Walk 4: Chelsea (1524-1534)
Figure 1: The household of Thomas More in Chelsea
Thomas More moved his family home to Chelsea c. 1524. The village was approximately four miles from the city, but from the hillock in the garden the city could still be seen. The distance from his house to Westminster Hall was less than three miles, just 20 minutes by horse; less than it takes today by public transport. He would also travel often by means of barge and wherry. That may indeed have been one of the reasons why More chose the spot, since it was almost equidistant from the royal palaces of Greenwich and Richmond, and Wolsey’s Hampton Court.
The site acquired by More is now bordered on two sides by King’s Road and the river, and by Old Church Street to the east and Milman’s Street to the west. It included a farm that continued being cultivated1. More built a large Tudor red-brick house facing south-east as it is traditional in England for most country houses. The house has long been demolished and has given way to Beaufort Street. It stood near the site now occupied by Allen Hall (28 Beaufort Street), which contains a good library on Thomas More, and in particular prints and details of More’s estate.
Chelsea Old Church
As always, the recommendation is to start the walk not too near the first location to be visited, which in this case is Chelsea Old Church. The walk could start in Kensington Gardens or at South Kensington Underground Station, or at the church of Most Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More, at Cheyne Row, SW3.
Chelsea Old Church was the parish church of Thomas More. William Roper wrote that, in the early morning of the day he was summoned to appear before the lords at Lambeth, 13 April 1934, he went to church to be confessed, to hear Mass and receive communion.
The church was originally constructed in the thirteenth century, but the edifice has changed over the years; the last time after it had been bombed in 1941 during World War II.
The most relevant item for the visit is the engraving of the two epitaphs of Thomas More at the right-hand side of the sanctuary. The text allows the visitor or the guide to go through almost the full life of Thomas More from his birth in the City of London up to his resignation as Lord Chancellor on 16 May 1532: see Thomas More’s Vocation, “Appendix: Two Epitaphs by Thomas More”.
Figure 2: The Two Epitaphs by Thomas More, Chelsea Old Church © Mitjans
The Chapel on the south side of the nave was rebuilt in 1528 by Thomas More. This date is inscribed on one of the capitals of the pillars leading to the Chancel. These capitals are considered to have been designed by Holbein. At present the chapel includes some memorabilia of Thomas More and his family.
Figure 3: View of Thomas More’s chapel in Chelsea Old Church. Photo from Philip Attwood, Mary Gillick: sculptor and medallist. Published by the British Museum, 2020, p. 121.
On the east wall of the chapel there is an engraving of Margaret Roper on a marble memorial by Mary Gillick, 1934.
Figure 4: Photo from Philip Attwood, Mary Gillick: sculptor and medallist. Published by the British Museum, 2020, p. 120.
Statue of Sir Thomas More
Outside the church, on the lawn within its grounds, facing the River, there is a large bronze statue of More, which is now a landmark of Chelsea. It was cast by Cubitt Bevis, and unveiled on 21 July 1969 by the Speaker of the House of Commons in the presence of the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster.
Figure 5: Statue of St Thomas More in Chelsea Embankment. Behind him his parish church. Before him is the Thames, and his head turns slightly left in the direction of his last journey on 13 April 1534, first to Lambeth Palace, and then to the Tower. On his knees is the chain of service to the king with the Tudor Rose – White and Red – given him by the king and taken from him in the Tower. At his neck is the crucifix which he carried to the scaffold. At his feet the signature which, had it been appended to the Act of Supremacy, would have saved his earthly life [Text edited from Moreana, no. 23, pp. 24-30]. Photo © Mitjans.
Figure 6: Photo © Mitjans
The statue is raised on a white marble base. The inscriptions on each of its four sides are:
Front: Sir Thomas More, 1478-1535
Left: Scholar
Right: Statesman
Back: Saint
From here the tour turns west towards the original site of Thomas More’s House in Chelsea, but before along Cheyne Walk, we reach Crosby Hall.
