The Chelsea Barracks site is a 12.8 acre site that is situated between Sloane Square and the Thames. The site is bounded by Chelsea Bridge Road to the south-west, Pimlico Road to the north and Ebury Bridge Road to the south-east.

The most notable building in the area of the site is the Royal Hospital Chelsea, designed by Wren in the 1670s.

In the 1750s, the Westbourne River was canalised on an alignment parallel with the current location of Chelsea Bridge Road. At this time Ranelagh Gardens were pleasure gardens in which stood a large rotunda, captured in a painting by Canaletto and by various etchings of the times. When the barracks were built in the 1860s, the canal was diverted into a gigantic sewer below ground.

The 1960s barracks have now been demolished and all that remains of the buildings that once made up the home of the Queen’s Guard are two point blocks and a chapel.