FARM-GARDENING AND MARKET GARDENING
Chelsea participated in the great expansion of market
gardening around London between the 17th and 19th
centuries, supplying the growing London market. By
1600 garden crops formerly imported into London from
East Anglia were being grown closer to the city, particularly in the south-western parishes of Middlesex, where
the easily-cultivated gravels together with use of dung
from London made intensive commercial cultivation of
vegetable crops possible. In 1607 the neighbouring
parish of Fulham was mentioned as a carrot-growing
area, (fn. 1) and as early as 1605 the Gardeners' Company of
London had been founded to regulate market
gardening. (fn. 2) Initially, the company was concerned with
the activities of husbandmen in London itself, but by the
reign of Charles I the company was also attempting to
regulate those husbandmen in Kensington and Chelsea.
From the mid 17th century intensive horticulture near
London was also stimulated by a new fashion among the
rich for a wide range of vegetables in their diet, which
was then imitated by the middle classes. (fn. 3)
From at least the early 17th century many
husbandmen in Chelsea included the intensive spade
cultivation of roots and other garden crops in rotation
with traditional arable crops such as wheat and barley, (fn. 4)
which not only meant the survival of some corn-growing
in Chelsea into the 19th century, but also ensured that
Chelsea's open fields survived far longer than those in
some other parishes around London, where land was
used almost entirely for pasturing animals and for hay.
Despite a penalty of £3 for ploughing it up, pasture in
two of Blacklands closes next to the Westbourne was
ploughed up each year between 1729 and 1734 by the
tenant, Henry Linford, a gardener of Kensington, who
leased 5 closes of Blacklands for 33 years from 1714; (fn. 5) the
penalty was possibly because they were originally
meadow and worth much more than ordinary pasture or
arable, but it is likely that Linford was using them for
market gardening.
Farmer-gardeners grew corn and vegetables without a
fallow, a system made possible by heavily manuring the
land with dung and night soil from London, and in
Chelsea and Fulham they occupied much of the agricultural land from the early 17th century to the middle of
the 19th. Their methods were so original that agricultural
writers frequently drew attention to them and the
lessons they could give to husbandmen elsewhere. Root
vegetables were a particular speciality in Chelsea, with
two or three crops taken each year, and often grown in
rotation with corn or barley in Chelsea's open fields. (fn. 6)
The earliest indications of the practice in Chelsea
concern the use of dung: William Arnold of Fulham,
subtenant of part of the earl of Lincoln's estate in 1611,
was manuring heavily a close near the Thames, buying
dung brought by boat from London by the dung farmers
or scavengers there. (fn. 7) Nicholas Holborne senior, lessee of
the Farmhouse and land of Lincoln's estate, grew early
peas on land by the Thames c. 1575 or later. (fn. 8) The house
and a small close were later leased to Lodowick Briskett
1603-4, and although he was unlikely to have been seriously growing vegetables commercially, Briskett dug the
ground at the back of his house and set part with cabbage
plants and part with barley in order to experiment how
yields might be increased. (fn. 9) William Wrennall, lessee of
Hungerford's farm, was growing carrots and garden
roots in addition to corn on the 32 a. called Sandhills in
1620. (fn. 10)
An increasing number of Chelsea residents were
designated as gardeners in the 17th century, meaning in
this period market gardeners, and included some of the
leading inhabitants: James Leverett (d. 1662-3),
gardener, was lessee of the Magpie inn and also had
property in Lambeth. (fn. 11) Several gardeners in the late 17th
century had only small acreages. Curtis Akers (d. 1686),
who held land along the southern end of Chelsea creek in
1673 and was described as yeoman, (fn. 12) had 1½ a. of 'herbs
and sparrow grass', 1 a. of carrots and parsnips, 1 a. of
peas, 2 a. of beans, and 1½ a. of grass valued in April at
his death. (fn. 13) Richard Samm (d. 1673) had ½ a. parsnips, 6
a. turnips and 2½ a. of wheat sown or planted by
November. (fn. 14) The crops grown by Robert Hopperton (d.
