HORSES

The Blue Cross Hospital, Victoria

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The Blue Cross Hospital in Victoria is Britain's oldest veterinary hospital. It was opened to cater for the horses that used to provide central London with much of its transport, particularly those that took goods to and from Victoria Railway Station. The advent of the motor car (and delivery van) led to urban vets shifting the focus of their practices away from dealing with horses towards catering for household pets.¹

Location: Blue Cross Hospital, 5 Hugh Street, SW1V 1QQ (orange, grey)

Website: www.bluecross.org.uk/victoria-animal-hospital

¹. In Britain it tends to be harder for someone to gain admission to study veterinary medicine at university than medicine.

The British Horse Society Equestrian Hall of Fame

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The British Horse Society Hall of Fame's plaques are located on the wall on the north side of Kensington Barracks towards its east end.

Location: Hyde Park Barracks, SW7 1SE (blue, purple)

Website: www.bhs.org.uk/our-charity/hall-of-fame

Horse blocks

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This horse block was erected by the desire of The Duke of Wellington .

Location: Waterloo Place, SW1Y 5ED (purple, blue)

Horse Feed

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The London Hackney Carriage Act of 1831 required hackney carriage drivers to have corn or hay for feeding their horses. The section was repealed in by the Statute Law (Repeals) Act of 1976.

See Also: HAY; TAXIS

Horsemanship

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Riding Schools

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The Fouberts

The de Foubert family settled in England in 1679. Henry Foubert set up a haute cole rising academy in 1684. From 1691 until Foubert's death in 1696 the establishment was supported by a royal grant of 500 p.a..

Foubert s rival Lewis Maidwell also ran an educational academy in Soho. This had a curriculum that included maths, accounts, navigation, fencing, and horsemanship. There was a riding house. Despite of having pupils who were sons of the gentry and nobility he found it hard to make a profit. Therefore, in 1699 he petitioned the Commons that the establishment might become a public body. A royal charter was granted to it in 1702 and it became the Royal School of King William III. However, the universities were wary of it. In 1704 it was closed. Henry Foubert the younger acquired the site.

The Foubert business was inherited first by Solomon Durrell and then by Thomas Evans. It closed in 1778.

Location: Foubert s Place, W1F 7PF (blue, pink)

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Horseriding

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Hyde Park Stables

Hyde Park Stables was founded in 1865.

Location: 63 Bathurst Mews, W2 2SB (purple, turquoise)

Website: www.hydeparkstables.com

Ross Nye Stables

While working as a jackaroo in Queensland, Australia, Ross Nye (1927-2020) met the pianist and music educator Ruth Farren-Price. They married and eventually settled in London. In 1965 he opened the Ross Nye Stables close to Hyde Park.

In 1968 Nye started the Hyde Park Horseman's Sunday. This included a ceremony outside a local church that was conducted by a vicar who would be mounted on one of Nye's horses. The event ran until 2017. It was inspired by Epsom Racecourse's annual Blessing of the Horse that was held from 1947 to 2008.

In 1972, following the setting up of the Riding for the Disabled Association, Nye provided horses and ponies for a number of the organisation's London branches.

In 1983 Nye set up the Hyde Park Riding Club to enable people who used his stables to compete at events such as the Olympia Show Jumping Spectacular.

In 1989 the Pony Club opened its first London branch in the stables.

Location: 8 Bathurst Mews, W2 2SB (purple, yellow)

Website: www.rossnyestables.co.uk

Horse Manure

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The first international conference of city governments was held in New York 1898. The proceedings were centred upon the issue of how they should deal with horse manure.

See Also: WASTE

Horse Market

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Orion House on Upper St Martin's Lane, Seven Dials, was the site of central London s last horse market.

Location: 5 Upper St Martin's Lane, WC2H 9EA (purple, orange)

Metalworking

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See Also: SMALL ITEMS; STREETS, SPECIALISED

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Blacksmiths

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The original 12 Bar Club occupied the site of a former stable and blacksmith s forge.

Location: 12 Denmark Street, WC2H 8LS (blue, pink)

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Lorimers

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On the eastern side of the northern end of Bucklersbury Court is a plaque that reads, Site of the Lorimer's Trade . Lorimers were craftsmen who made small metal items that were associated with horses, e.g. bits.

