Introduction
May Day, with its traditional cavorting in the woods (as in Lerner and Lowe’s “The Lusty Month of May” from their musical Camelot), is universally recognized among Christian peoples as the most licentious of celebrations. Therefore, it follows that a fair created to celebrate May Day would be tarred with the same brush. What might have required a major stretch of credulity for those familiar with London’s May Fair was the thought that the neighborhood surrounding the fair would one day evolve into one of the most exclusive of London’s communities, both in its shops and in its residential accommodations. Yet, such was to be the case.The May Day festivals that had been part of medieval life were moved by Charles II from Haymarket to the west side (May Fair) in 1686, where it remained for nearly eighty years until 1764, when it was moved to Fair Field in eastern London. The May Fair celebration was shut down in 1709 because of complaints about the boisterousness of the crowds. By that time, May Fair (Mayfair) was no longer pasture land, but was on its way toward becoming a major residential area. The fair lasted in Fair Field only until the 1820s, when it was closed down permanently for the same reasons it had been so popular/unpopular before.Because of its location, squeezed in between Hyde Park on the west and St. James on the east, land speculators were eager to move into the area. Much of the development of Mayfair took place during the 1700s with the development of the Grosvenor (pronounced grove-ner) properties— Grosvenor Square, the centerpiece of the estate, being laid out in 1740. Burlington House and Burlington Arcade were added, as was Berkeley (pronounced bar-clee) Square.One of the major objectives of Regent Street (see the Regent’s Park walk) was to separate “the Streets and Squares occupied by the Nobility and Gentry” (Mayfair) from “the narrow Streets and meaner houses occupied by mechanics and the trading part of the community” (Soho).Several changes occurred in the twentieth century. After World War II, office space was needed due to the heavy bombing in the city. To provide for this, temporary office permits were issued in the Mayfair area, good until 1990. As a consequence, many of the residents moved elsewhere. All along Park Lane (the western boundary of Mayfair), where grand houses used to face toward Hyde Park, modern luxury hotels and office buildings have replaced them.
#1 Start: Oxford Circus to Regent Street
Begin this walk at Oxford Circus. You can get there either by the #12 bus or the Central Line underground. If you take the tube, come out at the #2 exit. Proceed down the left side of Regent Street, going south.Oxford Circus is one of two major intersections (Piccadilly Circus being the other) designed by John Nash as part of his major plan to connect Regent’s Park with the St. James’ Park area (see Regent’s Park walk). Oxford Street, which intersects with Regent Street, is one of the busiest major upscale shopping areas of the world, stretching from Marble Arch on the west to Tottenham Court on the east. When you have more time during your London stay, you ought to take a day to walk Oxford Street. Before entering Mayfair proper, we will take a brief detour on the east side of Regent’s Street.
#2 Great Malborough Street to Carnaby Street
Turn left onto Great Marlborough Street, and then right onto Carnaby Street.Carnaby Street was the place for youth to congregate in the swinging ‘60s. Not only was it the home of the “punkers” (with their outlandish spiky colored hairdos and punk rock), and the “skinheads “(with their shaved heads and black leather outfits), but it was also the center of progressive fashion and culture. Carnaby Street was the “in” place to be. Sadly, it deteriorated into tacky souvenir shops in the 1970s and 80s, and the youth culture moved to King’s Road in Chelsea. In the past few years, however, Carnaby has witnessed a renaissance of sorts with the arrival of trendy cafes and major brand designer outlets, while remaining as something of a shrine to the 1960s.
#3 Beak Street to Regent Street
Go the length of Carnaby Street, turn right on Beak Street, and return to Regent Street.Between Great Marlborough Street, where you exited Regent Street, and Beak Street, where you reentered, is Hamley’s—seven stories of pure ecstasy for children. This 250-year-old toy store is the largest shop of this genre in London. One of its most satisfying features is the fact that many of the toys on display can be tried out on the spot. For the young-at-heart this is also a must-see, when you have more time.
#4 Piccadilly
Cross over Regent Street at the nearest opportunity, continue straight ahead and turn right at Vigo Street and left at Sackville Street to Piccadilly street. Turn right at Piccadilly.Directly across the street is St. James’ Church. This is reputed to have been Christopher Wren’s favorite among his many churches. It was the most fashionable of London churches in the early 1700s. That is why it is also recognizable as a model for many of the early American churches in New England. (Three of its rectors became archbishops of Canterbury.) Now it is better known for its crafts market in the front courtyard, and for its pro-active liberal political and social agenda. It is also a good place to get a light noon meal.Farther down the road, across from the Royal Academy of Art, is Fortnum and Mason. Founded about 1770 by Charles Fortnum, one of the footmen in the household of George III, this is one of London’s most luxurious stores (as is evident in the frock coats and formal wear of its attendants). I highly recommend an extended inspection, especially for specialty goods. In the store, there are three restaurants. One of their specialties is an excellent high tea (mid-afternoon lunch to us) which is served in its informal Soda Fountain Restaurant—a favorite London meeting spot. The mechanical clock that graces the entrance in the front dates back to 1964.