1686), valued at £10, were not specified, but he also had
'glasses' valued at £2 10s. in his ground, which were bell
glasses used for protecting early crops. (fn. 15) John Harvest in
1681 had 150 glasses valued at £4; a lease with about 14
years to come, of 6½ yards of land with a house and seeds
sown, was valued at £50. (fn. 16) Not all the growers were small
husbandmen however. Thomas Franklin, who leased a
large acreage from the Greene family in the vicinity of
the Royal Hospital, received compensation c. 1682 for
his crop of turnips on ground taken for the Hospital. (fn. 17)
Because of the large amount of turnips, carrots, beans,
peas, and other similar crops 'with which the fields are
for the most part sowed', the rector found it more convenient after 1670 to farm the tithes rather than collecting
them in kind, and from 1694 individual farmers and
gardeners compounded for their own tithes. (fn. 18)
When Pehr Kalm visited Chelsea in 1748, he observed
that on all sides there was scarcely anything to be seen
except orchards or vegetable market gardens. In the
open fields were beans and cabbages, sometimes with the
latter planted between the rows of beans, and asparagus,
which grew up through the necks of broken bottles used
for forcing. There were also numerous orchards with
apples, pears, plums, and cherries. (fn. 19)
The value of market gardening both to owners and to
occupiers was evident. By the 1690s the rector had let
several small parcels of glebe near the rectory house to
'French gardeners', apparently Huguenots, who had
thereby greatly improved his income from the rectory. (fn. 1)
Owners of the manorial estate, William Cheyne, Lord
Newhaven, and his successor Sir Hans Sloane, also
leased land for garden use. Before 1713 Cheyne had
leased 3 a. in Gospelshot by the highway to Westminster
as garden ground to David Morgan, (fn. 2) who also leased 6 a.
of glebe between King's Road and Burton's Court for the
same purpose in 1717. (fn. 3) Cheyne had also leased a considerable acreage in Westfield to gardeners during the
previous decade. Some of those leases were for land
already in use for market gardening, such as the 3 a. held
by George Burr or the 9 a. held by John Bartholomew,
both in Westfield. Some leases, however, were for land in
the process of conversion, such as the house and 5 a.
converted to garden ground in Westfield, or the 4 a. 'latterly converted' held by John Wivell, again in Westfield. (fn. 4)
A close called the Eighteen Acres near Little Chelsea
belonging to William Mart and then Sir John Cope was
converted to garden ground by 1733. (fn. 5) Landowners in
Chelsea obtained much higher rents for garden ground.
The 4 a. held by John Wivell, though only recently
converted, still yielded over £3 an acre in rent, far higher
than a similar area used for grain crops. Even higher
rents could be charged for land which had been used for
market gardening for some time and was therefore well
manured: George Burr's 3 acres in Westfield were
leased for £10 an acre, while the glebe land let to two
other early market gardeners, Francis Duneau and John
Narbonne, both fetched rents of about £15 an acre. (fn. 6)
Similarly for the producer, though admittedly the
labour of digging an acre by spade was far greater than
ploughing, the return on the vegetable crops was even
greater: in 1673 Richard Samm's 2½ a. of wheat was
valued at £10, or £4 an acre, but ½ a. of parsnips at £4
(£8 an acre). (fn. 7) This may be on the high side, though, as
Curtis Akers's vegetable crops in 1686 are all valued at
£3 an acre. (fn. 8)
John Rubergall, who with his family occupied many
parcels of land in Chelsea in the mid to late 18th century
as well as in Brompton (Kens.), was a Frenchman said to
have been the first person to grow lettuce successfully in
England. (fn. 9) By the end of the 18th century, however,
market gardening began to contract, as the value of land
in Chelsea for building purposes started to outstrip its
value as garden ground: between 1664 and 1795 the
acreage of land cultivated as arable for the market was
said to have fallen from 334 a. to 170 a., of which no
more than 12 a. was used for corn. Pasture or meadow
accounted for another 130 a., and about 12 a. was occupied by nurseries and florists. (fn. 10)
In 1800 most of the market garden ground lay in the
west between the Ashburnham estate and Chelsea Creek,
and between Little Chelsea and Stanley House. There
were other smaller areas throughout the parish:
Parsonage Close, the Eighteen Acres along the east side
of Upper Church Lane, Dovehouse Close and part of
Danvers House site, the unbuilt land behind the rectory
and two fields across to Flood Street bordering King's
Road, another small patch behind a house in King's
Road half way between Flood and Smith streets, and the
ground of the Royal Hospital south of the burial ground
and north of Ranelagh rotunda. Land on the north side
of King's Road east of Eighteen Acres was common
garden field with the land in open parcels. (fn. 11) Some land
was marked as nursery ground: Prince's field, Bull's
small area, Cobvill's and the next plot on the west. The
remaining undeveloped land was marked as paddocks or
closes attached to large houses, or as meadow or pasture.
