In which London district did Rosalind Franklin die?

Rosalind Franklin died in Chelsea, London, in 1958.

Franklin died on 16 April 1958, aged 37, after suffering from ovarian cancer and related complications. Chelsea was then, as now, a district in west London. Her death certificate recorded Chelsea as the registration district, which is why it is the canonical answer to this question.

Franklin’s final illness did not end her scientific work immediately. Even after surgery and cancer treatment, she continued directing research at Birkbeck College. Her group was studying the structure of viruses, including tobacco mosaic virus and poliovirus. She died shortly before a planned presentation on her tobacco mosaic virus research.

A common mix-up is with Notting Hill: Franklin was born there in 1920. She was buried at Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery, in Buckinghamshire’s Beaconsfield Road cemetery area, rather than in Chelsea.