(click image to enlarge)
The Six Bells pub at 197, King’s Road, Chelsea was established by 1722. It was redeveloped with the mock Tudor style facade by George Crickmay circa 1898. It subsequently passed through various owners until it closed as a public house in 2014 and became the Ivy Chelsea Garden a year later. It still retains the 1898 facade and includes the Six Bell’s pub sign above the entrance. Samuel Beckett and Dylan Thomas, both Chelsea residents, are supposed to have been regulars.
London County Council’s archive includes a document by Mr Philip Norman who wrote about the Six Bell's garden on 17 June 1895, 'Seeing a strip of grass which attracted my attention I entered and found a bowling green with arbours or little summer-houses, in the style of an old fashioned tea garden. Here a bowling club was in full swing. It should number, according to the rules, sixty members, but this year there are sixty-five. By the look of those who were playing, they seem to be of the tradesman class, "fat and scant of breath."' The Pall Mall Gazette on 8 November, 1900, further stated that the Six Bells 'had known only two hosts in a hundred years.' One of whom was the Bray family who owned the pub from at least 1821-1866 and their name is visible in Walter Greaves’ drawing above the door.
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