Preparing a new Chelsea Walk for the Spring 2016, came across the fanciest Pizza Express I've ever seen, on the King's Road, complete with ornate portico.
The building is the Pheasantry (because a garden of pheasants used to be in this space in the nineteenth century). In 1916, the Russian Dancing Academy was opened here by Princess Serafina Astafieva, a great niece of Leo Tolstoy.
Years earlier, before he achieved fame with War and Peace, Tolstoy walked the streets of Chelsea while visiting St Mark's Practising School at the far end of the King's Road. Tolstoy was interested in education and had with him a letter of recommendation from the Department of Education. It read, 'Count Tolstoy is particularly anxious to make himself acquainted with the mode of teaching Natural Science, in those schools where it is taught.'
Years earlier, before he achieved fame with War and Peace, Tolstoy walked the streets of Chelsea while visiting St Mark's Practising School at the far end of the King's Road. Tolstoy was interested in education and had with him a letter of recommendation from the Department of Education. It read, 'Count Tolstoy is particularly anxious to make himself acquainted with the mode of teaching Natural Science, in those schools where it is taught.'