Park Lane is a major road in the City of Westminster, in Central London.

Location and Length

Park Lane is a major road in the City of Westminster, in Central London.

Park Lane is about three quarters of a mile (1.2 km) in length, and runs north from Hyde Park Corner to Marble Arch, along the length of the eastern flank of Hyde Park. To the east of the road is Mayfair.

Park Lane was designated as one of the "free through routes", which allowed vehicles to cross the zone during its hours of operation without paying the charge;

Interesting facts

The Animals in War Memorial is located on Park Lane at its junction with Upper Brook Street, on the eastern edge of Hyde Park in London, England, and was designed by leading English sculptor, David Backhouse. Unveiled on 24 November 2004 by the Princess Royal, it stands as a memorial to the countless animals that have served and died under British military command throughout history.

Cultural references

Park Lane owes much of its fame to its being the second most valuable property in the London edition of Monopoly. It was at the zenith of its social status when the London version of the Monopoly board was first produced in 1936, and before it became a noisy multi-lane highway. On the board, Park Lane forms a pair with Mayfair, the most expensive property in the game. In real life, Park Lane marks the western boundary of Mayfair.

2007 car bomb

On 29 June 2007, an IRA car bomb was defused in an underground car park on the street.The London Hilton on Park Lane was also subject to an IRA bomb planted in the hotel lobby on 5 September 1975 which killed 2 people.

Popular residence

Past

1-Richard Sharp, known as "Conversation Sharp", merchant, critic, MP. This house was said to have been on the corner with Upper Grosvenor Street and later re-numbered to be '23'.

2-Benjamin Disraeli, prime minister

3-Moses Montefiore, philanthropist

4-Keith Clifford Hall, contact lens pioneer

5-Aldford House: Dame Anna Neagle, actress

6-Grosvenor House and Garden: Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, richest man in England, race horse owner, philanthropist.

7-Londonderry House: Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry, cabinet minister and very wealthy Irish aristocrat

8-Somerset House Warren Hastings and the 11th and 12th Dukes of Somerset

Present

9-Shirley Porter, Tesco heiress and Tory politician, set up home on Curzon Square in 2006 after 12 years of self-imposed exile in Israel

10- Mohamed Al-Fayed, owner of Fulham F.C., former owner of Harrods

History

Originally a country lane running north-south along what is now the eastern boundary of Hyde Park, it became a fashionable residential address from the eighteenth century onwards, offering both views across Hyde Park and a position at the most fashionable western edge of London. It became lined with some of the largest privately owned mansions in London, including the Duke of Westminster's Grosvenor House and the Holford family's Dorchester House (demolished in 1929 and replaced by 1931 with The Dorchester), which are now both hotels, and the Marquess of Londonderry's Londonderry House, which has been demolished.

On a corner with Oxford Street, Somerset House (No. 40), built in 1769-70, was successively the town house of Warren Hastings, a former Governor-General of India, the third Earl of Rosebery, and the Dukes of Somerset.[1]

In the 1960s the Lane was widened to three lanes each way either side of a central reservation. This required the demolition of a number of houses at Hyde Park Corner which had previously formed a line east of Apsley House in Piccadilly. It also meant claiming land previously in Hyde Park to make room for the multi-lane carriageway. The result was substantially to diminish the appeal of Park Lane as a residential address, since it became one of the busiest and noisiest roads in central London, retaining little or none of the pastoral atmosphere that once made it popular. The widening of the road distanced the houses on the east side of Park Lane from Hyde Park itself, access to which is now by underpass.

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