When you visit Hyde Park you may come across a sign for the curiously-named Rotten Row.
Rotten Row, which measures 1384 metres long, was established as an avenue for King William III to safely travel between Kensington Palace and St James’ Palace. It was lined with 300 oil lamps (as the area was a regular haunt for highwaymen) and is celebrated as the first artificially lit highway in Britain.
Through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was a fashionable place for the gentry to horse ride, so why does it have a name with unpleasant connotations? It was originally called Route du Roi, French for King’s Road, which over the years was corrupted into Rotten Row.
Rotten Row is now used as an area to exercise the horses of the Household Cavalry. Members of the public are also permitted to ride along it.
There are some fabulous 1930s photographs on Getty Images of horseriders at the Bon Viveur Club in Shepherd Market, making their way to Rotten Row.
Photograph of Rotten Row, taken circa 1905.