On a bright Saturday in September 2018, Roberts London travelled from Sloane Square to Duke of York Square for a visit to Partridges and the Chelsea Fine Food Market. The short film records a familiar weekend ritual: browsing independent food stalls, choosing lunch and finding a place on the lawn outside the Saatchi Gallery.

From Sloane Square to the Saturday market

The journey starts at Sloane Square station before turning towards Duke of York Square. The route is short, but it moves quickly from the traffic of the King’s Road into a more open pedestrian space framed by mature trees, historic buildings and the former Duke of York’s Headquarters.

By 2018, the weekly fine food market had already become a regular Chelsea fixture. Partridges had founded the market in 2005, a year after moving its Chelsea shop from Sloane Street to Duke of York Square. On Saturdays, the square filled with independent traders selling prepared dishes, bread, cheese, produce, cakes and food from across the world.

Partridges and a Chelsea food institution

Sir Richard Shepherd founded Partridges in Chelsea in 1972, and the grocer remained an independent family business. Its shelves became known for speciality groceries, international foods and products that were difficult to find elsewhere in London. The business received a Royal Warrant as grocers to Queen Elizabeth II in 1994.

The film does not attempt a complete tour of the shop. Instead, it captures the relationship between the grocer and the market outside: the permanent store, the temporary stalls and the steady Saturday crowd all occupying the same corner of Chelsea.

Today, that relationship gives the archive film greater significance. Partridges closed its Duke of York Square shop on 2 February 2025 after more than fifty years in Chelsea. Its Gloucester Road branch continued trading, while the Saturday market at Duke of York Square also continued. The 2018 footage therefore records the earlier arrangement without suggesting that the market disappeared with the shop.

A duck sandwich for lunch

Next, the film turns to a simple market lunch. At one hot-food stall, a trader cooks shredded duck in a wide pan and piles it into bread with fresh leaves. Customers can watch the preparation from the queue. As a result, choosing the sandwich becomes part of the market experience rather than merely buying a finished takeaway.

Barry then takes the sandwich to the lawn outside the Saatchi Gallery. On this warm afternoon, much of the square operates as an informal dining room: people sit on the grass, eat from market trays and watch the activity around them. It is the kind of ordinary London scene that becomes more valuable as places and businesses change.

Duke of York Square after lunch

After lunch, the film slows down for a walk through the square and around the Saatchi Gallery courtyard. The former military buildings give the area a character distinct from the surrounding shopping streets, while the trees and lawn soften what could otherwise feel like a formal retail development.

Finally, back towards Sloane Square, the film closes with one of Chelsea’s colourful floral street displays. It is a brief coda to a visit built around food, but it completes the sense of a neighbourhood using shopfronts, public space and seasonal decoration to create its own identity.

Published on 23 September 2018, the film preserves Partridges Chelsea and its surrounding market as they appeared on an unhurried Saturday. The duck sandwich provides the immediate reason for the visit; the lasting interest lies in the record of a London institution, its market and the public life around Duke of York Square.