THE CAPITAL ACCORDING TO... Ruth Rogers

The co-founder of the River Café talks to Flora Watkins about Chelsea, bikes and keeping her business afloat

- Flora Watkins

How did you come to live in London?

In 1969, I came for a term off from university —a small college in Vermont [New England, US] called Bennington—and I fell in love with city life. I begged my parents to let me stay; they said I could if I went to school. So I went to the London College of Printing to study graphic design.

Which part of town do you call home?

Home is in Chelsea, just off the King’s Road overlooking the Royal Hospital. We’d been living in Paris [when her husband, Lord Rogers, was working on the Pompidou Centre] and, when we came back, we wanted to find somewhere with light and space where we could do some architectural work. Our house is a kind of lateral conversion of two Edwardian houses. We’ve been there since 1983. I love being close to the river on one side and a big street on the other and I like the sense of community and being able to walk everywhere.