The north part of the common was marked as meadow
or pasture, the southern part as common land.
Arable accounted for 267 a. in 1801, possibly indicating under-accounting in 1795, but equally there may
have been an increase in acreage because of war with the
French. (fn. 12) Farmer-gardeners were still growing 37 a. of
wheat, 24 a. of barley, and 16 a. of oats in Chelsea,
although overshadowed by 140 a. of vegetables. Potatoes
were the largest crop, with 43 a.; turnips (possibly
including rape) remained a staple of Chelsea market
gardening with 39 a., peas covered 30 a., and beans 28
a. (fn. 13) In neighbouring Fulham it was commented that
peas, beans, and turnips were all grown for Covent
Garden market, and were intermixed with other crops
obscuring the true acreage of vegetables grown; corn
land was sown with cabbages after harvest. (fn. 14) The same
was doubtless true for Chelsea as well.
By the early 19th century, agriculture, presumably
including market gardening, accounted for a very small
proportion of the population of Chelsea. Only 183 out
of 11,604 inhabitants were employed in farming in
1801, and the number employed in agriculture
continued to decline, despite a threefold increase in the
population of the parish, to only 87 people, mostly
cowkeepers, out of 32,371 in 1831. (fn. 15)
Profitable though market gardening was, from the
middle of the 19th century onwards it could not keep
pace with the escalating value of land for building, as
suburban London continued to expand westwards. In
some cases, gardeners themselves were actively involved
in the shift from gardening to building, as was the case
at Bull's Gardens. This four-acre holding on the north
side of Green Lettuce Lane was converted to a market
garden before 1817, when it was sublet to John Bull,
gardener, who was granted a new head lease for 52
years from 1825. The lease passed to John Bull of
Birmingham, inspector of mail coaches, who in 1839
granted a lease for the remainder of the term to to the
then occupier, William Davis or Davies, market
gardener, together with fruit and other trees, a
recently-built house, packing house, stable and
outbuildings, and also the 22 small houses or cottages
called Bull's Gardens, recently built on the land and
presumably by one of the Bull family. In 1845 Davis
took a building lease from Lord Cadogan of part of the
property for additional speculative building. (fn. 1)
NURSERY GARDENING
Alongside commercial market gardening, Chelsea also
became noted for its nursery gardens, which like market
gardening was stimulated by a fashionable taste which
developed for exotic plants and trees. The early growth
in the industry is obscure: John Burton (d. c. 1680) of
Little Chelsea, who leased 3 a. of garden ground and left
a share in the flowers growing on half an acre to his
younger daughter, (fn. 2) may be an early harbinger of the
trade. In 1712 Narcissus Luttrell bought 25 varieties of
pear from nurserymen near Little Chelsea, some of
whom may have been in Chelsea parish, (fn. 3) and Kalm
commented in 1748 that many gardeners had nurseries
from which they sold plants to the gentry. (fn. 4) An observer
in 1798 remarked on Chelsea as one of the select
parishes east and west of London where much ground
was occupied by nurserymen 'who spare no expense in
collecting the choicest sort, and greatest variety of fruit
trees, and ornamental shrubs and flowers, from every
quarter of the globe', all cultivated to a high degree of
perfection. Many of their plants were exported annually
to Europe and Russia, but still more were sold in
England. (fn. 5)
Although early details of the industry are unclear,
several nurserymen became extremely well known, as
did the businesses they founded; Bull's, Weeks's,
Davey's, and Colvill's nurseries were household names
in England, and Veitch's was internationally famous. (fn. 6)
While market gardening quickly shrank before the
expansion of building in Chelsea in the 19th century,
nurseries were less affected. Partly this was because they
needed much less open space in Chelsea itself,
sometimes only keeping their retail outlet there while
using cheaper land in the Home Counties to grow their
stock for sale, but also because nurserymen could for a
while afford ever-increasing rents, with the fashion for
rare and unusual plants and trees. (fn. 7) From the 18th
century the main premises of many of Chelsea's leading
nurseries were situated in King's Road, which was very
much the fashionable hub of nursery gardening in West
London and south-west Middlesex, and nurserymen
from neighbouring Kensington and Brompton also had
showrooms there. Between the 1750s and 1916 25
nursery-gardening firms are known to have had
premises in King's Road; nurserymen with their main
grounds in Battersea, Hackney, Sunbury, and elsewhere
also had show nurseries in King's Road. (fn. 8)
Eventually nurseries, too, began to be swallowed by
the westward expansion of suburban London, and
though the larger firms of Veitch, Wimsett, and Bull all
survived into the 20th century, Veitch and Wimsett had
closed by the First World War and Bull soon after it. (fn. 9) By
the end of the 20th century the once-famous trade was
represented by local garden centres at World's End and
in Sydney Street.
