This was a race-course of some two and a half miles in circuit. In 1837 a Mr. John Whyte had turned his attention to the slopes of Notting Hill, and to the Portobello meadows west of Westbourne Grove, and prepared a course, not for golf, but for horse-racing and steeple-chasing, with the accompaniments of a training-ground and stables for about eighty horses.

The Hippodrome was opened on June 3, 1837. The public were admitted for a shilling, and those who could not enter the carriage enclosure mounted a convenient hill from which a splendid view of the racing—also of much adjacent country—could be obtained. No gambling-booths or drinking-booths were permitted, but iced champagne, or humbler beverages were to be obtained on this eminence. Lord Chesterfield and Count d’Orsay were the first stewards, and the Grand Duke of Russia, the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of Brunswick, and many noble personages, condescended to visit this London Epsom, to which gay marquees and ‘splendid equipages’ lent Éclat on a race-day.

These races were held for four years, and were duly recorded in Bell’s Life, with the usual details of horse, owner, and jockey. Cups of fifty and a hundred guineas were offered. The proceedings generally began at two, and on one occasion lasted till nine.

One drawback to the selectness of the Hippodrome (and the proprietor’s profits) was a path across the enclosure through which the public had a right-of-way. The footpath people seem, as a rule, to have been orderly enough, but gipsies, ‘prigs,’ and hawkers did not neglect the opportunity of mingling with the nobility and gentry. In March, 1838, an attempt was made in Parliament to block this footpath by a measure entitled the Notting Hill Enclosure Bill; but this harmless title was speedily perceived to conceal an attempt to legalize horse-racing in London. ‘Strong public feeling’ (particularly strong in Bayswater and Notting Hill) was excited, and many reasons, wise and foolish, were urged against the measure. One objection was that the young ladies in the boarding-schools of Kensington would be unable to take their usual walks abroad. On the other hand—so different are points of view—a writer in the Sporting Magazine declared that the Hippodrome was ‘a necessary of London life, of the absolute need of which we were not aware until the possession of it taught us its permanent value.’ A reading of the Bill passed the Commons early in 1838 by a majority of 26, but by September the Notting Hill Enclosure Bill had been quietly dropped. Next year the proprietor enclosed his course so as to exclude the obnoxious path, but at a considerable sacrifice of space. The last race was run in June, 1841. The proprietor had lost heavily, not so much, perhaps, through mismanagement as on account of a fatal defect in the course, which had a strong clay soil, and was so damp that it could only be used for training horses during part of the year.

The Hippodrome, Bayswater (Notting Hill), circa 1838

In 1845 a Mr. J. Connop, described as ‘the lessee of the Hippodrome,’ made his appearance in the Insolvent Debtors’ Court. He owed a trifle of £67,000, though, of course, there were the usual assets of £10,000, if only the property ‘be properly worked.’ The potent name of Ladbroke appears in these proceedings as the ground-landlord.

A good idea of the course can be gained from the accompanying plan, published in 1841. It will be found that Ladbroke Terrace and Norland Square roughly define its lower limits. Ladbroke Grove, Lansdown Road, and Clarendon Road now cut through it northwards. The ‘hill for pedestrians’ is crowned by St. John’s Church (built 1845) in Lansdown Crescent and Ladbroke Grove.

Part of the course was preserved as late as 1852 with some rough turf and a few hedges, at which adventurous lady-riders practised their horses.

[Newspaper notices; Bell’s Life, John Bull, etc.; plan and view of the Hippodrome (W.); Walford, Old and New London, v., p. 182; Loftie’s Kensington, p. 267 f.]

Plan of the Hippodrome, Notting Hill, 1841