Rotten Row

What is the origin of the name Rotten Row, in London?

VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol II No 3 1975

Nothing less than turning the park into a race-course would content the new king, and the enclosure echoed with the sound of galloping horses, whilst an army of men with pick and shovel cleared and cut out the circular drive now known as Rotten Row, a name which is supposed by some to be a corruption of the French 'Route du Roi' (King's Way).

Chatterbox, 1905. Various

At the side of the broad shady road called Rotten Row, leading from the West Lodge to Bailiffgate, a tablet of stone marks the spot where William the Lion of Scotland was captured as we have already seen, in 1174, by Odinel de Umfraville and his friends; and there are many others of similar interest.

Northumberland Yesterday and To-day 1908

A viscount on horseback in Rotten Row; and his blacksmith, no less proud, in the next shot.

Camille Silvy: Photographer of Modern Life; Fiona Banner: Duveens Commission 2010 2010

There was a side-saddle and a most elegant bridle; indeed, the whole equipment would not have disgraced _Rotten Row_.

The Englishwoman in America 2007

At the same time, Colonel Huntington took a brisk ride down the tree-lined Avenue of Rotten Row.

Soul Learner_Tobsha 2006

Yachting at Cowes in August, not to mention the obligatory morning ride along Rotten Row.

Soul Learner_Tobsha 2006

Gardens had shut up their instruments of brass and trumpets of silver: only two or three old flies and chaises crawled by the banks of the Serpentine; and Clarence Bulbul, who was retained in town by his arduous duties as a Treasury clerk, when he took his afternoon ride in Rotten Row, compared its loneliness to the vastness of the Arabian desert and himself to a Bedouin wending his way through that dusty solitude.

The History of Pendennis 2006

Lots of such men, or mannikins, affected the season, then as now, and congregated around the rails of Rotten Row.

The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton 2006

And so Lavinia found herself basking in a newfound optimism as she and James drove along Rotten Row, for it seemed as if the whole of Hyde Park was illuminated by a golden light that caught at the unfurling buds and tendrils.

Soul Learner_Tobsha 2006