#5 Royal Academy of Art
Walk Piccadilly to the Royal Academy of Arts and turn in the courtyard for a quick look around.As the name of the street suggests, you are just down the road southwest from Piccadilly Circus.The statue in the center of the courtyard is that of Joshua Reynolds, the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts.The academy was founded in 1768 to promote the development of British painting, sculpture, and architecture. Its two-fold goal was 1) to provide a place to exhibit British painters in a grand summer exhibition, and 2) to initiate a school for training painters. For over a century it controlled most of what was done by British painters. Though its influence has diminished considerably from what it was during the first century of its existence, the Royal Academy still functions and every summer sponsors a major art exhibit of British painters. The Royal Academy of Arts has been housed at Burlington House, the former residence of the Third Earl of Burlington, since 1868. It is administrated by a group of academicians, who must contribute one of their major paintings (called a diploma piece) upon becoming an RA (member of the Royal Academy). These are available to the public only while taking an official tour of the holdings, so you might come back later and inquire regarding such a tour.The Burlington House complex is also the home of several other learned societies on its east and west wings: the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Geological Society, the Linnean Society (all branches of natural history), the Royal Astronomical Society, and the Society of Antiquaries of London. In the Geological Society is “the map that changed the world”—one of the oldest topographic maps in existence. Admission to these rooms is gained only from introduction by fellows of these societies.
#6 Burlington Arcade
Come back out to Piccadilly, turn right, and right again into the Burlington ArcadeLegend has it that Lord Cavendish, then-owner of Burlington House, had this covered passage, known as Burlington Arcade, built in 1818 to keep passers-by from throwing rubbish (seldom ever do Brits use the term garbage) into his garden while passing. Cavendish himself denied this, insisting that its creation was a philanthropic venture designed to provide employment for respectable “industrious females.” Respectability is enforced by the presence of a Beadle (you will recognize him by his top hat and frock coat), a carryover from the days of Lord Cavendish, who makes certain that the “rules” of the arcade are enforced: no running, no bicycles, no opening of umbrellas, no singing, no spitting, nor other forms of “unseemly behavior.”
#7 Old Bond Street
Move through Burlington Arcade and exit the other end. Turn left at Burlington Gardens and left again onto Old Bond Street.Laid out in 1668, Bond Street (New and Old) forms the eastern boundary of Mayfair. The famous art auction house, Sotheby’s—founded in 1774, is to your right at #34.
#8 Royal Arcade to Abemarle Street
Turn right at the Royal Arcade, pass through the arcade, and turn left onto Abemarle Street. Follow Abemarle Street back to Piccadilly. Turn right onto Piccadilly.Note carefully the architecture of the Royal Arcade, which dates back to Victorian time. As you walk down Piccadilly, the park to your left is Green Park, which attaches to Buckingham Palace, so you can see how important the property is.
#9 Albemarle to Piccadilly
Proceed down Piccadilly until you get to Half Moon Street and turn right onto that road, which culminates in Curzon Street.Half Moon Street was made famous in fiction as the fictitious home of Jeeves in P.G. Wodehouse’s novels. If the name is unfamiliar to you, Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (pronounced wood house) was one of the most prolific British novelists of recent times, and probably the longest published. His first novel is dated 1901, and he wrote until his death at ninety-three in 1975. His urbane character Jeeves, the butler of Bootie Wooster, is known worldwide as the consummate gentleman’s gentleman.
#10 Curzon Street to Shepherd Market
Turn left onto Curzon Street and look for a mall to your left. Enter and go through the mall to Shepherd Market.Shepherd Market is the original site of the May Fair—the “chiefest nursery of evil” according to the aristocratic neighbors—from whence comes the name Mayfair. The market area currently houses little boutique shops, restaurants, and pubs. It's a respite from the clatter and whirl of nearby Piccadilly and Oxford Street.
