Today is the birthday of Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham (1621). He was Lord Chancellor and a member of Parliament. He became Baron Finch in 1673 and Earl of Nottingham in May 1681.
He built a house in (the village of) Kensington called the Nottingham House It was acquired by King William III in 1689 because he wanted a residence near London but far away enough away from the smoke that covered London; the king was an asthmatic. The king's official residence was St. James Palace in London. Interestingly, it remains the official residence of the king/queen today even though no monarch has lived there for over 200 years. In 1941, representatives of several countries met at the palace to sign the Declaration of St. James's Palace, which then became the charter of the United Nations.
Anyway, the house Finch built became Kensington Palace. Christopher Wren made many enhancements to the house; he is responsible, among other things, for the architecture of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
A road was built from St. James Palace to Kensington Palace, and was called the "Route de Roi" or the road of kings. Over time, the name evolved to "Rotten Row." I don't know how the name changed, but one hypothesis is that it comes from the Gaelic phrase Rat-an-righ, which translates as "Road Of The Kings"
The road runs just south of Hyde Park, and still exists. You can see a picture of it at http://en.wikipedia.org/
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