36-523: Bond Street in the West End of London links Piccadilly in the south to Oxford Street in the north. 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. The street was built on fields surrounding Clarendon House on Piccadilly, which were developed by Sir Thomas Bond . It
72-404: 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
108-403: A Kabbalah Centre remains on the street. The Royal Arcade links Old Bond Street with Albemarle Street . It was originally proposed in 1864 as a longer link between Old Bond Street and Regent Street , but this plan was rejected because of the scale of proposed demolition and reduced access to existing properties. It was subsequently redesigned in its current layout, opening in 1879 and replacing
144-460: A consequence, though, the street has many times suffered from armed robbery , as robbers are attracted by the high value of the goods. The Graff Diamonds robbery in Bond Street in 2009 resulted in an estimated loss of £40 million. According to Westminster City Council , Bond Street has the highest density of haute couture stores anywhere in the world, attracting "the rich, the famous, and
180-564: A new flagship store on Old Bond Street. The street features Allies , a statue of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt , who are portrayed sitting in conversation on a park bench, sculpted by Lawrence Holofcener . The statue, popular with tourists, was erected by the Bond Street Association to commemorate 50 years since the end of World War II , and was unveiled in May 1995 by Princess Margaret . In 2013, maquettes of
216-402: A reputation as a fashionable place for shopping, including the flagship stores of Ralph Lauren and Cartier . Fenwick have had a department store on Bond Street since 1891. The Phillips building at No. 101 is still used for auctions; the company was bought in 2001 by Bonhams , who spent £30 million expanding and refurbishing the premises. In 2015, Valentino announced plans to build
252-549: A street for luxury shopping. The auctioneer Phillips was established in 1796 at No. 101 Bond Street, specialising in stringed instruments and sheet music. The jewellers Asprey originally opened in 1830 at Nos. 165–169 New Bond Street. Opposite Asprey was the luxury luggage and trunk maker Finnigans , originally established in Manchester in 1830. The house of Finnigans opened their New Bond Street shop in 1879. The Jewish practice of Kabbalah has been associated with
288-537: The City of London in the east, and the City of Westminster in the west. Over time they came to form the centre of modern London, although each kept its own distinct character and its separate legal identity (for example, the City of London has its own police force and is a distinct county ). The City of London became a centre for the banking, financial, legal and professional sectors, while Westminster became associated with
324-625: The City of Westminster wards is called " West End ". This electoral unit includes some of the most prosperous areas of the borough, including Soho , Mayfair and parts of southern Marylebone . The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 10,575. The West End is laid out with many notable public squares and circuses. London Underground stations in the West End include: 51°30′48″N 0°07′43″W / 51.51333°N 0.12861°W / 51.51333; -0.12861 Fox%E2%80%93North Coalition The Fox–North coalition
360-778: The 1948 film Bond Street is based on items purchased from shops in the street. In Susanna Clarke 's novel Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell , Bond Street is described as having "the most fashionable shops in all the kingdom". Bond Street is also a square on the British Monopoly board and is the most expensive of the green-coloured set that also includes Regent and Oxford Streets. The three streets are grouped together because of their shared retail history. Citations Sources Further reading 51°30′45″N 0°08′41″W / 51.5126°N 0.1448°W / 51.5126; -0.1448 West End of London The West End of London (commonly referred to as
396-485: The City around Holborn , Seven Dials , and Covent Garden contained poorer communities that were cleared and redeveloped in the 19th century. As the West End is a term used colloquially by Londoners and is not an official geographical or municipal definition, its exact constituent parts are up for debate. Westminster City Council 's 2005 report Vision for the West End included the following areas in its definition: Covent Garden , Soho , Chinatown , Leicester Square ,
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#1732773042186432-484: The Clarendon Hotel, which had been demolished in 1870. The Grosvenor Gallery opened on New Bond Street in 1877 by Sir Coutts Lindsay . It cost over £100,000 to build and included a restaurant and library downstairs, and two exhibition rooms upstairs. A negative review by John Ruskin of exhibits by James McNeill Whistler led to Whistler suing Ruskin for libel, winning a farthing in compensation. This case
468-642: 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 . This had caused him to lose his seat in Parliament, leading to the dissolution of the Fox–North Coalition . She insisted people should look for nearer shopping streets, and encouraged people to go to Bond Street. Consequently,
504-502: The West End ) is a district of Central London , London, England, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames , in which many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings and entertainment venues, including West End theatres , are concentrated. The term was first used in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross . The West End covers parts of
540-585: The bill as his enemy. The bill was defeated on 17 December 1783 and the King immediately dismissed the coalition. It was succeeded by a government formed by William Pitt the Younger . After being dismissed, Fox and North tried to force Pitt from power through defeat in the House of Commons, but he refused to resign. The response of opinion in the country, evidenced by petitions, resolutions of borough corporations and
576-530: The boroughs of Westminster and Camden . While the City of London is the main financial district in London, the West End is the main commercial and entertainment centre of the city. It is the largest central business district in the United Kingdom. It is one of the most expensive locations in the world in which to rent commercial and office space. Medieval London comprised two adjacent cities –
612-555: The coalition which contained both proponents and opponents of political reform. The British East India Company was in trouble; Fox proposed nationalising it, thus providing the government with a new source of appointments so that it could reward and maintain support. The East India Bill was introduced and passed in the Commons, but the King remained deeply opposed. He informed the House of Lords that he would regard any peer who voted for
