking 15-bay façade with Ionic columns, a projecting clock, and a central bellcote, blending Victorian elegance with civic grandeur.
- The Main Hall of Chelsea Old Town Hall is adorned with a series of wall murals commemorating famous residents of Chelsea, including literary giants like George Eliot, Oscar Wilde, and Thomas Carlyle. One panel, titled 'Literature,' was painted by the noted artist Mary Sargant Florence, who won a competition in 1912—a rare example of early 20th-century public art by a female artist in a prominent civic building.
- For over 20 years, Chelsea Old Town Hall has hosted an annual Antiquarian Book Fair, drawing bibliophiles from across London. Visitors enter through a marble-floored corridor and carved mahogany doors into the grand Main Hall, where the building’s ornate vaulted ceiling, stained glass, and chandeliers rival the rare books and prints on display—making it a unique cultural event that combines history, architecture, and literature in one memorable experience.