Crosby Hall
Crosby Hall was built in the City of London in 1466 by Sir John Crosby, and was originally known as Crosby Place. The editor of this geography considers that Thomas More never lived in this huge building, and therefore the editor has not paid much attention to it; but I have to recognize that because its size and location in the heart of London it has been used for unusual events in the history of city.
By 1483, the Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III, acquired the property from Lady Crosby. It was used as one of his London homes during the time of the Princes in the Tower. Upon Richard III’s arrival from York in May 1483, Robert Fabyan in his Chronicle wrote that “the Duke lodged hymself in Crosbye’s Place, in Bishoppesgate Street” where the Mayor and citizens waited upon him with the offer of the Crown. Holinshed’s Chronicles described that “little by little all folke withdrew from the Tower, and drew unto Crosbies in Bishops gates Street, where the Protector kept his household. The Protector had the resort; the King in maner desolate.” It is generally believed the Hall was used as a venue for the Duke’s council and plotting.
Thomas More mentioned Crosby Hall in his History of Richard III (CW 2, p. 44).
Crosby Hall was thus used as a setting for several scenes of William Shakespeare‘s first published play Richard III, in which the Plantagenet King refers to Crosby Hall: “When you haue done repaire to Crosby place” (Act I, Scene 3), “At Crosby place there shall you finde vs both” (Act III, Scene 1).
In 1501, Catherine of Aragon resided at Crosby Hall along with her retinue as she arrived in England to marry Prince Arthur, Henry VII‘s eldest son2. At the time, Crosby Hall was owned by Sir Bartholomew Reade, Lord Mayor, who made it his Mansion House and is recorded as throwing extravagant feasts for ambassadors sent by Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.
Crosby Hall next belonged to Thomas More, who took a lease on the building in 1519 before his purchase of it in 1523. He probably never lived there. “The evidence suggests that when he bought it, he was merely acting for his good friend Antonio Bonvisi”. 3
In 1523, Thomas More sold the remainder of his lease in Bishopsgate to his close friend and patron, the wealthy Anglo-Italian merchant, Antonio Bonvisi. Bonvisi protected the lease of the mansion in various arrangements following More’s execution and throughout the Dissolution of the Monasteries, which affected freeholds under the “Priory of St. Eleyns” including that of Crosby Place. In 1547, upon the death of Henry VIII, Bonvisi leased the mansion back to Thomas More’s nephew, William Rastell, and Thomas More’s son-in-law and biographer, William Roper. 4
In 1910 the original building of Crosby Hall was moved from Bishopsgate in the City of London to its present location in Chelsea. In the 1920s the British Federation of University Women leased the building and constructed a residential wing adjacent to it. A bass-relief portraying John Crosby and Tomas More was placed above the entrance of the new wing.
Figure 7: Photos from Philip Attwood, Mary Gillick: sculptor and medallist, published by the British Museum, 2020, p. 119.
***
Then, we turn right northwards onto Beaufort Street. The house of Thomas More occupied the middle of the site, facing the river; it was demolished when Beaufort Street was built. The spot is marked by a mosaic.
Site of the house of Thomas More in Chelsea
The house, renamed Beaufort House by the Cecil family who acquired it after St. Thomas’s execution, stood astride what is now Beaufort Street, and the diocesan seminary, Allen Hall, is located in a part of its grounds.
Allen Hall
Allen Hall, the English seminary for the training of priests, is built on part of the original site of Thomas More’s estate in Chelsea.
Figure 8: The English College for the training of priests and the education of other Englishmen was established first in Douai in 1568, while Queen Elizabeth I reigned in England (1558-1603). Douai was a city of Flanders, which from 1477 belonged to the Habsburgs, and thus in 1568 was under Philip II (King of Spain from 1556 to 1598). In 1668 it was ceded to France. After the French Revolution the Catholic college was welcome in England and settled in Ware in Hertfordshire. A Catholic secondary school continues there, but the seminary moved to Chelsea in 1975.
