Did You Know?

The first, adopted when the club was founded, was the image of a Chelsea pensioner, the army veterans who reside at the nearby Royal Hospital Chelsea. This contributed to the club's original "pensioner" nickname, and remained for the next half-century, though it never appeared on the shirts.

The name Chelsea is translated from Old English as the “landing place on the river for chalk or limestone”.⁠

Chelsea began life as a fishing village. Henry VIII had a riverside residence here in Tudor times. Chelsea was later frequented by Bohemian' residents such as Whistler and Oscar Wilde.

The Chelsea flower show was originally called the Royal Horticultural Society’s Great Spring Show and was held in 1862 at the RHS garden in Kensington.

In 1982, businessman Ken Bates bought Chelsea for just £1. The Blues were drowning in financial debt at the time and their survival was at stake. The club were even unable to pay the players until Bates decided to bail them out of grave danger.

The first place to start in Chelsea is the shops, this is London's most fashionable areas with boutiques along the Kings Road. The Duke Of York Square is where you will find Europe’s largest Zara store.

Frank Lampard is one of Chelsea’s longest-serving players and from his career at Stamford Bridge, which lasted from 2001 to 2014, he scored a total of 211 goals. He later became their manager for two years in 2019 and returned briefly in 2023 as a caretaker manager, before Mauricio Pochettino took over.

King's Road derives its name from its function as a private road used by King Charles II to travel to Kew. It remained a private royal road until 1830, but people with connections were able to use it. Some houses date from the early 18th century.

Chelsea Market was constructed in the 1890s and was originally the site of the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) factory complex where the Oreo cookie was invented and produced. The complex was redeveloped in the 1990s and features a retail concourse at ground level with office space above.

It’s an important area historically. The location of grand estates belonging to Henry VIII and Thomas More in the sixteenth-century. King’s Road, which literally started its life as the King’s road – Charles II’s private royal road between St. James’s Palace in Westminster and Fulham in the seventeenth-century.