Orig.the site of RANELAGH HOUSE (Paymaster General Richard ~}, with the best gardens in England.

Towards 1741, CRISPE and MYONET planned a venue to rival VAUXHALL. They build the ROTUNDA,  a sort of amphitheatre, and then the largest building in London, with an arcade running round the outside, 4 great pedimented entrances and, inside, containing tiers of boxes. Its centre pillar supported the roof and accommodated  the orchestra, only to be converted later into a giant fireplace. Organ, chandelliers, lavishly decorated tables…

It was ainted by CANALETTO, and saw performances by an 6 years old MOZART (who spent some months in CHELSEA-PIMLICO).  HANDEL presented  here his new music. Fetes and fireworks, even a regatta on the Thames, with barges ablaze with flags.

Masked balls and revelries “where polite society could laid their heart open without a blush, the virgin is set free and the out-works of chastity are at once demolished” (THE RAMBLER)

The London beau monde would promenade to musical accompaniment,  with fresco meals and  varios events, as   concerts and spectacles,  taking place in the ROTUNDA.. “You can’t set your foot without treading on a Prince or a Duke” said H.WALPOLE.

The venue changed hands, and THOMAS ROBINSON steered it through its most successful years. VAUXHALL had been eclipsed, according to HW and Dr. JOHNSON. Even QUEEN CHARLOTTE visited in 1803. But the RG were already on his way out… Some considered it wicked and propriety was called into question, specially when a German gentleman was offered the arm by a lady without introduction…

Finally demolished in 1805.

Such was the renown of the gardens and the vogue for music in the open air (when the boy Mozart played a charity performance there on 29 June 1764) that the NEW YORK  Ranelagh Gardens was opened, in the former Rutgers house,^[7] as a rival to the New York Vauxhall Gardens; its proprietor John Kenzie posted an advertisement for it during the occupation of the city in the American Revolution, in hopes of attracting the British soldiers, as well as "the Respectable Public",^[8] and a Jardin Ranelagh was created in PARIS' fashionable 16th arrondissement in 1870.

DR. JOSEPH LISTER, UPTON, EAST LONDON

After a funeral that included a formal procession through Central London followed by a church service at St Paul's Cathedral attended by Queen Elizabeth II and cost around £3.6 million, including £3.1 million for security, Thatcher's body was subsequently cremated at Mortlake Crematoriuma   and her ashes were buried here, in a private ceremony on 28 September 2013, alongside those of her husband, Denis.

The ROYAL HOSPITAL CHELSEA & the CHELSEA PENSIONERS.                        London’s ANSWER TO “HÔTEL royal des INVALIDES” (Thank you nelly!)

400 CP live here, in scarlet/navy blue attire, you see them walking along the King’s Road and the wider, or on the buses… They are selected amongs ex servicemen/women, who have given good service “by flood and field”.  In permanent pension, without dependents.
in the old times they would have mutton, weekdays. beef, on Sunday,. Bacon, was introduced after a petition, once a week. And a pint of porter and a penny worth or tobacco every day.

The Chelsea Flower Show has been held in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London every year since 1913, apart from gaps during the two World Wars and 2020.
Once Britain’s largest flower show – it has since been overtaken by RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival – it remains the most prestigious.