Stop 8: The Chelsea Potter - Daydreaming on the King’s Road

This well-positioned pub is interesting for its connections to different Chelsea potters over time, although it’s unclear which potter, or group of potters, the pub is named after. There was a ‘Chelsea Porcelain Factory’ as far back as 1745 - the first important porcelain manufactory in the UK - some pieces from which are held in the V&A collections. The Chelsea Potter pub was thought to have been built as a beer house in 1842 called the Commercial Tavern and was re-named as the Chelsea Potter in 1958. At the time of its renaming, there was indeed a Chelsea Pottery studio located on Radnor Walk, which was an open studio for potters. The highly decorative work was followed by celebrities of the time; Jimmy Hendrix and Paul McCartney were known to be customers of the Pottery. The pub sign, however, is a painting of William de Morgan, painted by his wife, Evelyn de Morgan, who were both part of the Victorian Arts and Crafts movement. De Morgan’s Chelsea Pottery was founded in nearby Cheyne Row in the 1860s and his work in ceramics, some of which he made for friend and colleague William Morris’s company, are also part of the V&A collections.