#11 Chesterfield Street
Pass through the market. Go right on Shepherd Street to Trebeck Street, turn right and return to Curzon Street. Turn left and proceed to Chesterfield Street. Turn right and go through Chesterfield Street.On Chesterfield Street look for the blue plaque indicating where Beau Brummel lived at #4. Brummel, known as a dandy and gambler, was a close friend of the Regent (George IV) and the fashion trendsetter during the Regency period. Two movies and a play have been made with Beau Brummel as the subject—a 1924 silent movie starring John Barrymore and a 1954 movie (with a video release in 1993) starring Stewart Granger, Elizabeth Taylor, and Peter Ustinov. Edward Elgar wrote the incidental music for a 1924 play on Brummel’s life. Elgar, who formerly appeared on the back of the £20 note (now great for collectors, but no longer legal tender), is the famed composer of “Pomp and Circumstance”—known more popularly in Britain as “Land of Hope and Glory,” an anthem sung at almost every important public gathering.There is also a blue plaque on the street for Somerset Maugham (pronounced mom), one of Britain’s most famous twentieth-century novelists. Maugham, a doctor turned writer, is the author of such well known works as Of Human Bondage, the Moon and Sixpence, and the Razor’s Edge. His short story “Rain” has been made into a movie three times, with such famous actresses as Gloria Swanson, Joan Crawford, and Rita Hayworth playing the leading role of Sadie.
#12 Charles Street to Berkeley Square
At the end of Chesterfield Street, turn right on Charles Street. Move along Charles Street until you come to Berkeley Square. When you reach Davies Street at the end of Charles Street, turn to your left and walk parallel to Berkeley Square, with the square on your right.At the intersection where you turn right, look across the road and to your left. The blue plaque that you see there designates the home of the Duke of Clarence, later to become King William IV.Berkeley Square was part of the extensive building program carried out in the eighteenth century, circa 1739, which accounts for the many three-storied Georgian houses in the area. It was once one of the most aristocratic squares in London. Because of the preservation of the neighborhood, it has often been used by the filming industry to do period-drama television. There was also a 1998 television series entitled “Berkeley Square” filmed here.Originally, there were thirty-two houses surrounding the square, but it proved to be one of the less-popular lands for real estate speculation, and it was not until the early nineteenth century that all of the homes were sold, and not until 1960 that it emerged again as one of the upscale neighborhoods. In the center of the square, there is a nice garden that attracts birds—perhaps giving rise to the popular World War I song, “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.” The pole trees in the park are reputed to be the oldest of their kind in London, dating to 1789. The statue in the square of a semi-draped nymph carrying a vase from which water flows was sculpted in 1858 by Alexander Munro, a Pre-Raphaelite sculptor.
#13 Mount Street
When you come to Mount Street, turn left and move along that road until you come to Mount Street Gardens on your left. Enter Mount Street Gardens and make your way through the gardens, turning right at the fountain, and walk until you come out at South Audley Street.Mount Street is one of the best areas of London to view this particular style of pink terra cotta architecture, dating to the 1890s. It is also the home of celebrity hairdressers. The church with its back inside the gardens (and its front on Farm Street) is the Church of the Immaculate Conception, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Jesuit Order in London.
#14 South Audley to Grosvenor Square
Go up South Audley Street to Grosvenor Square.Grosvenor Square, the third largest square in London (six acres), was laid out in 1725 on the site of St. Oliver’s Mount, an earthworks thrown up by the Parliamentary forces in 1643 to resist Charles I on his approach to London. The eighteenth-century square was designed to be the centerpiece of the Grosvenor estate.Grosvenor Square has been associated with America since John Adams (the second president of the United States) resided at the house standing at the corner of Brook and Duke Streets while he served as the first US Ambassador to the Court of St. James from 1785–88. A plaque marks the house today. The square was, until more recent times, the home of the US Embassy, designed by Eero Saarinen (who also designed the St. Louis Arch in the US). Constructed in 1957–58, it was the only American Embassy in the world not owned by the US.As embassies are, with increasing frequency, the site of terrorist attacks, the decision was made (during George W. Bush's administration) to build a new US Embassy in the Nine Elms area of London. The new building, both architecturally stunning and environmentally friendly, also employs a high tech security system designed to provide maximum protection in an unstable world. (Meanwhile, the old embassy building, purchased by an investment group, is being remodeled into a luxury hotel.)World War I helped to improve relations between the US and the UK, and the second World War cemented that relationship. In 1946, the Brits decided to erect a statue of Franklin Roosevelt, their World War II ally. To raise money, a souvenir brochure was published and offered for sale at five shillings. Within six days, better than 160,000 requests were received, more than covering the cost. In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the former President, unveiled the statue before an audience that included the Royal Family, then (now former) Prime Minister Clement Attlee, and former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, a close ally and friend of Roosevelt’s throughout World War II.In 1986, a monument to the Eagle Squadron was erected by the Hearst Corporation (the American Bald Eagle atop the white Portland marble tapered shaft). The first Eagle Squadron in 1940 was composed of young American pilots who had opted to join the British Air Force during the early years of World War II, before America had officially declared war. The inscription on the monument reads, "They came not as warriors in search of conflict, but rather as crusaders in the cause of liberty. They became brothers in arms to their British colleagues. . . ." The Dwight D. Eisenhower statue was erected in January 1989 as a gift from the residents of Kansas City, Missouri (the region from whence Eisenhower had come). The memorial was unveiled by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and then US Ambassador Charles Price (who was also from Kansas City). It stands just across the street from where General Dwight Eisenhower (Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces, and later Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force) lived during World War II. Two quotes from Eisenhower appear on the back of the statue "Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: You are about to embark upon a great crusade . . . the hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you" (Order of the Day, 6 June 1944). "The faith we hold belongs not to us alone but to the free of all the world" (First Inaugural Address, 20 January 1953).
