Rotten Row and Hyde Park Corner

Items on Zazzle feature this images of Rotten Row and Hyde Park Corner. Click on the link to find a mousepad, coasters, and mug. The website states:

Rotten Row is a broad track running along the south side of Hyde Park in London, leading from Hyde Park Corner to the west. In its heyday in the 18th century, Rotten Row was a fashionable place for upper class Londoners to be seen. Today it is maintained as a place to ride horses in the centre of London...The name "Rotten Row" may be a corruption of the French 'Route de Roi' or King's Road. In the 18th century, Rotten Row became a popular meeting place for upper class Londoners. Particularly on weekend evenings, people would dress in their finest clothes in order to ride along the row and be seen. The adjacent South Carriage Drive was used by people in carriages for the same purpose.

Visit Jane Austen's England Vicariously Through Flickr

If you missed the Jane Austen Festival in Bath this year, now is your opportunity to catch up and enjoy it. This Flickr page holds 80 photos in two sets.

Then visit Chawton on Flickr, where you can choose from many sets of photos, like the one of Jane Austen's quilt above.

The photo set of Bradford on Avon was filmed through the eyes of a truly talented photographer.

Additional photo sets:

• Jermyn Street, where shoppes Jane Austen might have seen still exist
• St. James's Park, London
• Jane Austen's Bath
• Lyme Regis
• Box Hill, Surrey, England
  

Fashionable London Addresses

Grosvenor Street, near Park Lane (right)





Grosvenor Square (Left)

"One's address was a symbol of status. Maria obtained 'one of the best houses in Wimpole Street'; the Johan Dashwoods (Sense and Sensibility) were well situated in Harley Street; while the Bingleys (Pride and Prejudice) found equally upper-crust accommodations in Mr. Hurst's house in Grosvenor Street. By contrast, the Gardiners, who were in trade, lived in Gracechurch Street, in the commercial district of London and within sight of Mr. Gardiner's warehouse." From: Jane Austen's Town and Country Style by Susan Watkins.

Wimpole Street

"The Georgian period in London coincided very neatly with the Palladian Revival in architecture and art. Lord Burlington, in his 1715 design of Burlington House in Piccadilly, played a major role in popularizing this classical style which became the norm for much of the century. A few years later, in 1725, Lord Burlington was at it again, with his remodeling of Chiswick House, then a country retreat but now part of the greater London sprawl.

At the same time Grosvenor Square was laid out in Mayfair, part of the Grosvenor family's development of that aristocratic district. More London squares followed, notably at Berkeley Square (design by William Kent). Kent was also responsible for building the Treasury Building(1733), and the Horse Guards (1745)." From: (Britain Express)