Leading Nurseries and Nurserymen
James Colvill (King's Road Nursery). A nurseryman
and florist (c. 1746-1822), he raised a number of new
roses and was involved in the early development of the
China roses. He had a remarkable collection of plants,
many of which were the subjects of plates and descriptions by Robert Sweet, who was employed by Colvill and
his son James from 1819 to 1831: the best-known of his
publications was The British Flower Garden (1838), with
712 coloured plates. (fn. 10) In 1795 Colvill was singled out in
Chelsea as carrying on a very extensive business in the
sale of scarce exotic plants, the culture of which had
'been brought to very great perfection'. (fn. 11) It was also
notable for the quality of its geraniums. (fn. 12) Colvill senior
founded his King's Road nursery c. 1783 on 2½ a. of the
Warton estate on the north side of the highway near the
junction with Blacklands Lane. It was known as Colvill &
Buchanan in 1790, and Colvill & Son by 1807; James
junior (1777-1832) carried on after his father's death.
The nursery was distinguished for the first real display of
the garden chrysanthemum in Britain in 1795, and later
for hybridization of pelargoniums, gladioli, and hippeastrums; by 1811 it specialized in rare exotics and forced
flowers, having between 30,000 and 40,000 sq. ft under
glass. Colvill's occupied a second nursery at Roehampton
by 1827. From 1834 to 1840 the nursery was occupied
by Adams & Durban. (fn. 13)
William Salisbury (Cadogan Gardens). A gardener and
botanist (d. 1823), in 1792 he became a pupil and
partner of William Curtis of Pond Place, Chelsea, whose
nursery was on the north side of Fulham Road at
Queen's Elm, Brompton (Kens.). In 1807 Salisbury sold
his ground at Queen's Elm and acquired 6 acres on the
east side of Sloane Street forming the south end of the
gardens in Cadogan Place and opened the London
Botanic Garden, an example of the nursery garden as
entertainment, since he intended to hold lectures and
concerts there. He wrote books on botanic subjects but
the garden was not a success and was taken over by James
Charles Tate in 1822. Tate renamed it the Nursery and
Botanic Garden and was more successful, possibly
because he concentrated on the selling and nursery side
rather than the botanic and educational. He imported
plants from Mexico, South America, and China. In 1842
it was taken over by James Hunter Tuck, who had moved
from Eaton Square (St George, Hanover Sq.) and it
continued until 1876. (fn. 1)
Thomas Davey (Kings Road). A florist (1758-1833),
he moved from Camberwell to a half-acre site on the
west side of Colvill's by 1798, and was nationally famous
for Florists' Flowers, especially carnations, pinks, and
tulips, and for pelargoniums; he imported tulips from
France and camellias from China. Part of his ground was
given up to Downing's floorcloth factory prior to 1828,
and his nursery closed with his death. (fn. 2)
Little's Botanic Nursery, Kings Road. Thomas Little
established a nursery in Upper Gloucester Place in
King's Road by 1821, and by 1832 the nursery was listed
as that of Henry and Thomas Little, and called Little's
Botanic Nursery in 1836. Some land was given up for
building in 1844 and again in 1850, when the proprietor
was Henry Little, Florist, Nursery and Seedsman to the
Queen, who was selling off fruit trees and shrubs. By
1854 the proprietor was Henry Thomas Little, (fn. 3) whose
premises were at nos 99 & 101 King's Road in 1878. (fn. 4) It
was said to have closed c. 1892. (fn. 5)
Joseph Knight (Kings Road). A nurseryman (c. 1781-
1855), he had been gardener to a wealthy plant collector
in Clapham and eventually acquired the collection and
brought it to Chelsea, where in 1808 he opened his
Exotic Nursery at Stanley Place, between King's and
Fulham roads, just east of Stanley House. (fn. 6) By 1829 he
had erected a large Conservatory and several other
buildings, housing camellias, orange trees, evergreen
exotic shrubs, acacias, rhododendrons, and many plants
