History - The 16th and 17th Centuries
Sir Thomas More
Catholic martyr, author of ‘Utopia’ and resident of Chelsea, More was born in London in 1478. As a boy he was page to the Archbishop of Canterbury who predicted that he would become a ‘marvellous’ man. More studied the Classics at Oxford and was admitted to the bar in 1501. He was a close friend of Erasmus who dedicated ‘The Praise of Folly’ to him. Both men hated corruption and superstition in the Church and both were men of great intellect and humanity. More led an austere life of prayer, fasting and penance, including wearing a hair shirt. Despite his preference for a monastic life, his sense of duty to his country led him to marry, conduct a legal career and enter Parliament in 1504. Published in 1516, ‘Utopia’ is a fictionalised depiction of a pagan and communist island, which established More as a great humanist who objected to the self-interest and greed of Christian Europe.
Once a favourite of King Henry VIII his ‘intellectual courtier’ – More could not support the King’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He was found guilty of treason, sent to the Tower and beheaded in 1535. More wryly observed that he had been ‘The King’s good servant, but God’s first’.
Beaufort House
More built his house (later known as Beaufort House) here in 1524. It was from here that More was taken by boat to the Tower. In More’s time, two courtyards were laid out between the house and the river and, in the north of the site, beside his stables, acres of gardens and orchards were planted. The stable and chapel yard were eventually to become the Moravian Burial Ground.​Although More’s house is lost, the character of an old, private garden is still present and the retention of this ambience is part of our enjoyment today. There are deep-set archaeological remains to the south and east of the Burial Ground. Part of the foundation of More’s house falls within the boundary of the Close.
King Henry VIII
William Roper, who married More’s daughter Margaret, in 1521, wrote this account of King Henry’s visits to More at Chelsea. It was obviously written after More’s death, and shows foresight which may make it suspect, however it makes a good read: ​ ‘And for the pleasure he took in his company, would his grace suddenly sometimes come home to his house at Chelsea, to be merry with him. Whither on a time, unlooked for, he came to dinner to him, and after dinner, in a fair garden of his, walked with him by the space of an hour,holding his arm about his neck. As soon as his grace was gone, I rejoicing thereat, told Sir Thomas More how happy he was whom the King had so familiarly entertained, as I never had seen him do to any other except Cardinal Wolsey, whom I saw his grace once walk with, arm in arm, ‘I thank our Lord, son,’ quoth he, ‘I find his grace my very good lord indeed, and I believe he doth as singularly favour me as any subject within this realm. Howbeit, son Roper, I may tell thee I have no cause to be proud thereof, for if my head could win him a castle in France (for then there was a war between us) it should not fail to go.’
The Walls
In Sir Thomas More’s time two courtyards were laid out between his house and the river and to the north of the house acres of gardens and orchards were planted including the stable yard area that is now the Close. More’s stables were entered directly from the King’s Road from the West. ​ Thereafter, the site was sold and sub-divided and re-sold (see the Gillick Pageant). Fragments of wall to the East and as far as the river still remain in back gardens of properties that have been parcelled off from More’s original property. An Inigo Jones entrance gateway from the Kings Road was dismantled in the C18th and re-erected in Chiswick Park, where it can still be seen. The Close is within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s Archaeological Priority Area. ​ Whilst there is a considerable amount of Tudor brick within the walls, they have been rebuilt more than once in some cases. Today we conserve what we can in situ but in the C17th, C18th and C19th labour was cheap and so if a wall showed signs of deterioration, it was taken down and rebuilt, at times, with modern bricks. The walls form a strong boundary and, together with the terrace buildings, a splendid architectural grouping. The walls are under threat from environmental damage, subsidence and heave from trees, poor historic cement repair and, occasionally, deliberate damage. Historic England has made generous grants towards a pilot project to study the archaeology, ascertain the cost of repair and establish conservation methodologies for the future. In 2017, repairs were made to the East wall, the gardeners’ corner and the South west corner. Some parts of the walls are still in poor condition and the cost of conservation is great.