Cresacre More (1572-1649), grandson of John More and Anne Cresacre, was educated in the English College in Douai until he returned to England c. 1593. He wrote a biography of More in which he mentioned his grandmother’s recollection of More’s house in Chelsea. Cresacre More appears in the two paintings of Thomas More, his household and his descendants, the full-sized one in the National Portrait Gallery, and the miniature in the Victoria & Albert Museum. The garden of Chelsea is painted in the miniature portrait in the V&A.
On the grounds of the house there were a variety of trees and herbs and flowering shrubs, and the famous mulberry tree, which in Latin is morus.
In the present garden of Allen Hall there is a mulberry tree which is supposed to date back from More’s time and may well have been the tree under which the household gathered for converse with each other and with God.5
The Catholic church of the Most Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More
The church was opened in 1895. The dedication to St Thomas was added in 1935 after his canonization. There is a very fine bronze statue of St Thomas More made by the Italian sculptor Enzo Plazotta. This was the sample he submitted in competition for the statue placed on Chelsea Embankment. Cubitt Bevis won the competition and built the seated statue unveiled there in 1969, and Plazotta donated his to this church.
The church is fully open only at the times of services; at other times it is possible to enter the entrance lobby and pay a visit to the Blessed Sacrament.
The Portrait of Thomas More’s Household
More’s home and family life at Chelsea are well known, in part thanks to the Portrait of Thomas More’s Household drawn by Hans Holbein in 1527.
Figure 9: Thomas More’s Household at Chelsea showing the family at prayer. Sketch by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1527, courtesy of Kunstmuseum, Basel, Inv. 1662.31.
The central figure is Thomas More. He appears quite relax, and the sketch of his face is much better than painting in the full-sized copy at Nostell. He bears the chain of service to the king; in fact, the medallion of the Tudor Rose is in the very centre of the picture.
The figures from left to right are Elizabeth, second daughter of Thomas More; Margaret Giggs, adopted daughter; Sir John More, the father of Thomas; Anne Cresacre; Thomas More; John More, son of Thomas; Henry Patenson, Thomas More’s servant; Cecily, third daughter; Margaret, eldest daughter; and Alice, second wife of Thomas.
[Eamon Duffy] wrote “that everyone is holding the same book […] The identical book in every hand is a prayer-book, in fact the Book of Hours […] Through Holbein’s eyes we are privileged flies on the wall […] More family are about to start a communal recitation of Our Lady’s Matins. […] They have set aside books of different thickness and size, which lie on the floor and window ledge” in order to start the family prayer. 6
Chelsea Old Town Hall, King’s Road
The building is now the Chelsea branch of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Library. In the main hall there is a copy of Sir Thomas More with his Family and Household attributed to Rowland Lockey. See Mitjans, “A Paper on the Portrait of Sir Thomas More and his Family”, Moreana, no. 169-170, June 2007, pp. 38-39.
Although the painting is meant to be on public display, it is seldom accessible because of activities in the hall. A visit could be requested, tel.: 020 761 4131.
Victoria & Albert
The Chelsea tour finishes with visiting a most interesting picture in the Victoria and Albert Museum: Sir Thomas More, his Father, his Household, and his Descendants, by Rowland Lockey. See Mitjans, “Elizabethan Transformation of the Family Portrait”, Moreana, no. 212, December 2019, section, “A Return to Non-Conformity”, pp. 147-154, and “Back to the Miniature”, pp. 155-159.
END
- See letter of 3 September <1529>: “I am informed by my son Heron of the loss of our barns …” ↩︎
- Emery, Anthony (9 March 2006). Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500: Volume 3, Southern England. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-44919-9. ↩︎
- CW 2, 213. ↩︎
- Most of the information on Crosby Hall is an edited version of the entry in Wikipedia. ↩︎
- Letter from Nicholas Schofield, 7 November 2002. ↩︎
- Mitjans, “Elizabethan transformation of the family portrait of Thomas More”, Moreana, no. 212, December 2019, p. 134. ↩︎
Thomas More Research 