Kensington Hippodrome
Kensington Hippodrome
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| Location | Notting Hill, London, England |
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| Owned by | John Whyte |
| Date opened | 1837-1842 |
| Course type | Circuit |
Coordinates: 51°30′29″N 0°12′43″E / 51.508°N 0.212°E
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, 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.
Whyte's race course was an ambitious venture, his intention being to build a rival to the well established race courses of Epsom and Ascot. On its opening, The Times described it as a "disgusting ... petty botheration" and cried "shame upon the people of Kensington" for permitting it. Sporting magazine was however more charitable, its correspondent describing the venture as "the most perfect race-course I have ever seen", and as "an emporium even more extensive and attractive than Ascot or Epsom."
The stables and paddocks were situated alongside Pottery Lane. The Notting Hill grassy knoll (now surmounted by St John's church) was railed in as a "natural grandstand", from which spectators could watch the races.
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