- Bond Street
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For other uses, see Bond Street (disambiguation).
The Royal Arcade on Old Bond Street
Bond Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London that runs north-south through Mayfair between Oxford Street and Piccadilly. It has been a fashionable shopping street since the 18th century and is currently the home of many high price fashion shops. The southern section is known as Old Bond Street, and the northern section, which is rather more than half the total length, is known as New Bond Street. This distinction, however, is not generally made in everyday usage. It is one of the most expensive strip of real estate in the world[1].
Contents
History
In High-Change in Bond Street (1796), James Gillray caricatured the lack of courtesy on Bond Street, which was a grand fashionable milieu at the time.Bond Street takes its name from Sir Thomas Bond, the head of a syndicate of developers who purchased a Piccadilly mansion called Clarendon House from Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle in 1683 and proceeded to demolish the house and develop the area. They also built nearby Dover Street and Albemarle Street. At that time the house backed onto open fields and the development of the various estates in Mayfair was just getting underway. It moved predominantly from south to north, which accounts for the southern part of the street being "Old" Bond Street, and the Northern half being "New" Bond Street, the latter being added in a second phase as London continued to grow. John Rocque's map of London published in 1746 shows the whole length of Bond Street and all its side streets fully built up.
Current streetscape
New Bond StreetAt one time Bond Street was best known for top end art dealers and antique shops, clustered around the London office of Sotheby's auction house, which has been in Bond Street for over a hundred years, and of the Fine Art Society, present on the street since its foundation in 1876. A few of these remain, but most of the shops are now occupied by fashion boutiques, including branches of most of the leading premium priced designer brands in the world. There are also a few miscellaneous upmarket shops such as jewellers. The street features "Allies", an unusual statue by Lawrence Holofcener of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who are portrayed sitting on a park bench in conversation.
Shops currently located on Bond Street include Armani, Louis Vuitton, Graff Diamonds, Cartier, Dolce & Gabanna, Tiffany & Co., Hermes, Polo Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Prada, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Burberry, DKNY, Ermenegildo Zegna, Yves Saint Laurent, Bulgari, Harry Winston, Dior, Anya Hindmarch, Jimmy Choo, Chopard, Mulberry, Longchamp, Anne Fontaine, Calvin Klein, Alexander Mcqueen and Miu Miu.
In recent years Sloane Street, which is a mile or so away in Knightsbridge, the other main shopping district in central London, has become a rival to Bond Street, with duplicate branches of many of the top boutiques.
Bond Street is mentioned in a number of works of literature, including Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility and Virginia Woolf's 1925 novel Mrs Dalloway. It is also a square on the British Monopoly board, the same colour as Regent and Oxford Streets – green – and is the most expensive of the three.
In 2010, Bond Street was Europe's most expensive retail location. Rent rates rose 19.4% from the year before.[2]
See also
- Bond Street (film)
- Graff Diamonds robbery
- List of upscale shopping districts
- List of eponymous roads in London
References
- London's Mansions by David Pearce (1986). ISBN 0-7134-8702-X. (Development details.)
- ^ http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/executive-lifestyle/retail-rents-in-sydneys-pitt-st-mall-are-higher-than-luxury-shopping-strips-the-champs-elysees-and-londons-bond-street/story-e6frg9zo-1226127259264
- ^ http://www.costar.co.uk/en/assets/news/2011/August/Cushman-Bond-Street-loses-top-retail-location-in-Europe-tag/
External links
Categories:- Shopping streets in London
- Streets in Westminster
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