Rotten Row

You are standing by a wide, sandy track that cuts through the southern edge of Hyde Park. This is Rotten Row, which earned the distinction of being the first artificially lit road in Britain when King William the Third ordered it illuminated by three hundred oil lamps in sixteen ninety. The King required a safe, direct path for his travel between Kensington Palace and the government offices at Whitehall, as the park was previously a dangerous stretch frequented by highwaymen. While the name sounds peculiar today, it is widely believed to be a phonetic corruption of the French phrase Route du Roi, meaning King's Road.