Bond Street, Central London
Since the 18th century the street has housed many prestigious and upmarket fashion retailers. The southern section is Old Bond Street and the longer northern section New Bond Street—a distinction not generally made in everyday usage.
Bond Street in the West End of London links Piccadilly in the south to Oxford Street in the north. Bond Street links Oxford Street and Piccadilly. Old Bond Street is at the southern end between Piccadilly and Burlington Gardens. The northern section, New Bond Street, extends to Oxford Street. The entire street is around 800 m long. Many shop frontages are less than 6 metres wide.
The nearest tube stations are Green Park on Piccadilly, and Bond Street station on Oxford Street. Bond Street station does not directly connect to either New or Old Bond Street. No buses use the street, although the 22 service crosses New Bond Street. Part of New Bond Street is numbered B406 but the remainder and all of Old Bond Street is unclassified.[5] New Bond Street is pedestrianised between Grafton Street and Clifford Street to prevent through traffic and to stop the road being used as a rat run.
Plan and Book:
Bond Street
The street was built on fields surrounding Clarendon House on Piccadilly, which were developed by Sir Thomas Bond. It was built up in the 1720s, and by the end of the 18th century was a popular place for the upper-class residents of Mayfair to socialise. Prestigious or expensive shops were established along the street, but it declined as a centre of social activity in the 19th century, although it held its reputation as a fashionable place for retail, and is home to the auction houses Sotheby's and Bonhams (formerly Phillips) and the department store Fenwick and jeweller Tiffany's. It is one of the most expensive and sought after strips of real estate in Europe.
Bond Street: Brief History
There is evidence of Roman settlement around what is now Bond Street. In 1894, a culvert made from brick and stone was discovered in the area. The street was named after 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 1686, and proceeded to demolish the house and develop the area. At that time, the house backed onto open fields, known as Albemarle Ground, and the development of estates in Mayfair had just begun.
New Bond Street was laid out during the second phase of construction 14 years after Bond's syndicate began developing the area. Most of the building along the street occurred in the 1720s, on what was the Conduit Mead Estate. John Rocque's map of London, published in 1746, shows properties along the entire length of Bond Street, including the fully constructed side streets. The two parts of the street have always had separate names, and a plan by the council to merge the two into a singular "Bond Street" in the 1920s was rejected by locals.
During the 18th century, the street began to be popular with the bourgeoisie living around Mayfair. Shop owners let out their upper storeys for residential purposes, attracting lodgers such as Jonathan Swift, George Selwyn, William Pitt the Elder and Laurence Sterne. In 1784, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, an active socialite, demanded that people boycott Covent Garden as its residents had voted against Whig member of parliament Charles James Fox. TShe insisted people should look for nearer shopping streets, and encouraged people to go to Bond Street. Consequently, the street became a retail area for people living in Mayfair. By the end of the century, an upper-class social group known as the Bond Street Loungers had appeared, wearing expensive wigs and parading up and down the street in a pretentious manner.
During the 19th century, Bond Street became less known for its social atmosphere but increased its reputation as a street for luxury shopping. The street has maintained its reputation for luxury shopping into the 21st century, and has on occasion been egarded as the best retail location in Europe.