Royal Avenue, Chelsea

Royal Avenue was conceived in sixteen eighty-two as a grand, royal thoroughfare intended to connect the Royal Hospital Chelsea directly to Kensington Palace. Sir Christopher Wren, the architect behind the hospital, oversaw the project, but the royal carriage way never reached its northern destination and ultimately stopped at the King’s Road. For over a century, the space was known by more modest names like White Stile Walk, referring to the wooden stiles and fencing that once enclosed the site to keep local livestock out. It was only in eighteen seventy-five that it was officially renamed Royal Avenue, commemorating the path the monarch once took to reach the hospital grounds.