from southern Africa and elsewhere. The collection was
said to have become 'so much increased, that it is now
one of the most respectable in the vicinity of London'. It
included alpine plants, hardy herbaceous plants in open
borders, many rare shrubs, and fruit trees, and there was
heating for tropical plants. (fn. 7) Pineapples and fuchsias
were also among early specialities; conifers later became
prominent in his collection, of which he published a
catalogue in 1840 with 140 species and varieties. By
1850 he had been joined in the business by Thomas
Perry; the catalogue they published showed the King's
Road premises with an awning over the footpath to
protect their patrons when they alighted from their
carriages. Their stock included hardy ornamental trees
and shrubs, many personally acquired abroad; beautiful
and fashionable American plants, rhododendrons and
azaleas; fruit trees supplied from their nursery at
Battersea; hot-house plants, including Indian azaleas
and camellias; seeds and bulbs; standard bay trees in
tubs. The firm could also supply trained gardeners. (fn. 8) The
business was bought in 1853 by James Veitch & Sons.
James Veitch & Sons (Kings Road). In 1853 the Exeter
firm of James Veitch & Sons bought Knight's nursery
business and leased the site, developing the nursery so
that within a few years it had become internationally
famous and the most important in England. In 1863 the
London business, known by 1878 as the Royal Exotic
Nursery, (fn. 9) under James Veitch the younger was separated
from the Exeter firm, and three additional nurseries
were developed in the Home Counties where trees,
shrubs, and plants were grown.
James's eldest son, John Gould Veitch, was a
well-known plant collector in Japan, and his second son,
Harry James (1840-1924), took over running the business on his father's death in 1869. Harry was a powerful
personality with commercial acumen and imagination
which brought a new standard to the nursery trade, and
he was one of the few horticulturalists to be knighted, in
1912. From the 1880s to 1914 Veitch's dominated the
nurserymen's world. The firm's scientific outlook
ensured that their collectors contributed much information to scientific institutions: they were instructed to
collect information and specimens wherever possible of
all kinds of natural objects likely to be of value to learned
institutions. The company's outstanding achievement
was probably to promote the first journey into western
China, which eventually resulted in some of the
best-known garden plants reaching England. In addition
to bringing in new plants, the firm also produced many
hybrids, employing some of the greatest plant hybridizers of the day, including John Dominy (1816-91),
successful with orchids and fuchsias, and John Seden,
who worked for Veitch's from 1861 and during his
career produced 490 hybrid plants thought worthy of
sale to the public. Harry Veitch retired in 1912, but the
nephew who succeeded him did not have his ability, and
Sir Harry closed the nursery in 1914, selling off the stock
but not the name. Kew Gardens acquired some of
Veitch's rare trees and shrubs. The 2½ a. site at Chelsea
was sold. (fn. 1)
John Weeks (King's Road). By 1816 Edward Weeks had
established a nursery in King's Road, but sometime
before 1836 he had turned to developing the design and
heating of horticultural buildings. His son John Weeks,
described as Horticultural Builder and Hotwater Apparatus Manufacturer, carried on his business as J. Weeks
& Company on the north side of King's Road between
nos 124 and 126, midway between Keppel and Bywater
streets, (fn. 2) held under a lease of 76 years from 1842 from
George Downing and formerly the site of John More's
nursery, 1822-7. (fn. 3) In 1857 the national press covered the
opening of the 'magnificent winter garden' of Weeks &
Company, described as horticultural architects, in their
King's Road premises. The large conservatory included
bays, orange trees, myrtles, fancy geraniums, azaleas,
