The block of flats built here in the 1930's replaced, according to the Evening News at the time, 'Number 42, Cheyne Walk Chelsea, one of the most luxurious mansions built in London in recent years...' That luxury home had been built only four years earlier to designs by Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) for Lord Revelstoke as a wedding present to his daughter but was only occupied for a few months. Those few months are reported to have included its being rented for a time by Gertrude Lawrence. However the original Shrewsbury House was a home of the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury (about 1528-90) and his wife. She, known as Bess of Hardwick (1518-1608), was one of the all-time great ladies of Chelsea. A part of her achievements was to survive four husbands and receive fortunes from each. Bess was a considerable developer of great mansions. She had Oldcotes, Hardwick Hall and Chatsworth, seats of the Dukes of Devonshire, to her credit before she came to Chelsea. Her relationships with her fourth husband and her sovereign, Elizabeth I (1533-1603), were soured by their mutual and complex involvement with Mary Queen of Scots (1542-87). There is evidence that the house faced onto Cheyne Walk with wings extending toward the river. In 1810 the local historian Thomas Faulkner describes a principal room on the ground floor as being 120 feet long which would have been the full width of the main building. The house went to her heir and then out of the family and through a number of owners until in 1771 it was reported to be being converted to a distillery. At the time of Faulkner's visit it was derelict and it was pulled down in 1813.

O/S Co-ords:2712.7761
Source(s):

Chambers Biographical Dictionary

Chelsea