Hounds, horses and huntsmen at Oxford Circus, 1926

[SusannaF]

Yes, really. A friend just sent me this. Anyone know the story behind this photo?

They're just in front of Top Shop.

http://www.retronaut.co/2011/08/fox-hunting-at-oxford-circus-1926/

 

[Alec Swan]

What's Top Shop? Dows? It should be.

How many hounds can you see? I've spotted 4 couples, and they probably went on to draw Kensington Gardens.

Talking of Kensington Gardens, does anyone remember the fenced in enclosure at the end of the Serpentine. It was there in the '50s and it was where people had just dumped pet rabbis, over the years. Others took on the feeding of them, and then they sort of multiplied!

Alec.

 

[SusannaF]

That's the ad on the two omnibuses in the background!

The sum total of my notes for hunting in London:

"Berkeley kennelled foxhounds at Charing Cross in late 18thC, hunting Wormwood Scrubbs and Kensington Common."

 

[SusannaF]

And a piece from the Times in 2006 about two hunts in London (one in 1949):

http://forums.canadiancontent.net/news/49663-blair-see-pink-hunt-rides.html

 

[SusannaF]

And more on the 1949 hunt in London, which was a protest against a proposed ban:

So moved were one group of country gentlemen that they
organized a march on Parliament which was immortalized in the
sporting journals as the Piccadilly Hunt, and was favorably
compared by no less an authority than Fred Unwin, the well
known hunting scribe of Horse and Hound to such history mak-
ing rides as "Bringing the Good News from Ghent to Aix" and
Lady Godiva's bareback ride through Coventry.

The originator of the idea is an unsung hero but the merit of
his plan was quickly recognized and a group of fifty farmers
was soon pledged to join the Crusade. P-Day, February 25,
1949, dawned rainy and cold as the squadron mounted their
horses at Hyde Park Corner and settled themselves for the
hunt. Drawing Piccadilly Circus first, they ran up Regent Street
to Oxford Circus and then down Oxford Street to Marble Arch.
After a breather they forged on through the green expanses of
Hyde Park to Grosvenor Mews and wound up at Hyde Park
Corner, A petition was then sent to the House of Com-
mons and the fox hunters, their work well done, repaired to the
Horse and Hound Ball for some well earned stimulants

From Sport Is Where You Find It by Philip K. Crowe.