The elephant in the town

 The Racecourse is Northampton's largest park. Horse races had been held on the site unofficially since 1632 while the official meeting was held at Harlestone and Dallington Heath. However, because of the number of accidents these were stopped in 1681. 

With the popularity of the interest in race meetings waning, meetings came to a halt only to be resumed in 1727 by Lord Spencer and in 1737, the first official race meet was held on the new course and included the popular three day meets. These races were very popular and frequently visited by Royalty, including the Prince of Wales, later Edward Vll. New stands were erected in 1844 at a cost of more than £2000. 

With the development of the Racecourse saw the development of the surrounding area with large houses being built for the ardent race goers including a public house. To the far side of the park is the White Elephant public house. It started life as the Kingsley Park Hotel and was built to serve the racing fraternity when the Racecourse was used for horse racing. Following the death of spectators, the Jockey Club closed the course for race meetings in 1904 and the hotel was left out on a limb and became a "white elephant". Jokingly, this became its usual name among locals and the brewery bowed to popular demand and officially renamed it The White Elephant. 


A few years ago new owners renamed it the Kingsley Park Tavern. There was a mass uprising among the local population and they were forced to change it back to its original name.