and many varieties of camellias, and mentioned one of
the partners, Charles Gruneberg, son of a German nurseryman, who had been in England for 25 years. (fn. 4)
In 1855 Weeks also leased one acre further west along
the north side of King's Road, between Gunter Grove and
Maud Grove, from James Gunter, and purchased the freehold from Robert Gunter in 1857. (fn. 5) On the northern part
adjoining Edith Road stood a groom's cottage, stables,
coachhouse, workshops, and a covered yard used by
Weeks's business; the larger part to the south was leased to
William Bull for 28 years in 1863 with a house, outbuildings and forcing houses, conservatories, greenhouses,
and seed houses, at £300 a year. When he retired in 1869
John Weeks vested his business in Alfred G.W. Weeks,
George Deal, George Lillywhite, and Alexander Saunders,
all horticultural builders. The groom's cottage, coachhouse,
and stables were reserved to Weeks and his wife Lucy for
life, and Alfred Weeks and the others were to pay annuities to John and his wife. Articles of partnership between
Alfred Weeks and the others were drawn up in 1869. In
1874 Weeks contracted to sell to Bull the freehold of the
latter's leasehold, then known as Bull's Establishment for
New and Rare Plants, for which Bull would pay to Weeks
(d. c. 1879) and his wife £500 annually during their lives.
The company continued to be called J. Weeks &
Company, Horticultural Builders, becoming a registered
company limited by shares in 1897, to which the two
surviving partners, Alfred Weeks and Alexander
Saunders, assigned and conveyed the leasehold and freehold premises. The firm seems to have ceased business
c. 1908. The remaining freehold adjoining Bull's nursery,
then fronting Fernshaw Road, was sold to Messrs Derry &
Toms in 1910, and in 1925 was sold by their successor,
John Barker & Company, to Watney, Combe, Reid &
Company.
William Bull (King's Road). A market gardener called
John Bull had premises at Green lettuce Lane near the
top of Blacklands Lane by 1817, giving his name to Bull's
Gardens, but had apparently left the area by 1839; (fn. 6) any
relationship to William Bull, who was born in
Winchester in 1818, is unknown. William Bull apparently acquired the nursery of John Weeks in 1861, (fn. 7) and
in 1863 took a 28-year lease from Weeks of part of the
nursery at no. 536 King's Road, at the corner of Gunter
Grove (above). Bull purchased the nursery outright in
1874, changing the name to Bull's Establishment for
New and Rare Plants. (fn. 8) In 1878 he was called a new plant
merchant. (fn. 9) He specialized in greenhouse plants and in
pelargoniums, fuchsias, and verbenas; Chelsea Gem, a
pelargonium he introduced in 1880, is still grown. He
later specialized in orchids and became one of the three
great orchid growers of the period: his annual orchid
exhibition, which started in 1883, became one of the
sights of the London season. (fn. 10) Bull also acquired nursery
ground on the south side of Wimsett's nursery in
Ashburnham Road, and when he died c. 1902 he had just
over 3 acres with glasshouses. (fn. 11) He left his business to his
sons William and Edward: William junior died in 1913
but Edward continued to develop the orchid business,
producing large numbers of hybrid plants and opening
up new markets by bringing down the price. In 1916 he
retired as a nurseryman and devoted his time to the
nursery's two specialities, Bull's Plant Food and Bull's
Fumigating Compound, at no. 536. (fn. 12) By 1920 the business had ceased and Edward sold the site for £19,500. (fn. 13)
James William Wimsett (Ashburnham Park Nursery,
King's Road). Wimsett's nursery was founded in 1859,
and by 1861 employed six men; it was enlarged after
Cremorne Gardens were closed in 1877. Its proximity to
the more famous nurseries of Veitch and Bull may have
helped its business. After James Wimsett retired in 1904
the site of over 2 acres was offered for sale for building;
the nursery continued under Wimsett's son Henry until
1907 when the site was used for a school. (fn. 14)