Location: Bucklersbury Court, 1 Poultry, EC2R 8EN (red, grey)

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Spurriers

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In the 15^thC Creed Lane was known as Spurriers Row because of the number spur-makers who had premises along the street.

Location: Creed Lane, EC4V 5DY (orange, purple)

Placenames

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Golden Square's name is probably horse-related. Possibly from gelding .

Location: Golden Square, W1F 9JB (blue, turquoise)

Rotten Row

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Rotten Row is a sand riding track that runs parallel to the southern side of Hyde Park. Traditionally, its name is held to be a corruption of route du roi, a reference to its leading westwards from London towards Kensington Palace. The bridle path was lain out c.1690 and was kept well-lit at night in order to furnish a relatively safe route between the royal abode and the West End. The original Knightsbridge Barracks was established nearby in order that help might be at hand in the event of robberies occurring. However, rotten used to also have a common usage that meant soft . So the name may have been a reference to the track having been marshy.

Whichever was the case, in the 18^thC Rotten Row provided a venue where the aristocracy paraded to one another in their finery.

Location: Hyde Park, W2 2UH (purple, yellow)

Stables

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Camden Stables

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There is a set of first floor stables in Camden Market. These have slopes that enabled horses to be walked up to them from street-level and down again.

Location: The Horse Hospital, Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8AH (blue, turquoise)

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Mewses

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Mewses are small streets in what were fashionable 18^thC and 19^thC areas of London. They are composed of buildings that used to be the stables of the large period houses behind them.

The word mews is descended from the Latin verb mutare, which means to change . This was a reference to hunting hawks that were kept in a mews building while they were moulting their feathers. Horses were stabled in the Royal Mews at Charing Cross and so the horse associated aspect of the word developed.

See Also: BIRDS Birds of Prey, Mews

The Royal Mews

Formerly, most of what is now Trafalgar Square was taken up by the Royal Mews, a complex of buildings and yards that housed the royal stables. Following a fire that occurred in 1534, the Charing Cross located facility was expressly rebuilt to accommodate horses. A new main stable block (1732) was designed by William Kent.¹ In 1762 King George III bought Buckingham House. He transferred portions of the Mews s activities to the new palace. George IV made the decision that the royal stables should be moved to Buckingham Palace in toto. He commissioned John Nash to design its new building (1825) for them there.

In 1830 Kent's stable block was demolished. The square was created upon the site.

For the 1953 coronation the Royal Mews had insufficient horses and carriages. Therefore, it borrowed some from a film studio.

Location: Trafalgar Square, WC2N 5DS (purple, yellow)

The Royal Mews, Buckingham Palace Road, SW1W 1QH (blue, brown)

Website: www.rct.uk/visit/the-royal-mews-buckingham-palace

¹. On what was to be the site of the National Gallery.

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St Paul's Cathedral

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Oliver Cromwell had some of his soldiers stable their horses in St Paul's Cathedral.

Location: St Paul's Cathedral, St Paul's Churchyard, EC4M 8AD (purple, white)

Website: www.stpauls.co.uk

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Tattersall's

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Tattersall's is a horse auctioneering business. In 1766 Richard Tattersall set himself up as an auctioneer. He acquired premises near to Hyde Park Turnpike. While at Hyde Park Corner, Tattersall's established a close association with the Jockey Club, the body that supervised British horseracing. The Club maintained subscription rooms for its members upon the business s premises.

Eclipse was sold at Tattersall s.

In 1865 Tattersall's lease expired (and its site promptly disappeared beneath an extension of St George's Hospital). The business was moved to the south-western side of Knightsbridge Green. In 1939 it left London for Newmarket, where it still operates.

Location: Tattersalls Tavern, Knightsbridge Green, SW1X 7QN. A modern pub. (blue, yellow)

The Lanesborough, 1 Lanesborough Place, SW1X 7TA (red, orange)

Website: www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk/pubs/greater-london/tattersalls-tavern www.tattersalls.com

Tunnels

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Blackwall Tunnel (1897) was built in an era when traffic was horse-drawn. It is said that if a horse is taken into a tunnel and it sees a light at the far end, it will bolt for that light. The tunnel was constructed with curves in order that the light at the far side would not be apparent until the vehicle was most of the way over.

See Also: TUNNELS Blackwall Tunnel

David Backhouse 2024