Rotten Row, Hyde Park, London
By John Welford
@indexer (4852)
Leicester, England
November 9, 2018 10:28am CST
This broad sandy avenue runs for nearly a mile along the south side of London’s Hyde Park, and there is absolutely nothing rotten about it – either literally or figuratively!
It was first laid out during the joint reign of King William III and Queen Mary II, which lasted from 1689 to Mary’s death in 1694 (after which William reigned alone for another eight years). The avenue was laid out as a private road to grant safe access for the royals between Kensington Palace and the central London residences of St James’s Palace and Whitehall (reached via the adjoining Green Park to the east).
The route was lit at night by 300 oil lamps, as a precaution against highwaymen, and Rotten Row was thus the first artificially lit road in Britain.
In later years Rotten Row became a fashionable place for exercising horses, being close to the homes of many upper-class Londoners who lived in the vicinity of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. It was somewhere to see and be seen and was often crowded with riders, although these days not many Londoners have houses with stables attached, so the Row is usually empty.
However, it is still a regular exercise route for the Household Cavalry, whose barracks are close by.
But why the name Rotten Row? It is simply a corruption of the original name “Rue du Roi”, or “King’s Road”. It is not difficult to see how Londoners with no knowledge of French might convert the name to what it has been for several centuries past!
(The photo is from a copyright-free source)
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3 responses
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
9 Nov 18
@MALUSE That is not absolutely certain, because the combination of elephant and castle does indeed make sense. In the heraldry of the Middle Ages an elephant is nearly always shown with a castle on its back, this probably being derived from images of war elephants in classical times - the Greeks used them and so did the Carthaginians under Hannibal. Medieval chess pieces often had the castle on the back of an elephant.
To bring the image back to London, the Cutler's Company, one of the City Livery Companies chartered in the 15th century, dealt in ivory (used for making knife handles for wealthy customers) and their symbol was an elephant with its obligatory castle. The pub known as the Elephant and Castle dates from around 1760, before which the building was a smithy (making objects from iron) owned by the Cutler's Company. One can well imagine that a livery sign became a pub sign.
There was always a problem with the Infanta of Castile idea, because the two possible candidates - which you mention - do not fit the bill. Eleanor was not an Infanta (which means the eldest daughter of a Spanish/Portuguese monarch) and Maria was not from Castile.
I would therefore say that the Cutler's Company link is far more likely!
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@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
9 Nov 18
This is not what the name is about. Clearly, "Elephant & Castle" doesn't make any sense.
From Wikipedia, "Elephant and Castle" is a corruption of "La Infanta de Castilla" – allegedly a reference to a series of Spanish princesses such as Eleanor of Castile and María, the daughter of Philip III of Spain."
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