How the Boltons Conservation Area became Chelsea’s smartest address

The centre of the neighbourhood is the Boltons itself, an elliptical garden square lined with palatial villas. These are some of the most generously proportioned properties in south-west London. However, to understand why, you have to travel back to the early nineteenth century.

In 1807, James Gunter acquired a large stretch of Kensington from one William Boulton. At the time, the land to the west of London was mostly used for farms and market gardens. Gunter was a confectioner, looking for somewhere to supply him with fruit.

In the previous century, he had opened one of Mayfair’s first chocolate shops. After the British acquired Jamaica in 1655, with its numerous cocoa plantations, chocolate became popular. However, high taxes and production costs meant it was reserved as a treat for the upper classes.

Gunter’s shop was frequented by aristocrats and even royals. Demand kept growing, so he filled his new estate with fruit farms to supply him with boxes of strawberries, raspberries, red currents and apricots. These were sent to the confectioner’s Mayfair kitchens, where they were turned into summer ices or jams and jellies for the winter.

Gunter’s son was named Robert. As London began spreading west – and mechanical production methods reduced the price of chocolate – he realised that property was a more profitable long-term investment. So, he drew up plans to develop the site into houses, which his two sons – also named James and Robert – extended as far as Redcliffe Square.

The new neighbourhood centred on the Boltons. This was a grand garden square laid out in a rare vescia piscis (pointed oval) design. The design was created by the architect George Godwin, editor of The Builder magazine.

The Builder had been founded a few years earlier by the inventor of the Hansom cab. It was a leading publication for those involved in architecture or building – and is still published today. Godwin himself started life as a historian, writing books on the churches of London, while working in his family’s architectural practice.

However, Godwin was hired soon after the Panic of 1847, a banking crisis caused in part by the Irish famine and in part by the railway boom of the 1840s. Robert Gunter worried that nobody would be able to afford the new houses – except for the very rich. So, he commissioned Godwin to design properties on the grandest scale, each one set in a large plot.

That’s why the houses of the Boltons are so magnificent. In addition, their stucco facades are covered in ornate Italianate details, including the vermiculated quoins for the lower storeys, which look like the large stone slabs that hold up the corners of Roman palazzos. They also have lofty first floors and grand Doric porches, while they are set back from the street to give an added sense of scale.

The houses on the east side of the Boltons were built between 1851-2, while those on the west were constructed between 1857-60. Over the next decade, the rest of the estate was developed, much of it laid out by Godwin. In 1878, Redcliffe Square was finally completed.

Over the years, the neighbourhood has attracted many well-known figures. The spacious houses of the Boltons have been especially popular, with residents like the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind and the lyricist W.S. Gilbert (one half of Gilbert and Sullivan). The politician Sir Julian Risdale lived here with his wife Lady Risdale, who was a secretary to Ian Fleming and the inspiration for Miss Moneypenny. Douglas Fairbanks, the American film star from the silent era, was also a resident in the 1950s and entertained the Queen and Prince Philip.

Today, a mix of British, European and American families occupy the Boltons. Many have lived there for decades or even generations, meaning that houses rarely come up for sale. After all, residents have little reason to move, when there’s arguably no better address in London.