Rotten Row is a

road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

and

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

located in the west-central section of downtown

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. It begins at the intersection of Prince Edward Street and Samora Machel Avenue and runs to the flyover where it borders

Mbare Mbare is a suburb in the south of Harare, Zimbabwe. Founded in 1907 as a township, it includes an informal settlement. Mbare Musika is the largest farm produce market in Zimbabwe. History Mbare was the first township, now known as a high dens ...

on Cripps Road. The vast majority of the district is occupied by various national and municipal courthouses and office buildings. Today, Rotten Row is best known as the city's

legal district A judicial district or legal district denotes the territorial area for which a legal court (usually a district court) has jurisdiction. By region Europe Austria In texts concerning Austria, "judicial district" (german: Gerichtsbezirk) refers ...

, home to the High Court and the city's most prestigious

law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to r ...

Background

Rotten Row was named after the

Rotten Row Rotten Row is a broad track running along the south side of Hyde Park in London. It leads from Hyde Park Corner to Serpentine Road. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Rotten Row was a fashionable place for upper-class Londoners to be seen hors ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The term "Rotten Row" is a corrupted form of the French phrase ‘Route du Roi’, the

King's Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

. Early central Harare had both a commercial and residential area. Its proximity to the

courthouses A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

attracted

lawyers A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicitor, ...

, judges, and clerks to the neighbourhood, while its downtown setting, made it ideal for government employees. Today, it is best known as Harare's legal district home to The Harare Magistrate's Court, the Harare Central Library and the ZANU-PF headquarters, along with numerous law offices. The neighbourhood also lends its name of to the eponymous book by

Petina Gappah Petina Gappah (born 1971) is a Zimbabwean lawyer and writer. She writes in English, though she also draws on Shona, her first language. In 2016, she was named African Literary Person of the Year by ''Brittle Paper''. In 2017 she had a DAAD Arti ...

published in 2016.

Architecture

The

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

s who worked along Rotten Row and the early urban core included

Sir Herbert Baker Sir Herbert Baker (9 June 1862 – 4 February 1946) was an English architect remembered as the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, and a major designer of some of New Delhi's most notable government structures. He wa ...

, William D'Arcy Cathart, Le Roux, and James Alfred Cope-Christie. The architecture is an eclectic mix of the pioneer,

Cape Dutch Cape Dutch, also commonly known as Cape Afrikaners, were a historic socioeconomic class of Afrikaners who lived in the Western Cape during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The terms have been evoked to describe an affluent, apolitical se ...

, Queen Anne,

brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

and

neo-classical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

s, though other styles also figured prominently, sometimes within the same building and sometimes scaled back to save on costs. Despite this Rotten Row never achieved the prestige of the Kopje or Causeway areas, instead become a workaday district and ultimately a home to several judicial institutions.

Points of interest

Notable institutions along and in Rotten Row include: * The Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences * The Zanu-PF HQ Building * Harare Magistrate's Court * Harare City Library

References

{{Authority control Harare Suburbs of Harare Roads in Zimbabwe