Chelsea, a suburb of London, on the north bank of the Thames, here crossed by bridges to Battersea (q.v.). In the 16th century the village of Chelsea was the residence of Sir Thomas More, Queen Catharine Parr, the Princess Elizabeth, and Anne of Cleves. Afterwards Walpole, Swift, Steele, and Sir Hans Sloane, and, in later years, Leigh Hunt, Carlyle, Rossetti, and George Eliot lived here. In the 18th century Ranelagh was much resorted to, and Cremorne (closed 1877) was at one time a popular attraction. Besides its Hospital, Chelsea has a Royal Military Asylum for soldiers' children, large barracks for the Foot Guards, a botanic garden, water-works (1722) to supply London, a river-pier, and an embankment (1873) extending to Battersea Bridge on the west. The famous 18th-century porcelain is noticed under POTTERY. The borough has returned one member to parliament since 1885, when its limits were greatly reduced. Pop. (1891) 96,272.
CHELSEA HOSPITAL is an asylum for old and disabled soldiers of the British army. The gradual decay of the feudal system rendered it necessary to make some new provision for sick and maimed soldiers, consequently various statutes were passed during the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., throwing their maintenance on their respective parishes, under directions from the county justices. This system was abrogated during the Commonwealth as a matter of policy, and the expense met out of moneys arising from sequestrations of the estates of the vanquished royalists. After the Restoration a new act was passed (1662) again throwing their maintenance on the parishes, but this was so burdensome that it was never enacted. Sir Stephen Fox, the first paymaster-general of the forces, who had long been an exile in France, and was no doubt well acquainted with the erection in 1671 of the Hôpital des Invalides at Paris, first suggested the building of Chelsea Hospital. The foundation stone was laid by Charles II. in 1682, and the building, designed by Wren, was opened in 1692.
The funds for its lands and buildings, and for many years the maintenance of its inmates, were derived chiefly by deductions from the pay of the troops themselves—viz. 1s. in the £1, as well as one day's pay in each year. Since 1783 it has, however, been almost entirely supported by annual parliamentary grants. All Pensions (q.v.) granted to soldiers are awarded by the Commissioners of Chelsea Hospital, who are appointed by the crown. Originally it was contemplated that all pensioners would become inmates of Chelsea Hospital, but this was soon found impossible, and thus those who could not gain admittance were granted allowances termed out-pensions. The out-pensioners number about 84,000 men, including negroes in the West Indies and West Africa, Maltese, Singhalese, and Lascars, and cost annually some £1,800,000. The in-pensioners numbered about 550. They are selected from such out-pensioners as desire to become inmates, according to merit, age, and sufferings from wounds or other disabilities, and are provided with board, lodging, clothing (including the well-known red coat and cocked hat), nursing, and medical attendance, together with a small weekly allowance in money according to rank. The in-pension vote annually amounts (including, however, charges relating to the grant of out-pensions, but excluding cost of repairs to buildings, &c.) to about £27,000, against which there is to set off the amount of the out-pensions, which must by statute be surrendered on admission. Those within can at any time become out-pensioners again. Chelsea
Hospital is locally known as 'Chelsea College'—the Hospital having been erected nearly on the site of James I.'s short-lived 'College for Religious Controversy' (1610). See the official Early History of the Royal Hospital at Chelsea (1872); Martin's Old Chelsea (1888); and Alfred Beaver's Memorials of Old Chelsea (1893).