St John's Notting Hill and the Lost Hippodrome
Why is it significant?
Stand by the church on its little green island and feel the ground: you are on the very top of Notting Hill. St John's was built here in the 1840s, and the streets around it bend in long, graceful curves... which is your first clue to what this hilltop was before.
Key Facts
| Place | St John's Notting Hill and the Lost Hippodrome |
|---|---|
| Address | Lansdowne Crescent, London W11 2NN, United Kingdom |
| Geo Coordinates | 51.51170, -0.20580 |
| Part of Walk | Racecourse, Carnival and the Blue Door: Hidden Notting Hill & Portobello Road, London |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand by the church on its little green island and feel the ground: you are on the very top of Notting Hill. St John's was built here in the 1840s, and the streets around it bend in long, graceful curves... which is your first clue to what this hilltop was before.
In 1837, the year Queen Victoria came to the throne, an entrepreneur called John Whyte leased around a hundred and forty acres of these fields and opened the Hippodrome, a racecourse that he hoped would rival Epsom and Ascot, right on the edge of London. The track looped around the hill, and this summit, with its sweeping view, was the natural grandstand where crowds gathered to watch the horses thunder past below.
It was a disaster almost from the start. An old public footpath crossed the course, and the people of the neighbouring Potteries, a poor district of brick makers and pig keepers, refused to give up their right of way. They cut through the fences and wandered across the track during the races. Worse, the soil was heavy clay, and after rain the horses sank into it. Jockeys complained, the gentry stayed away, and the last race was run in 1841.
The land was handed over to builders, and the church went up on the old spectators' hill in 1845. Look at the map of the streets around you: Lansdowne Crescent and its neighbours sweep round in arcs, and it is often said they follow the ghost of the racetrack. Historians argue about how exactly the old course lay, but walking these curves, you can easily imagine the hoofbeats.
A few steps along Lansdowne Crescent there is a sadder memory. At the Samarkand Hotel, at number 22, Jimi Hendrix died on 18 September 1970, at just twenty-seven years old. Fans still come quietly to stand outside. Now walk a little further north along Ladbroke Grove and turn right into Blenheim Crescent, which curves gently downhill back to Portobello Road and an old picture palace.