Page 18 - MITRE HOUSE BRIEF HISTORY full

Some of the capital’s most popular restaurants and clubs have been associated with Kings Road including Alvaro’s beneath Mitre House, famed for its Italian cuisine, its film star clientele and the fact that it was the very first ex-directory venue in London - you could only book if you knew the private number and most usually, a celebrity, but not necessarily of merit or famous - more likely infamous would guarantee a smile or two from legendary host, Alvaro Maccioni, considered quite rightly to be the Godfather of Italian chefs let alone of Italian cuisine in London.
The Pheasantry was the most louche and decadent club sinceVictorian times, situated only three minutes from Mitre House and where Oscar Wilde
ment store and the Royal Court Theatre.A new recent fashionable addition being the French Brasserie Colbert. On the northern side of the square is the Sloane Square Hotel and another popular venue, Côte.
MIBTRE HOUSE A Brief History
124 THE KING’S ROAD CHELSEA LONDON SW3 4TP
The King’s Road Chelsea & Environs
The King's Road is one of the most visited and fashionable streets in central and his pals dined and partied regularly. It is now a smart Pizza Express with London, associated with decades of style, creativity and originality including a lovely open courtyard. Just a shame the world's greatest guitarist from the its most recent reinvention in the swinging 1960s which launched the careers world's greatest group moved out of the upstairs flat in the late sixties - yes, of fashion icons such as Mary Quant and Vivienne Westwood. Cream's Eric Clapton - The Club dell' Aretusa, without doubt the capital’s
King's Road derives its name from its function as a private road used by most chic and desirable night club, owned and run by Alvaro [Maccioni], was Charles II to travel up to the hunting fields of Soho and back to Kew.The again only three minutes walk from Mitre House and directly opposite to word Chelsea (also formerly Chelceth, Chelchith, or Chelsey,) originates The Pheasantry, adjacent to every woman’s favourite shop, Marks & Sparks..! from the Old English term for "landing place [on the river] for chalk or And finally of course, the infamous bohemian watering hole, The limestone" It remained a private royal road until 1830 although people with Chelsea Arts Club in Old Church Street, home from home to every estab- high connections were also allowed to use it. Many of the original large lished and struggling artist, photographer, potter, designer and sculptor. Even houses, some of disrepute, date from the early 18th century. James Bond, Ian Fleming's ingenue, lived in Chelsea Square just off King's
Thomas Arne lived at No. 215 and composed "Rule Britannia" there. Road and was known to frequent on occasion The Sloane Club, tucked away King's Road was home in the 1960s to the ultra-chic Chelsea Drugstore, discreetly on Lower Sloane Street, always with a blonde on his arm and a directly opposite Mitre House, with its trendy stylised chrome-and-neon soda reservation for one of their luxurious suites followed by a truly magnificent bar fountain upstairs.Originally,the site was a sleazy old traditionalVictorian breakfast to start another hard day in the field or with another lucky girl. public house, The White Hart and now it’s a fast-food McDonald’s. C'est la vie! John Le Carre’s famed master spy, George Smiley lived at 9 Bywater Street.
Malcolm McLaren's and Vivienne Westwood’s notoriously infamous punk era The main man, though, has to be:
boutique, Let It Rock, opened up at the unfashionable end of Kings Road Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), whose heirs owned the land from Sloane towards the World’s End, which was named after another infamous pub. It was Square and most of Chelsea village and after whom Sloane Square is named changed to SEX in 1974 and then it was renamed Seditionaries in 1977, but and celebrated.The square lies at the east end of the far more vibrant Kings thankfully the anticlockwise clock is still in situ for easy recognition. Road and at the south end of the more conventionally smart Sloane Street
Long before the hippie and punk eras, Chelsea was renowned as a magnet linking to Knightsbridge.
for bohemian counterculture, designers, artists, models, musicians and photog- In the early 1980s, it lent its name to the "Sloane Rangers", the young un- raphers. Celebrated boutiques included Granny Takes a Trip, where the deremployed, often snooty and ostentatiously well-off members of the upper Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix and many other well known stars of classes.The square has two notable buildings:The art deco Peter Jones depart- stage and screen would go to hang out. Stop The Shop, next door to Mitre
House at 126 Kings Road was one of the trendiest boutiques on Kings Road
with its architecturally unique at the time of a fully revolving ground floor.
And not forgetting one of the most convenient transport hubs for both residents and visitors alike, having Sloane Square tube on the Circle and District lines, plus bus route Nos 19, 22, 137, C1, 452, 11 and the capital's besttouristroute,the211toandfromthegrandWaterlooStationvia WestminsterBridge,theThamesandTheWheel,theHousesOfParliament, Victoria Station and onwards through Chelsea Kings Road to Hammersmith - it's worth every penny but don't forget your camera.
The 22 recently changed route and now goes from Putney to Oxford Circus relying on the 19 to serve Piccadilly. It’s also confirmed that Crossrail will not now progress in Chelsea. GREAT NEWS save for those subletting.
Royal Hospital Chelsea - Home of the Chelsea Pensioners -WarVeterans in Scarlet Uniforms