Chelsea Barracks

Chelsea Barracks occupies a site that was once known as the Five Fields, an area of marshland and market gardens that existed long before its transformation into a military stronghold. In the eighteen sixties, the War Office acquired this twelve acre plot to provide purpose-built accommodation for the Foot Guards regiments who carried out ceremonial duties at the nearby royal palaces. The original Victorian brick structures, featuring campanile-style towers, stood for nearly a century as a visible symbol of military order in the heart of the city.