What is Park Lane?
[[Image:Park Lane Road sign.jpg|thumb|right|One carriageway of Park Lane]] '''Park Lane''' is a major [[road]] in the [[City of Westminster]], in [[Central London]]. Park Lane is about three quarters of a mile (1.2&nbsp;km) in length, and runs north from [[Hyde Park Corner]] to [[Marble Arch]], along the length of the eastern flank of [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]]. Despite the traffic noise, the road is upmarket. It features five-star [[hotel]]s, such as [[Dorchester Hotel|The Dorchester]], [[Grosvenor House Hotel]] and [[InterContinental London Park Lane Hotel]], and showrooms for several makes of high-end [[sports car]]. The hotels are part of the area known as [[Mayfair]]. ==History== Originally a country lane running north-south along what is now the eastern boundary of [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]], it became a fashionable residential address from the eighteenth century onwards. It has views across Hyde Park and a position at the most fashionable western edge of London. It became lined with some of the largest privately owned mansions in London, including the [[Duke of Westminster]]'s [[Grosvenor House]] and the Holford family's [[Dorchester House]] (demolished in 1929 and replaced by 1931 with The Dorchester, which are now both hotels, and the [[Marquess of Londonderry]]'s Londonderry House, which has been demolished. On a corner with [[Oxford Street]], [[Somerset House, Park Lane|Somerset House]] (No. 40), built in 1769-70, was successively the [[townhouse|town house]] of [[Warren Hastings]], a former [[Governor-General of India]], the third [[Earl of Rosebery]], and the [[Duke of Somerset|Dukes of Somerset]].<ref name=parklane>'Park Lane', in ''Survey of London: volume 40: The Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings) (1980)'', [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42151#s29 pp. 264-289] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141102105232/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42151#s29 |date=2014-11-02 }}, accessed 15 November 2010</ref> In the 1