Chelsea

Chelsea is a neighbourhood on the west side of midtown Manhattan, roughly between 14th and 30th Streets west of Sixth Avenue. The merchant Thomas Clarke borrowed the name from the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London in the 18th century. For decades it was a mix of working-class housing, Irish immigrants and Hudson River shipping; in the 1990s the SoHo galleries migrated north and the district became the heart of the American art market. Today more than 200 commercial galleries cluster between 18th and 27th Streets west of Tenth Avenue. The High Line, the elevated park built on an abandoned freight railway, runs the length of the neighbourhood. At its southern edge sits Chelsea Market, a former Nabisco biscuit factory now packed with food stalls. Since the 1970s Chelsea has also been a major LGBTQ+ neighbourhood, with Eighth Avenue bars and drag brunches still defining the streetscape.