S.O.S - Save The Sutton Estate, Chelsea
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The History of The Sutton Estate

Sutton Dwellings Chelsea (now Sutton Estate Chelsea) was designed by respected architect Edward Charles Philip Monson. It was completed in 1913 at a time when private property in London was gripped by overpricing, causing the detrimental disappearance of affordable places for people to live.
William Sutton solves a problem
William Sutton's highly successful long distance postal package service alongside other business ventures allowed for the build up of huge reserves of personal wealth.

In the 1800's the Royal Mail postage service would only deliver letters; anything larger than a letter would be taken to a train station and transported via train to the nearest station of the intended destination. 

In 1861 William Richard Sutton started the UK's first door-to-door long distance parcel service. To many William Sutton had suddenly made the problematic time consuming experience of sending a package a less troublesome one.
Sutton Estate Chelsea
Before his death in 1900, William Sutton made a last Will and Testament which would see his vast fortune left to house families on low incomes suffering from poor living standards. Many of the Sutton Estate's first residents were women on low income jobs. Over 2,000 people found a place they could call home at the Sutton Estate, Chelsea.

The Sutton Estate is now managed by Clarion (formerly Affinity Sutton),  who planned to destroy the buildings, construct new accommodation and sell a large proportion off as luxury accommodation.
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The Sutton Dwellings, Chelsea, London SW7
by George P. Landow, Professor of English and the History of Art, Brown University
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