#15 The End: Return to the BYU Centre
Cut across the square diagonally to Duke Street, turn left and follow this back to Oxford Street. Turn right on Oxford to the Bond Street underground station, where you can catch a Central Line underground back to the BYU Centre.As you come out of Duke Street, immediately across Oxford Street is Selfridges —the second largest department store in London (after Harrods), fronting the entire block. Founded in 1909 by American Gordon Selfridge, its roof originally was the scene of a golf range, a dance floor, and an ice rink. One of the store’s major attractions was an American-style soda fountain, which was used until the 1950s. It continues to be one of the major tourist meccas in London—estimated to draw seventeen million visitors a year in search of such varied goods and services as clothing, furniture, household appliances, restaurants, a hair salon, a pharmacy, and a ticket agency. Its Christmas decorations are among the finest on Oxford Street, should you happen to be in London in early December.While you are on Oxford Street, you may want to look in some of the stores along the road and do a little window shopping yourself before catching the tube back from the Bond Street station to the BYU Centre. Bond Street, just under a mile in length, connects Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch and is the shopping mecca of London, visited weekly by approximately four million people. You will walk the entire length of Bond Street in the last (Farewell) walk. If you take a #12 bus home, be sure you catch it on the Selfridge side of the road.
#16 Other Places to Visit Nearby When You Have Time
The Wallace CollectionTake the tube or #12 bus to Bond Street underground station. Cross to the north side of Oxford Street, and go west (toward, but not to, Selfridges) on Oxford Street to Duke Street. Turn right onto Duke Street and go to Manchester Square. Hertford House, which contains the Wallace Collection, is on the other side of Manchester Square.Just two blocks behind Selfridges is another one of London’s major art treasures: the Wallace Collection. This private collection, one of London’s finest, is the result of four generations of connoisseurs, each with an extremely keen eye for art, and the money to purchase what he liked. Interestingly, the family line of this group traces back to Edward Seymour, Lord Protector of England upon the death of Henry VIII, and the brother of Jane Seymour, Henry’s third wife.Two of Seymour’s descendants, the Third and Fourth Marquesses of Hertford, began by collecting primarily eighteenth-century French art and Dutch painting. Later, the Fourth Marquess, one of the richest men in Europe and a close personal friend of Napoleon III, began including early nineteenth century French and English masters along with furniture, porcelain, and other objects of exquisite craftsmanship dating to the time of Louis XVI. In the last decade of his life, the Fourth Marquess added Oriental arms and armor.Richard, the illegitimate son of the Fourth Marquess, adopted the maiden name of his mother, and the family name of Wallace was thereby given to the collection. It was this Richard Wallace who took up residence in London in 1872, bringing with him the family’s art treasure and adding medieval and Renaissance dimensions. Before his collection was completed, he had acquired the holdings of three other major art collections, including one having belonged to Napoleon III’s director of fine arts.The construction of Hertford House, in which this art treasure is housed, was begun as Manchester House, in the same year as the American Revolution and it was finished twelve years later (1776–88). Nine years after that, the Second Marquess of Hertford purchased the house, and changed its name from Manchester House to Hertford House. For fourteen years (1836–50), it was leased to the French Embassy, who would have felt very much at home living amid this dominantly French collection. In 1850, the Fourth Marquess began using it for purposes of storing his ever-growing collection, and in 1887–90 it was converted into a public museum. In 1890, Sir Richard bequeathed all his property to his wife Lady Wallace, who in turn donated the house and all of its contents to the nation upon her death (1897), with the stipulation that nothing be either added to, or sold from, the collection. So in that sense, the collection is frozen in time.The gallery remains a must-see for anyone with an interest in European art before the end of the nineteenth century. Although Hertford House has a separate art gallery (containing nearly seventy paintings), much of the art is tastefully placed throughout the house among the elegant furniture, clocks, porcelain, and statuary. You might want to save this one for a rainy day. I recommend you spend at least half a day with this collection.
