Made in Chelsea? No, Rambling in Chelsea!

Walkers:  The ALES plus The POOR - Farty, TB and Mrs P.  ALES being Aborfield London Explorers and POOR being Provincial Odd Occasional Rambler!

Distance: approx 8 1/2 miles

Time taken: as usual, with lunch stops and lots of stopping to look at things, all day!

Weather:  Perfect for walking, cold but bright and sunny, we were well wrapped up

Down in the Provinces the day dawned with a sprinkling of snow, at which point Yours Truly, Mrs P, decided that the omens weren't good as the Uckfield Express had been most definitely not been the Express since New Year - snow would no doubt grind it to a halt.  However, having decided to give it a go, I was amazed when the 09.34 not only ran, but even left on time!  Having bought a Daily Mail for the journey and also to save TB from all the girlie talk over lunch, I found The Uckfield Express splashed all over one of the inside pages!  Its fame has spread far and wide ... and not in a good way.  A little girl had written to the boss to ask if her Daddy could please get home on time to read her a bedtime story - I think most of the passengers on the train knew how she felt!

Arrived at East Croydon to be met by The Ales who had also read the same story in the Metro - Uckfield is now famous! and we set off for Chelsea, making a quick detour to the bus office so I could pick up more copies of Capt Al's new favourite reading material, the London Bus Map!  Having been ably taught by Mon and Martin, there is no stopping him, the only way now is bus.

We walked through Belgravia towards Sloane Square, admiring the beautiful and imposing houses on the way.  All very Upstairs Downstairs!  Farty got a few ideas from the very tasteful and immaculate window boxes and planters - Carshalton you have been warned! - and we marveled at how clean and freshly painted all the houses were.  Clearly the owners do not do it themselves, no doubt a whole army is employed to keep their houses up to scratch.  Not an English army either I suspect!

We arrived at Sloane Square and headed straight for the Arts and Crafts Holy Trinity Church which Farty was keen to visit - and how right she was.  It has a stunning stained glass east window and beautiful brass screenwork either side of the altar.

Back out into the cold and off we headed towards the Royal Hospital to find ourselves a few Pensioners!  We had a wander around, admiring the grounds and had a quick look at the statue of Charles II - it looked very blingy with it's bright shiny brass - has it had a recent polish we wondered? They could have saved themselves a lot of time and trouble by keeping it as it was!  As we headed through the building we spotted a long line of Pensioners headed towards the dining rooms and a nice old chap stopped to chat.  Having found out what was on the menu today (salmon for him!) he then told us about the refurbishment of the rooms.  At the moment they are being housed in Portakabins while the new rooms are being made ready.  Apparently the old rooms were, as he said, less comfortable than a prison cell with shared ablutions, but he was really pleased with the new ones as they were bright, spacious with a small study area and en suite facilities. Long overdue too, it's no less than our brave old boys deserve.

A quick peek into their Chapel and we then found our way out from the gardens and towards Chelsea Bridge.  Over the bridge with great views of the old Battersea Power Station, now in the process of being refurbished and turned into apartments.  Into Battersea Park where we stopped at the Peace Pagoda for a quick look.  Reading the information boards we thought that it was a shame the great message of peace had clearly passed a number of people in this world by - notably those murderous ISIS lot.  Grrrr!

Round the gardens and back towards Albert Bridge which, as Farty says, looks very much like a wedding cake!  Very pretty and girly with its pink paint!  Over the bridge and down the very posh Cheyne Walk for lots more gawping and a search for the house in one of Farty's property mags which is for rent at ....£12k per week!! A bargain!!

By this time our rumbly tums told us lunch was overdue so we headed for a pub Farty had been to before - The Surprise! Expecting it to be quiet as it was past 2 o'clock we were amazed to find it crammed as they were holding a wake for for what must have been a posh funeral - all braying Chelsea voices.  Plates of sandwiches and other goodies on the bar, but we resisted the temptation to funeral-crash and instead found a quiet table out of the way of the braying Chelsea-ites.  Fish and chips all round, very yummy too.

Suitably refreshed we carried on - back down Cheyne Walk and towards Chelsea Old Church where we were met with a cleaner brandishing a feather duster - ooo, scary!  The church is beautiful and we spent some time looking at various plaques of famous local residents, Henry James amongst them.  Out once more into the cold, a quick look at Thomas More's statue, all very topical with Wolfe Hall on the goggle box, and back round the lovely villagey back streets towards the Kings Road and Sloane Square.  In places it was hard to remember that we were bang in the centre of London, the roads were quiet and the houses almost reminscent of Brighton with their pastel colours.  All very pretty - and frighteningly expensive no doubt.

Down the Kings Road which we thought in places was quite tatty - even a Macdonalds, how very un-Chelsea!  Back to Sloane Square where we decided that as the legs felt fine we would carry on walking back to Victoria.  We dived on a train to East Croydon and TB finally got to read the Daily Mail while Farty and I carried on burbling!  Good news though, according to the Mail once you hit 70 salt isn't bad for you (just a few more years to go then!) and a glass of wine a day is positively to be encouraged.  We had to check to make sure they didn't say a bottle a day - sadly they didn't!  Ah well, we'll just carry on regardless.

We'll be back in London again soon for some more urban perambulations - watch this space!

Hope you are all well, see you soon!