Curry and cucumber sandwiches! Mrs Mac really is absentminded when she sees something tasty. It's a wonder how she was ever able to get anything done. But this isn't about food, this is about the King's Road. And there is more to it than Marks and Spencers.
King's Road has long been the home of the rich, but did you know it was also the route of kings, home of the 'swinging sixties', home of punk in the 1970s, site of the first ever artificial ice rink and, believe it or not, home to the first ever Starbucks in the UK? Today, it is still an exclusive area where even the fast food restaurants look swanky.
Kings Road used to provide a route for the King to travel from his palaces from Hampton Court to the Palace of Westminster; and from St James's Palace to Fulham. It was a private road and you could only use it if you had a special pass.
This lasted until 1830, when the road opened up to the public, and what a place it became after that!
King's Road was forever changing with the times. Royalty, hippies, punks, and artists all had a home on this road at one time or another.
Like I mentioned, King's Road was home to the first artificial ice rink, not just in London but in the world. Wow! Go London. It was called the Glaciarium and it opened way, way back in 1876. The rink and building cost £20,000 to build. Measuring 40 feet by 24 feet, made up of six inches of concrete base which four inches of loose dry earth, six inches of cow hair (oh my!), two inches of thick timber plank, a series of copper pipes which had been immersed in water on the hair, and finally, a machine to freeze the water so that people could skate on the surface. Just like everything on King's Road at the time, you had to be quite upper class to be able to afford to use it. For more information click on this link.
If we fast forward to the next century (even if it was just 55 years ago), you will find trendy Mary Quant opening up her first store on the King's Road. Her name may not mean very much to you, but her shop was where that icon of the swinging 60s fashion craze was born – the miniskirt. Even though those were already in existence, Mary decided to make them even shorter than they originally were and the trend just took off. Only the young could wear it (you needed nice legs!) and it was controversial amongst adults who thought the short length very rude!
Thanks to Mary and her mates, older rich people who lived nearby were not very happy with what was happening on King's Road, especially when the Chelsea Drugstore opened. It was part chemist, but it also housed loads of cool stuff for teenagers and young people, including a newsstand, bars, food, music, a boutique. If you wanted your goods delivered, pretty girls on motorbikes, wearing purple catsuits, would bring them right to your door. Plus, the building was made up of stainless steel, marble, mirrors and brass – in those days all of that sort of stuff was really trendy.
These days there are a lot of chain stores on the King's Road, whereas in the 60s there were loads of different types of people selling their individual brands. Take a walk down Kings Road today and you’ll find Gap, Monsoon, Zara and John Lewis, as well as some boutique shops with very hefty price tags. And if you look really carefully around you, at the people walking and the cars on the road, you may just spy someone famous. I’ve seen Kylie and Hugh Grant myself. So get out and check out the King’s Road. And don't just limit yourself to the food section of Marks and Spencer, as tempting as that might be!
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