Kensington Hippodrome

51°30′29″N 0°12′43″W / 51.508°N 0.212°W / 51.508; -0.212

Hippodrome
Kensington Hippodrome
LocationNotting Hill, London, England
Owned byJohn Whyte
Date opened1837-1842
Course typeCircuit
1841 map of the Environs of London, showing the Hippodrome

The Kensington Hippodrome was a racecourse built in Notting Hill, London, in 1837, by entrepreneur John Whyte. Whyte leased 140 acres (0.57 km2) of land from James Weller Ladbroke, owner of the Ladbroke Estate,[1] and proceeded to enclose "the slopes of Notting Hill and the meadows west of Westbourne Grove" with a 7-foot (2.1 m) high wooden paling. The race course was not a financial success and it closed in 1842, the land being developed soon afterwards, as Ladbroke began building crescents of houses on Whyte's former race course.[2]

  1. ^ Wormell, 1
  2. ^ Gray, 252