From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Park Lane is one of the free through routes in the congestion charge.

Park Lane is a major road (designated A4202) in the City of Westminster, in Central London. Originally a country lane, it became a fashionable residential address from the eighteenth century onwards, with several large mansions such as the Duke of Westminster's Grosvenor House and the Holford family's Dorchester House. After World War II the Lane was widened to three lanes each way either side of a central reservation, making it effectively an urban motorway. This required the demolition of a number of houses at Hyde Park Corner. It is one of the busiest and noisiest roads in central London, retaining little or none of the pastoral atmosphere that once made it popular. Access to Hyde Park is by underpass. In 2004 a memorial to Animals in War opened in Park Lane [1].

Park Lane is between three quarters of a mile and a mile in length, and runs north from Hyde Park Corner to Marble Arch, along the length of the eastern flank of Hyde Park. To the east of the road is Mayfair. The road owes much of its fame to the fact that it is the second most valuable property in the London edition of Monopoly. Despite the traffic noise the road is still upmarket, featuring five-star hotels (such as The Dorchester and Grosvenor House Hotel) and showrooms for several makes of sports car.

The road forms part of the London Inner Ring Road and was part of the London congestion charge zone's boundary, but when the zone was extended westward in February 2007, it was designated as one of the "free through routes", which allows vehicles to cross the zone during its hours of operation without paying the charge.

On June 29, 2007 a car bomb was found in an underground car park. See 2007 London car bombs.

• No. 93: Benjamin Disraeli - prime minister
• No. 99: Moses Montefiore - philanthropist
• No. 140: Keith Clifford Hall - contact lens pioneer
• Aldford House: Dame Anna Neagle - actress
• Grosvenor House and Garden: Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster - richest man in England, race horse owner, philanthropist.
• Londonderry House: Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry - cabinet minister and very wealthy Irish aristocrat.
• No. 55: Hyde Park Residence[2]: Chika Sylva-Olejeme - Peace crusader, Founder International Peace Institute
• Fraudster Sidney Stanley occupied an apartment there during the 1940s.

Some of the residents' names are from the blue plaque website.

• Map on Streetmap.co.uk

	A roads in Zone 4 of the Great Britain road numbering scheme	edit
A4	A40 • A41 • A42 • A43 • A44 • A45 • A46 • A47 • A48 • A49
	A403 • A404 • A406 • A412 • A413 • A414 • A417 • A418 • A419
	A420 • A421 • A422 • A423 • A425 • A426 • A427 • A428 • A429
	A431 • A432 • A435 • A441 • A442 • A445 • A449
	A452 • A453 • A454 • A456 • A458 • A465 • A468
	A470 • A472 • A478 • A482 • A483 • A487 • A488 • A489
	A494 • A497 • A498 • A499
	A4006 • A4012 • A4018 • A4025 • A4032 • A4040 • A4042 • A4080 • A4085 • A4094
	A4103 • A4113 • A4117 • A4133 • A4135 • A4142 • A4146 • A4150 • A4155 • A4161
	A4173 • A4174 • A4202 • A4212 • A4232 • A4260 • A4361 • A4400 • A4536 • A4540
	List of A roads in Zone 4

Coordinates: 51°30′40″N, 0°9′12″W