Tracing the route of London’s lost racecourse

It’s 1837, the last year of the Georgian Era. One Saturday in early June, some 30,000 people gathered in the countryside west of London. A new racecourse had been laid out over the fields and meadows, to create a rival to the famous grounds at Epsom and Ascot. It was called the Kensington Hippodrome and this was the very first race.

That year, the Weekly Chronicle described the course as ‘a park of singular beauty,’ while the correspondent for Sporting magazine called it ‘the most perfect race-course I have ever seen.’ It covered one hundred and forty acres in total, with a track two miles in circumference. In fact, there were two tracks: one of rougher ground for steeplechases, and the second of smoother grass for faster races.

A great mound of earth had been piled up in the centre to provide an elevated viewpoint. Aristocrats and racing enthusiasts gathered to watch the spectacle, although gambling and drinking were in the enclosure. The aim was to create a new event in the London season, but according to the newspapers, the race was gatecrashed by ‘a large body of the very lowest classes of society.’

The course had been created by the entrepreneur John Whyte. He leased the fields from a local landowner, James Weller Ladbroke, including ‘the slopes of Notting Hill and meadows west of Ladbroke Grove.’ The southern entrance stood the junction of Pembridge Road and Kensington Palace Road, while the northern end reached towards Elgin Crescent, with the Portobello Road and the Clarendon Road roughly marking the eastern and western borders.

Whyte enclosed this area with a fence of wooden palings, cutting off a local footpath. Many of the gatecrashers at that first race came to protest against their lost right of way. Whyte spent the next two years trying to close the footpath permanently, with summonses, counter-summonses, assaults, and petitions to Parliament. There were even plans for a subway to pass beneath the track.

In the end, Whyte had to abandon the eastern half of the ground and extend north in the direction of St Quintin’s Avenue. A prospectus claimed that the new racecourse had been lengthened and much improved, while the footpath now ran outside the grounds.

However, this was not the only challenge that Whyte had to overcome. The track ran close to the ‘Potteries and Piggeries’ area of Pottery Lane. This was a slum that mixed farm animals with light industry, where the dense clay soil was baked into crockery and pots. The same soil could be found beneath the turf of the racetrack, meaning the course could easily become muddy and waterlogged.

Visitors to the Kensington Hippodrome observed that, though the equipages were splendid, the racing was a disappointment. Things did not improve with time, as the heavy ground meant riding was often dangerous. During the wettest months of the year, the course could not be used at all, as the jockeys refused to compete.

Just 13 meetings took place in the Kensington Hippodrome’s five-year history. The last was held on June 4th 1841 and recorded in four paintings by Henry Aiken. By the following year, plans to resume racing had been abandoned and Whyte’s mortgage foreclosed. Soon, the land went ‘into hands more inclined to speculate in bricks and mortar than in turf vacillations.’

When James Ladbroke began to develop his estate, the former course became the grand streets and garden squares of Notting Hill. For instance, Stanley and Lansdowne Crescent both follow the curving outline of the old track, while Hippodrome Mews and Hippodrome Place recall the former racecourse. What’s more, St John’s Church occupies the mound of earth where spectators once stood, making the highest point on Ladbroke Grove.

So, even though London lost a racecourse, the new neighbourhood of Notting Hill gained its most beautiful streets.