Hobnobbing in Chelsea!

So Tuesday we did the family history tour! A little while ago I discovered that Dave’s maternal ancestors had lived and worked in Chelsea, and since we’re in London, thought it would be fun to find their house, visit the church they were christened, married and buried in, and find their work place!

Just a quick intro as to who we were tracing:  Dave’s Mum, Stella G. Crossley, was the daughter of Richard E Crossley and Violet Maud Holesgrove, (his grandparents). Violet Maud Holesgrove was the daughter of William Charles Cobbett Holesgrove and Annie Jane Ferguson (she’s the Irish link!) Wiliam CC was born in 1862 in Grahamstown, and was the son of William Cobbett Holesgrove who was born in 1828 in Chelsea. William C emigrated to South Africa sometime before 1851 (his Grandfather’s Will mentions him in South Africa). His father died in 1853 in Chelsea, and his mother Sarah also emigrated to South Africa with her other children (all over 21 years old and two of them deaf and dumb), to join her son William Cobbett who was a clerk in Grahamstown.  That’s the SA link, but I wanted to see where the Holesgrove family were in Chelsea.

We started with a bus ride to South Kensington to find St Luke’s Church in Chelsea where Great Great grandfather William Cobbett Holesgrove was christened, as were others of the Holesgrove family. Some were married there and GGG & GGGG grandfather William Holesgrove were buried there. (Don’t get hung up on all the Williams!) Unfortunately all the headstones have been moved to the side of the property and the burial ground is now a playground!! The headstones we could see were very badly eroded and there were no Holesgrove names on the ones we could read.

Before we tackled the higgledy-piggeldy Kensington streets to find the ancestral home, we tried to find somewhere for a light lunch. Walking through one narrow street we were ‘accosted’ by waitrons from two different eating places, offering us their menu and trying to get us to come inside! I suppose they have to compete for the London lunch-time business crowd! We did go inside and were served by happy and efficient people (foreigners!) I love people-watching, so it was  interesting to see the young men in their pin-stripe suits sitting in the crowded eating space for just half an hour’s lunch break, next to the painter in his white overalls eating a huge dish of some kind of stew!  A Julia Roberts look-alike made herself comfortable next to us and she also managed to finish a huge plate of food while reading a classic.

            As we took our time over our omelette, chips and cappuccino, London rushed in and out of that little eating place. None were there for longer than 10 minutes, most wolfing down a huge plate of food, before rushing off for the afternoon shift at the office. Some of them, like the Julia Roberts look-alike, probably only get home well after 9pm and that hoovered down lunch was their main meal for the day.

            No. 8 and No. 16 Charles Street - all the houses in this area are the three or four storey terraced houses – not quite as grand as the ones you see in Oliver! but still quite pricey I’m sure! Today they are probably three or four flats (or more?!), but I wonder what it was like in the 1850’s. Did our family use this entire building as their home?

  

         Just another 10 minutes walk away is the prestigious Burlington Arcade, where GGGG Grandfather William had a Boot & Shoe Shop (http://www.burlington-arcade.co.uk/). No. 66, which used to be his Shoe Shop is Cameo Corner today, selling a beautiful and rare collection of antique Victorian and Edwardian cameos. Burlington Arcade is most definitely an upmarket shopping arcade – most of the shops are jewellery outlets with the most exquisite pieces in the windows, and a very small interior space. (Probably more internet sales than passing trade). There were still two or three Shoe shops and one with a shoe-shiner in training! 

        Having gawked at sparkling diamonds, brilliant emeralds, sapphires and rubies, it was time to head home before the working Londoners i.e. avoid the crowded tube! We walked down Old Bond Street, past Prada, Gucci and Yves St Laurent, but decided we didn’t have the time to pop in this time! Even The Ritz just didn’t look inviting!!

        I’m just a simple country gal and was glad to leave the city-rush junkies in the city, and climb on the bus to home in the London ‘suburbs’! The London streets from the very front seat upstairs on a double-decker bus look very different. You see the architecture, the intricate carvings around the gabled roofs, the carved stone blocks stating that the building was built in 1831, or a business was established in 1897. Old painted advertising signs still shout out their long-gone wares, and pubs advertise anti-Valentine parties and live music!

The less I go into London city, the better! But this was an interesting visit to where our ancestors lived and worked!

(Apologies for the picture quality of some of the pics!)