Ranelagh Gardens and the Chelsea Flower Show
Why is it significant?
Wander into these leafy gardens on the east side of the Royal Hospital, with their winding paths and big old trees. It is one of the quietest corners of Chelsea. Two hundred and fifty years ago, it was the noisiest and most fashionable place in London.
Key Facts
| Place | Ranelagh Gardens and the Chelsea Flower Show |
|---|---|
| Address | Ranelagh Gardens, Royal Hospital Road, London SW3 4SR, United Kingdom |
| Geo Coordinates | 51.48790, -0.15450 |
| Part of Walk | Pensioners, Poets and Punks: Chelsea's Riverside History from the Royal Hospital to the King's Road, London |
| Generated | Generated |
Wander into these leafy gardens on the east side of the Royal Hospital, with their winding paths and big old trees. It is one of the quietest corners of Chelsea. Two hundred and fifty years ago, it was the noisiest and most fashionable place in London.
From 1742 this was Ranelagh, a pleasure garden where high society paid to stroll, flirt, dine and listen to music. Its centrepiece was the Rotunda, a gigantic round hall with a fireplace in the middle and tiers of supper boxes around the walls, so vast that people compared it to the Pantheon in Rome. The painter Canaletto painted its glowing interior, crowded with silk dresses and powdered wigs. On summer evenings carriages queued all the way back towards Westminster.
And in 1764 a little boy from Salzburg played the harpsichord and organ here at a charity concert. He was eight years old, and his name was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His father was touring him around London like a marvel, and Ranelagh was the place to be seen.
Fashion is a fickle thing. By the end of the century the crowds had moved on, and in 1803 Ranelagh closed for good. The Rotunda was demolished, and the land went back to the Royal Hospital, which laid out the gardens you see now.
But every year in late May the crowds come back. Since 1913 the Royal Horticultural Society has held its great flower show in these grounds, in the gardens and on the lawns sloping towards the river. For a week the Chelsea Flower Show turns them into a city of show gardens and marquees, visited by royalty, celebrities and well over a hundred thousand garden lovers. One famous rule: for most of its history garden gnomes were strictly banned, and they were only allowed in for the show's hundredth birthday in 2013. Now walk back towards the great brick building at the heart of these grounds, and the scarlet-coated soldiers who live in it.