648-658: The department store Fenwick and jeweller Tiffany's . It is one of the most expensive and sought after strips of real estate in the world. 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 0.5 miles (0.8 km) long. Many shop frontages are less than 20 feet (6 m) 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
684-525: 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
720-407: The districts falling within the West End are Mayfair , Soho , Covent Garden , Fitzrovia and Marylebone . By this definition, the West End borders Temple , Holborn and Bloomsbury to the east, Regent's Park to the north, Paddington , Hyde Park and Knightsbridge to the west, and Victoria and Westminster to the south. Other definitions include Bloomsbury within the West End. One of
756-451: 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
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#1732773042186792-411: The government of Lord Shelburne . They combined their forces in the House of Commons to throw out Shelburne's ministry and then form a government of their own. King George III despised the government, and Fox in particular, but found that no other ministry could be formed at this stage despite several offers to William Pitt the Younger . Consequently, the King declined to provide the government with
828-420: The leisure, shopping, commerce, and entertainment sectors, the government, and home to universities and embassies . The modern West End is closely associated with this area of central London. Lying to the west of the historic Roman and medieval City of London, the West End was long favoured by the rich elite as a place of residence because it was usually upwind of the smoke drifting from the crowded City. It
864-485: The normal tools of patronage , and it was forced to look elsewhere. The Treaty of Paris was signed during this government on 3 September 1783, formally ending the American Revolutionary War . The government also came under strain when, from the opposition, Pitt introduced a proposal for electoral reform to tackle bribery and rotten boroughs . The proposal did not pass, but caused tensions within
900-770: The sculpture (which are replicas, as Holofcener did not make any as part of the original artwork or design) were sold at Bonhams. Henry Moore has four sculptures engraved into the building work of no.153 (a Loro Piana branch), which he subsequently attempted to buy back when he felt no one noticed them. The construction of Crossrail , part of which runs between Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road stations, involved demolition of property in nearby Hanover Square , some of which backs onto New Bond Street. This affected Nos. 64–72, which required refurbishment. Bond Street has been mentioned in several works of literature, including Jane Austen 's novel Sense and Sensibility and Virginia Woolf 's 1925 novel Mrs Dalloway . The plot of
936-539: The shopping streets of Oxford Street , Regent Street and Bond Street , the area encompassing Trafalgar Square , the Strand and Aldwych , and the district known as Theatreland . The Edgware Road to the north-west and the Victoria Embankment to the south-east were also covered by the document but were treated as "adjacent areas" to the West End. According to Ed Glinert's West End Chronicles (2006)
972-486: The simply curious". The entire length of Bond Street has been part of the Mayfair Conservation Area controlled by Westminster City Council since 1969. Building alterations and constructions are tightly controlled to ensure the street's appearance and upkeep are unaltered. Many buildings are listed . The council regulates the style and materials used on shop front advertising. At one time, Bond Street
1008-413: The street after former East End trader Sarah Levenson opened a shop on No. 50 New Bond Street in 1856 which immediately became profitable, albeit through exaggerated and questionable product claims. Levenson was twice taken to court and prosecuted for fraud ; each prosecution resulted in a five-year prison sentence. She died midway through the second. Nevertheless, the practice regained popularity and
1044-597: 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. Lord Nelson stayed at temporary lodgings in New Bond Street between 1797 and 1798, as did his mistress Emma, Lady Hamilton between 1811 and 1813. Thomas Pitt, 2nd Baron Camelford lived in Bond Street and
1080-402: 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. 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 . There is evidence of Roman settlement around what is now Bond Street. In 1894,
1116-462: Was a government in Great Britain that held office during 1783. As the name suggests, the ministry was a coalition of the groups supporting Charles James Fox and Lord North . The official head was William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland , who took office on 2 April 1783. Fox was a Whig by background, and North came from the nominal Tory Party ; however, both had fallen out with
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1152-596: Was best known for top-end art dealers and antique shops that were clustered around the London office of Sotheby's auction house, which has been at Nos. 34–35 Bond Street since 1917, and the Fine Art Society , founded in 1876. The sculpture over the entrance to Sotheby's is from Ancient Egypt and is believed to date from around 1600 BC. It is the oldest outdoor sculpture in London. Some dealers and antique shops remain, but others are fashion boutiques or branches of global designer brands. The street still has
1188-425: 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
1224-500: Was close to the royal seat of power at the Palace of Westminster (now home to parliament ), and is largely contained within the City of Westminster (one of the 32 London boroughs ). Following initial development by Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans in the 1660s, during the late 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, it was built as a series of palaces, expensive town houses, fashionable shops and places of entertainment. The areas closest to
1260-636: Was satirised in Gilbert and Sullivan 's Patience , with the line, "greenery-yallery, Grosvenor Gallery". The street has maintained its reputation for luxury shopping into the 21st century, and has on occasion been regarded as the best retail location in Europe. In 2011, Bloomberg News reported that New Bond Street was the most expensive retail street in Europe after the Champs-Élysées in Paris . As
1296-554: Was unhappy about the presence of the Bond Street Loungers. Already notorious for a violent and abusive temper, on 7 October 1801 he refused invitations to join in celebrations of peace between Britain and France (which led to the Treaty of Amiens ), resulting in an altercation with several Loungers at his doorstep. Camelford retreated upstairs and fired upon the crowd with a pistol. During the 19th century, Bond Street became less known for its social atmosphere but increased its reputation as
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