Chelsea
Chelsea names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Chelsea formerly a suburb of London
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
formerly a suburb of London, England, now a parliamentary and metropolitan borough of Greater London, on the Thames, opposite Battersea, and chiefly distinguished for containing a royal military hospital, originally commenced by James I. as a theological college, but converted by Charles II. for the reception of sick, maimed, and superannuated soldiers. The building was finished in 1692 by Sir Christopher Wren. Connected with the hospital is a royal military asylum, founded in 1801, for the education and maintenance of soldiers' children. Chelsea has long been and still is the chief residential section in London of writers and artists. In the last century George Eliot, Whistler, Rossetti and Carlyle lived there, and the latter's former home in Cheyne Row is now a public memorial to him. The Chelsea embankment, between Victoria and Battersea bridges, is a famous London riverside promenade. Chelsea porcelain (1745-1784), enjoys a high reputation. Pop. (1918) 63,130.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
chel'se, formerly a suburb, now a district of London, having somewhat less than 100,000 people. It is situated on the north bank of the Thames and forms the river frontage of the Hyde Park district. Chelsea Hospital for old soldiers and the Sloan Botanic Garden are of interest. The latter is famed for fine old cedars. To Americans the chief interest of the neighborhood is its literary associations. Swift, Steele, Leigh Hunt, and George Eliot lived here. Locke and Addison lived hard by. Thomas Carlyle and his wife, Jane Welsh Carlyle, lived in a quiet street. A statue of Carlyle has been erected on the Chelsea Embankment. He was known as the "Sage of Chelsea." Chelsea was a favorite haunt of Henry VIII and his sixth queen, Catharine Parr.
Chelsea a city in Suffolk county
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city in Suffolk county, Mass.; separated from from East Boston by Chelsea creek, and from Charlestown by the Mystic river. It is a suburb of Boston, and is connected with it by ferries, electric and steam railroads; and the Mystic river is crossed here by a bridge 3,000 feet long. Chelsea has a 'United States Naval and Marine Hospital, Soldiers' Home, Fitz Public Library, court house, city hall, etc. Though Chelsea is in the Boston customs district and most of its business men are directly identified with the interests of Boston, it has extensive manufactories of rubber goods, foundry and machine Chemistry." shop products, leather, cordage, brass goods, pottery, has numerous churches, high and graded public schools, weekly newspapers, and settwo National Banks. Chelsea was tled as Winnisimmet in 1630; was a part of Boston until it was organized as a town in 1738, and was incorporated as a city in 1857. The city suffered severe property losses from a destructive fire in 1908, but recovered quickly. Pop. (1910) 32,452; (1920) 43,184.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's called Chelsea a "parliamentary and metropolitan borough" in 1921; that borough vanished in 1965, absorbed into the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and the artists' quarter of Whistler, Rossetti and Carlyle became one of the most expensive residential districts in Europe, best known abroad for the King's Road of the 1960s and for Chelsea Football Club, founded in 1905 but unmentioned by either account. Wren's Royal Hospital still houses the scarlet-coated Chelsea Pensioners and hosts the RHS Chelsea Flower Show each May, while Carlyle's house in Cheyne Row, then a new memorial, has belonged to the National Trust since 1936. The Massachusetts city fared harder: after the 1908 fire Collier's records, a second great fire in 1973 burned out a large swathe of the city, and in 1991 Chelsea became the first Massachusetts municipality placed in state receivership. It is now a majority-Latino city of roughly 40,000, and was among the hardest-hit places in the country during the 2020 pandemic.
Written for this edition, 2026.