Chelsea in the olden & present times / by George Bryan.

  • Bryan, George
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chelsea in the olden & present times / by George Bryan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    priate ail's. The procession, on arriving at the spot, was received with loud cheers by a large number of the inhabitants who were admitted within the grounds. Mr. Tite, M.P., opened the business of the day in an appro- priate speech, in the course of which he alluded to the kind gift of the freehold site by Earl Codogan, the money for the erection of the building having been voted by the Vestry. The new hall, he said, when built, would not only be useful as regarded parochial purposes, but it would be an ornament to that locality. He was not disposed to introduce politics into a matter so purely parochial, but he could not help saying that, in the event of Chelsea obtaining a right to send representatives to Parliament— to which it is fully entitled on account of the number, respectability, and intelligence of its inhabitants—they could meet in their new hall, and there canvass and consider the claims of the candidates who presented themselves for their suffrages. Mr. Hanbuiy and Mr. Byng then severally addressed the numerous assemblage in suitable speeches. Mr. Charles Lahee, the respected Vestry Clerk, then read the following document, which was afterwards deposited in the bottle previously referred to :—“ This building, the foundation stone of which was laid by the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Chelsea, on the 12th day of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty nine, is intended for the transaction of the parochial and muni- cipal business of Chelsea, which contains at the present time a population, by estimation, of seventy thousand persons. It is built by the Vestry constituted by an Act for the better Local Management of the Metropolis (i8th& 19th Victoria, cap. 120) upon freehold land presented them by the Lord of the Manor, and his heirs, from the designs of Mr. Willmer Pocock, architect, by Thomas Piper and Sons, builders. Contract sum ^^5630. Lord of the Manor, George, 3rd Earl of Cadogan.” To which was attached the names of the Rector, Churchwardens, Vestrymen, &c., &c. The Rev. Richard Burgess, of Trinity Church, Sloane Street, then offered an appropriate prayer, after which, Mr. W, Rabbits, one of the vestrymen, presented a silver trowel to Viscount Chelsea, to be used in laying the first stone, and to be kept by his lordship as a token of the respect of the parishioners for him.