Rotten Row is a

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

and

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

located in the west-central section of downtown

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

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

Mbare Mbare, originally known as Harari, 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 to ...

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 continent Europe Austria In texts concerning Austria, "judicial district" () refers to the geographi ...

, 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 consumer, clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and Obligation, respon ...

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 ho ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. 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 and Fulham, both ...

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

courthouses A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...

attracted

lawyers A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as wel ...

, 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 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 was ...

, 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, educated sect ...

, 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 minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

and

neo-classical style Neoclassical architecture, sometimes referred to as Classical Revival architecture, is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy, France and Germany. It became one of the most promin ...

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 Suburbs of Harare Roads in Zimbabwe