Royal Hospital Chelsea
The Royal Hospital Chelsea is a retirement home for retired and disabled soldiers of the British Army in London . It offers space for around 300 veterans , and since 2009 also for female former members of the army. The residents of the hospital, the Chelsea Pensioners , are part of the street scene in the district with their traditional red summer uniforms with medals and tricorns or peaked caps.
location
The hospital is on the left bank of the Thames north of the Chelsea Embankment and southwest of Chelsea Bridge Road in the Chelsea neighborhood . The buildings are surrounded by 21 hectares of gardens and parks, including Ranelagh Gardens to the east of the hospital . To the west of the hospital is the National Army Museum , which opened in 1971 .
history
Following the example of the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris, King Charles II , who introduced a standing army after the Stuart Restoration , had a retirement home built for army veterans from 1682 . The system was designed by Christopher Wren with the assistance of John Evelyn . The first veterans moved into the hospital in 1691, and in 1702 the facility was completed. Following the example of the hospital in Chelsea, King William III. 1694 the Royal Hospital for former members of the Royal Navy in Greenwich.
The interiors of the Chelsea Hospital have been remodeled several times, including by Robert Adam , who was the Clerk of Works from 1762 to 1792 , and John Soane , who was Clerk of Works from 1807 to 1837. Most of the farm buildings on East Road east of the hospital are also from Soane.
During the First World War , a wing of the Light Horse Court was destroyed by a German air raid, killing several people. The destroyed building was rebuilt in 1923. During the Second World War , the building was destroyed again by a V2 rocket and rebuilt from the outside true to the original from 1964 to 1965. The infirmary, rebuilt to designs by Quinlan Terry , reopened in 2009 and renamed Margaret Thatcher Infirmary after former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher .
investment
Exterior
The hospital consists of an elongated complex built around three courtyards, modeled on the colleges in Cambridge . The three-winged main building made of contrasting white red bricks is laid out around a courtyard called a Figure Court , which is open to the Thames . The corners of the building, which is covered with a slate roof, are designed like a pavilion. The two side wings each have a white plastered central risalit . The central wing is emphasized by a Doric portico and a small, domed roof attachment. In front of the figure court it has a single-storey colonnade in front of it , which offers the veterans sheltered resting places. In the Figure Court there is a bronze statue of Charles II created by Arnold Quellin in the workshop of Grinling Gibbons in 1682 , which was gilded again in 2002 on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II's golden jubilee . The cannons erected south of the monument were partly captured in the Battle of Waterloo . The side wings are bordered by another square courtyard, in the northeast the Light Horse Court and in the southwest the College Court . The two courtyards are bounded on the north and south sides by a single-storey building with a central projection.
Interior
The central building houses the Great Hall and the chapel. The wood-paneled Great Hall, adorned with old regimental flags, served as a dining room until the beginning of the 19th century and, after a restoration in 1955, is almost in its original condition as designed by Wren. On the front wall there is a fresco by Antonio Verrio that shows Charles II on horseback in front of the hospital, portraits from the 18th century hang on the walls. a. a portrait of George II by Enoch Seeman and a picture of George III. by Allan Ramsay . The barrel-vaulted chapel, consecrated in 1691, is wood-paneled and has a fresco by Sebastiano Ricci and his nephew Marco painted in 1714 . Other state rooms are the anteroom and the Council Chamber , which served as reception rooms for the monarchs or other high-ranking guests. The two rooms designed by Wren were remodeled by Robert Adam in the 18th century and are adorned with paintings by Kneller and Lely .
The steps of the stairs to the living quarters are kept extra flat to make it easier for the old veterans to climb the stairs. The small, originally only 1.8 m² living cells were rebuilt and enlarged by 1955 and 1991. They are currently 2.7 m² in size, and by 2015 they will be enlarged again and fitted with sanitary facilities.
garden
Originally, the hospital was surrounded by a formal garden laid out in 1687 by George London and Henry Wise. From the north an avenue branching off from King's Road leads to the central axis of the hospital. Royal Avenue , lined with linden trees, runs over Burton's Court , a 1-acre meadow that serves as a forecourt. The main front of the hospital, however, was the south front facing the Thames, where a wide terrace was laid out. A jetty was built on the Thames, there were summer houses, a canal leading to the main building and ornamental ponds. To the east and west of the canal were the kitchen gardens for the hospital.
On the site of the former estate of Lord Ranelagh, who was the chamberlain of the hospital, the Ranelagh Gardens emerged as a public pleasure garden in the middle of the 18th century . After the pleasure garden was closed at the beginning of the 19th century, however, it became part of the hospital gardens. However, the construction of the Chelsea Embankment and other construction work in the mid-19th century destroyed much of the gardens. The Royal Hospital Road, built in 1845 and running north along the main building, separated Burton's Court from the main building. The Hospital Gardens and Ranelagh Gardens were therefore redesigned in the mid-19th century, and they still exist in this form today.
Tourist information
The gardens and grounds have been freely accessible since 1849, with the gardens immediately south of the hospital being mainly reserved for the residents of the hospital. The Great Hall and Chapel can be visited, and guided tours can be booked for groups. The hospital has a small museum with memorabilia from Wellington , which was laid out in the Great Hall after his death in 1852, and the history of the hospital. Oak Apple Day is celebrated around May 29 , the birthday of Charles II and the day the monarchy was reinstated after the English republic . On this day, in memory of the Battle of Worcester , after which Charles II had to hide in an oak tree , the statue of the king in the Figure Court is crowned with oak leaves in the presence of a member of the royal family. From this day on, the pensioners wear their red summer uniforms in the style of the 18th century instead of the blue winter uniforms.
The Chelsea Flower Show has been held annually in May on the lawns south of the hospital since 1913 .
Others
The urns of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her husband Denis Thatcher are buried in the garden of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
The coat of arms of Chelsea FC showed a pensioner from the Royal Hospital Chelsea until 1952.
literature
- Dan Cruickshank: The Royal Hospital Chelsea: The Place and the People. Third Millenium, London 2008, ISBN 978-1-903942-84-0 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ London ( Baedeker Alliance Travel Guide ). Baedeker, Ostfildern 2008, ISBN 978-3-8297-1041-1 , p. 173
- ^ English Heritage: The Rise of the Hospital for Disabled People. Retrieved March 25, 2014 .
- ↑ Ingrid Nowel: London - Biography of a cosmopolitan city . DuMont, Cologne 1995, ISBN 3-7701-3484-2 , p. 389
- ↑ Exploring London: Where is it?… # 38. Retrieved March 25, 2014 .
- ↑ Ingrid Nowel: London - Biography of a cosmopolitan city . DuMont, Cologne 1995, ISBN 3-7701-3484-2 , p. 390
Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 15 ″ N , 0 ° 9 ′ 30 ″ W.