Oakley Street, Chelsea

File:Oakley Street - Chelsea with Pier Hotel 1910.jpg

Much of the street is on the site of the former Winchester House, the one-time residence of the Bishops of Winchester in London who had bought the 17th-century part of Chelsea Place from Charles Cheyne in 1664 after the destruction of Winchester Palace in the English Civil War.[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol12/pp108-115#h3-0006 Landownership: Chelsea manor.] British History Online. Retrieved 28 March 2018. In 1821, after the house fell into disrepair, the bishop successfully sought an Act that allowed him to sell the house and its ground of 2.5 acres to the trustees of the Cadogan Estate. In 1825, the trustees obtained a further Act to demolish the property and build new houses on the site. Demolition was complete by 1836, but the site was still vacant in 1847. By 1850, there were ten houses at the northern end, and four at the southern by 1851.{{cite web|title=Settlement and building: From 1680 to 1865, Chelsea Village or Great Chelsea|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol12/pp31-40|website=Victoria County History|access-date=27 March 2018}}

File:Oakley Street, Chelsea.jpg

Numbers 1–11, 14–25, 26 and 27, 28–35 and 101–108 Oakley Street are listed grade II on the National Heritage List for England.{{NHLE|num=1266229|desc=1–11, Oakley Street SW3|access-date=26 March 2018}}{{NHLE|num=1225689|desc=14–25, Oakley Street SW3|access-date=26 March 2018}}{{NHLE|num=1266230|desc=26 and 27, Oakley Street SW3|access-date=26 March 2018}}{{NHLE|num=1225690|desc=28–35, Oakley Street SW3|access-date=26 March 2018}}{{NHLE|num=1225691|desc=101–108, Oakley Street SW3|access-date=26 March 2018}}

No. 2 was owned by John Samuel Phene, a noted property developer and local eccentric.[http://www.notableabodes.com/person-abode-details/7584/dr-john-samuel-phene-barrister_2-oakley-street-chelsea-london "Dr John Samuel Phene | 2 Oakley Street, Chelsea, London"], Notable Abodes.Dave Walker, [https://rbkclocalstudies.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/dr-phene-in-his-garden/ "Dr Phene in his garden"], The Library Time Machine, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

No. 9 was the home of pianist Angus Morrison, where he was visited in the 1920s by Sergei Diaghilev, Constant Lambert and William Walton to run through ballet scores.Motion, Andrew. [https://books.google.com/books?id=I9U7C_Ej9LkC&q=%25&pg=PR2-IA10 The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit] (2012), p.ii

No. 29 was lived in by Donald Maclean, one of the Cambridge Five spy ring, in the latter 1930s.Roland Philipps, [https://books.google.com/books?id=m_0qDwAAQBAJ&q=%22oakley+street%22+&pg=PT98 A Spy Named Orphan: The Enigma of Donald Maclean], Bodley Head, 2018, p. 69.

No. 33 was the home of The Times chief music critic Robin Legge during the 1920s and early 1930s.[https://www.jstor.org/stable/920542 The Musical Times, Vol. 73, No. 1071 (May 1932), p. 451]

No. 42 was where Bob Marley moved to with his wife Rita in January 1977, following an attempt on his life in Jamaica.{{cite web|title=15 places in London with a Bob Marley connection|url=https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/15-places-in-london-with-a-bob-marley-connection-051116|author=Robert L|website=Time Out London|date= 11 May 2016|access-date=28 March 2018}}

No. 56 was the home of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott from 1904 to 1908, together with his mother and sister.{{cite web|url=https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/subsites/visitkensingtonandchelsea/seedo/people/blueplaques/recordsp-s/captainrobertfalconscott.aspx|title=Captain Robert Falcon Scott|website=www.rbkc.gov.uk|access-date=28 March 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/scott-robert-falcon-1868-1912|title=Scott, Robert Falcon (1868–1912) – English Heritage|website=www.english-heritage.org.uk|access-date=28 March 2018}}

No. 57 was occupied by the 13th Duke of St Albans in the 1960s.

