From the Brompton Cemetery to Sloane Square

This is the second part of our walk which started with South Kensington to the Brompton Cemetery post.

Sinister angels again

As we were walking towards the southern part of the cemetery, the tombs, graves and crypts became more and more ornate and interesting. It had been the second big London cemetery we visited after the Highgate one. We will write about that another time. 

Several well-known personalities are buried here, but as we had no map, we didn't find none of their grave.
Here lies Emmeline Pankhurst, one of the well-known suffragettes who is regarded quite controversially because of her militant methods - windows smashing, attacks against police officers - who at the end of her life was so worried about the Bolshevik threat that joined the Conservative Party.
Here is John Snow buried, who is called the father of modern epidemiology because he was the first who recognized the relationship between cholera and contaminated water in the 19th century.
Here you will find the tomb of Henry Cole, the inventor, whose name is linked to the so prevalent Christmas card commercial release.

The main buildings are close to the southern entrance, with the octagonal Chapel and the spreading arcades

We left the cemetery to get to the busy and noisy Fulham Road, which did not seem very elegant. To the west is situated the Chelsea stadium, but this time we missed it.
Instead, we headed towards the River Thames through Hortensia Road, which at first lead us to the also busy King's Road. This is Chelsea's main street, but here it is far less cosy than the east, the part near Sloan Square.

So we crossed the road and followed down Ashburnham Road till Lots Road, which is an elongation of Cheyne Walk. Here we found the Chelsea Monster nicknamed old power plant which provided power to the London Underground  in the old times.

The ex power plant

Going further to east, in line with the River Thames we reached Cremorne Gardens and went out on a pier which looked having rather rickety legs. From there you can see some nice sights, such as the Shard, Europe's tallest building in the distance.

Pier

Over the pier we saw the first living boats. I didn't find too attractive these homes stranded in the mud...

These living boats are extremely expensive

Cheyne Walk is a road along the River Thames, unfortunately a busy one - leastways, when we were there. It's plenty of "blue plaque" houses. The blue plaque scheme started in the 19th century, and draws attention to a celebrity related to a particular site.

Blue plaques on the opposite side

You also find William Turner, the famous paintert's plaque on Cheyne Walk, and a concert scene of Antonioni's Blow Up was filmed in one the local houses.

Then we left the riverbank and went back to the King's Street.
We walked till Old Church Street, seeing Terence Conran's Bluebird restaurant on the way, which formerly was an elegant Art Deco garage in the 1920s.

The Bluebird on the left

On Old Church Street we set off again towards the Thames. On the way we found a building of a 19th century dairy, which was then transformed to a studio in the 1960's. Here was recorded, among others, the Pink Floyd's "See Emily Play/Arnold Layne" single.

A cow's head and decorated tiles on the wall

We walked through the narrow Justice Walk to Lawrence Street. Walking down on this street till Cheyne Walk, we went past the closed Cross Keys pub. The pub opened in 1708 and operated until 2012. Its regulars included Agatha Christie and Bob Marley.
After the closure, squatters lived here for a while. Although later managed to sell the pub, it was feared that the new owner would transform it into luxury apartments. Finally, due to petitions it  looks that it will work again as a pub.

The Cross Keys

On the corner of Cheyne Walk is situated the famous Carlyle Mansions, where many famous writers lived, such as T.S. Eliot, Somerset Maugham and Ian Fleming, who drafted his first James Bond story, the Casino Royale here and completed it later, in 1952 in Jamaica.

Carlyle Mansions

After going round the block we rather ran away from the noisy Cheyne Walk to Cheyne Row.
The number 24 was Thomas Carlyle, the famous Scottish historian's apartment, whom the aforementioned mansion (mansions) got its name.
One of the main works of Carlyle was The French Revolution and was close to surviving. He lent the manuscript John Stuart Mill, whose maid used it for kindling. Several years of research lost such way, and Carlyle had no appetite to start it again, but after Mill offered £200 as a compensation, he re-wrote the book.

Thomas Carlyle's plaque

From there we turned right onto Upper Cheyne Row, which is a wealthy and that day stunningly beautiful street. The Japanese Cherry was still in flower, but the still fallen petals thickly covered the sidewalk.

Petal rain

This row takes you to Oakley Street, which is an elongation of Albert Bridge, which connects Chelsea with Battersea Park.

From here we followed a winding way of small streets up to Flood Street and then we turned left and reached the King's Street again at the Antiquarius Building. The building used to be a Gentleman's Club in the first half of the last century, and later was one of the best-known antiques centre until 2009. Now an American fashion shop rents it. In one of the next doors was situated the famous, now closed Cafe Picasso, which was a favourite place of celebrities like Bob Geldolf, Eric Clapton and Gordon Ramsey. The location worked for fifty years, but in 2009 it bankrupted because of the recession. Now, the Black and Blue restaurant can be found here.

Antiquarius Building

This is a part of the King's Road which I like. Walking down the road, on the other side is a Pizza Express in a beautiful old building, the Pheasantry. They bred pheasants here a few centuries ago for the royal court. Later on,  a lot had happened in this place, such as Eric Clapton - who lived on the top floor in the '60s - and George Harrison were taking acid whilst writing songs, and this was the venue of early concerts of the Queen's or Lou Reed.

Pheasantry

Then again, we turned off the King's Road, but this time to north to Markham Street, so that not getting Sloan Square straight away. We were walking on tiny, cosy streets - Elystan Place, Anderson Street.

Tranquillity

We went backward through Blacklands Terrace and unfortunately just missed to go into John Sandoe's Books, which is allegedly one of the best independent book stores.

John Sandoe's Books

After that, we strolled across Sloane Square - one of my favourite squares in London- to the tube, and we got to Paddington.

Sloane Square

This walk, from the Brompton Cemetery's north entrance till Sloan Square took approximately three hours.