The Noble Sport, The Turf and of course The Sport of Kings, this island race has horse racing in it’s DNA. The earliest race ever recorded on British soil was a contest among Arabian horses imported by the Roman emperor Septimius Severus, held at Netherby in Cumbria around 210 CE.
During the 12th century, the first recorded horse races in medieval England took place at St Bartholomew’s Fair in London, during the reign of Henry II (1154–1189). These were informal with not many rules, but they were public, repeated events, the earliest known in post‑Roman Britain.
The first organised event is said to be the Newmarket Town Plate, first run in October 1666. Recognised as the first organised horse race in England, run under a written set of Articles (rules) issued in 1665.
The peak era for racecourses came during the Victorian era between 1840-1870 with over 200 racecourses in the UK, more than double the 59 licensed courses that exist today.
London has on it’s perifery six courses, Epsom and Ascot being the most well known. So let’s put on our sunday best, don our binoculars, pack the picnic basket and have an enjoyable day out without losing our shirts. Oh sorry didn’t I say, we’re not going to Epsom, not Kempton Park or even Sandown, were off to Notting Hill Hippodrome!
No we’re not trading an equine event for a matinee at the theatre. Rather surprisingly there was a licensed racecourse situated in W11 not two miles from Kensington Palace.
The Notting Hill Hippodrome, also known as the Kensington Hippodrome, was one of Victorian London’s boldest but shortest‑lived ventures. Conceived in the mid‑1830s by entrepreneur John Whyte, it aimed to rival the great racecourses of the era by transforming the semi‑rural Ladbroke Estate into a fashionable centre for equestrian sport. Whyte leased around 140 acres of land and enclosed it with a high wooden fence, creating an oval course that swept around the natural hill where St John’s Church now stands. This elevated ground served as a kind of natural grandstand, offering panoramic views of the racing below.
The Hippodrome opened in June 1837, but almost immediately ran into trouble. The clay soil made the track unreliable, turning to glue in wet weather and iron in the dry. Local residents objected to the enclosure of long‑used footpaths, and crowds from the nearby Potteries and Piggeries slum were not the elite audience Whyte had hoped for. Attendance dwindled, finances collapsed, and by 1842 the racecourse closed for good.
Yet its legacy survives. The sweeping crescents of Ladbroke Grove, Lansdowne Crescent, and Clarendon Road still trace the line of the old track, preserving the ghost of a grand idea that never quite found its stride.
I’ve explored that Hippodrome area a bit, so thanks for telling a fuller story. And there are still 59 licensed courses existing today. That seems incredible! I can’t name even a quarter of those I think!