No. 59 was used in 1926 as lodgings by composer Constant Lambert, who rented out two rooms.Lloyd, Stephen. [https://books.google.com/books?id=hMzCAwAAQBAJ&q=%22e&pg=PA79 Constant Lambert: Beyond the Rio Grande] (2014), p.79

No. 74 was home to actress Dame Sybil Thorndike and her husband Lewis Casson in the 1930s.[http://www.oakleystreet.org.uk/persons1.html "People at Home "]. Oakley Street Residents' Association.John Costella, [https://books.google.com/books?id=kNnF8WW4wjUC&dq=%22oakley+street%22+%22Sybil+Thorndike%22&pg=PA23 From Battersea to the Tower: Exploring Londons Thames Path], AuthorHouse, 2010, p. 23.Jonathan Croall, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cLtSDwAAQBAJ&dq=%2274+oakley+street%22+%22Sybil+Thorndike%22&pg=PT227 Sybil Thorndike: A Star Of Life], Haus Publishing, 2008.

No. 87 was home to Oscar Wilde's mother Jane Wilde from 1886 until she died here in 1896. Oscar Wilde stayed here in April 1895, just before his trial at the Old Bailey. Many years later, the footballer George Best also lived here.{{cite web|url=http://www.thelondonmagazine.co.uk/interiors-gardens/celebrity-homes/a-place-in-history-oakley-street.html|title=A place in history: Oakley Street|work=The London Magazine|author=Melanie Backe-Hansen|date=6 April 2016|access-date=26 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180327084847/http://www.thelondonmagazine.co.uk/interiors-gardens/celebrity-homes/a-place-in-history-oakley-street.html|archive-date=27 March 2018|url-status=dead}}

No. 89 was the home of David Bowie from 1973 to at least 1976.{{cite web|url=http://metro.co.uk/2016/01/11/everyone-is-sharing-david-bowies-mug-shot-from-1976-which-is-the-complete-essence-of-bowie-5616661/|title=Everyone is sharing David Bowie's bad ass mug shot from 1976|author=Olivia Waring|date=11 January 2016|website=metro.co.uk|access-date=27 March 2018}}{{cite book|author=Wendy Leigh|title=Bowie: The Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BlR2CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA138|date=2016|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-4767-6709-3|pages=137–138}}

No. 93 was home to suffragettes in 1911, who refused to complete the 1911 census on the grounds of "no vote no census".{{cite web|url=http://www.house-historian.co.uk/london/the-suffragettes-of-oakley-street/|title=The Suffragettes of Oakley Street|date=12 February 2016|website=house-historian.co.uk|access-date=27 March 2018}} However, the enumerator was able to confirm from the neighbours that the head of the house was Mrs Alice Monck Mason, who lived there with her daughter, Winifred Alice Monck Mason (and others), an actress who went by the name of Winifred Mayo.

File:Winchester House, Chelsea.jpg|Winchester House by Thomas Hosmer ShepherdDave Walker, [https://rbkclocalstudies.wordpress.com/tag/chelsea-bun-house/ "Shepherd in Chelsea"], The Library Time Machine. Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, 2 October 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2018.

File:Oakley Street, Chelsea, Ordnance Survey map 1868.jpg|1868 Ordnance Survey mapOrdnance Survey map, 1868. Digimap. Retrieved 28 March 2018. {{subscription required}}

File:Oakley Street, Chelsea c.1930.jpg|Oakley Street, c.1930.

File:42 Oakley Street, Chelsea, May 2018 01.jpg|No. 42, briefly the home of Bob Marley after an attempt on his life

File:Robert Falcon Scott - 56 Oakley Street SW3.jpg|No. 56, former home of Robert Falcon Scott

File:87 Oakley Street, Chelsea, May 2018.jpg|No. 87, former home of Oscar Wilde and later George Best

File:89 Oakley Street, Chelsea, May 2018.jpg|No. 89, former home of David Bowie in the 1970s

File:93 Oakley Street, Chelsea, May 2018 01.jpg|No. 93, where suffragettes refused to answer the census in 1911

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Category:Streets in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Category:Chelsea, London

Category:Grade II listed houses in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Category:King's Road, Chelsea, London