Bond Street

The Royal Arcade on Old Bond Street.

Bond Street is the only street that runs between Oxford Street and Piccadilly in the West End of London. The street, consisting of two sections, has been a fashionable shopping street since the 18th century and is the home of many fashion shops that sell expensive items. The southern section is known as Old Bond Street and the longer northern section is known as New Bond Street—this distinction, however, is not generally made in everyday usage. Bond Street is one of the most expensive strips of real estate in the world^[1] and, in 2010, it was Europe's most expensive retail location.^[2]

History

In High-Change in Bond Street (1796), James Gillray caricatured the lack of courtesy on Bond Street (young men taking up the whole footpath), which was a grand fashionable milieu at the time.

Bond Street is 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 1683, and proceeded to demolish the house and develop the area. At that time, the house backed onto open fields and the development of various estates in Mayfair had just commenced.^[3]

The street predominantly runs 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. New Bond Street was added during a second phase of construction 40 years after Bond's syndicate first began developing the area.^[4] John Rocque's map of London, published in 1746, shows the entire length of Bond Street, including the fully constructed side streets.

In 2010 rental rates on the street rose 19.4 per cent from the year before.^[2]

Streetscape

New Bond Street

At one time, Bond Street 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 in Bond Street for over one hundred years—and the Fine Art Society, founded in 1876. A few of these dealers and antique shops remain, but many of the shops became occupied by fashion boutiques, some of which are branches of global designer brands,^[5] such as the flagship stores for Ralph Lauren and Cartier.

The street features "Allies",^[6] a statue of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who are portrayed sitting on a park bench in conversation, sculpted by Lawrence Holofcener. The statue, popular with tourists, was unveiled in May 1995 and was erected by the Bond Street Association to commemorate 50 years since the end of World War II.^[7]

In popular culture and references

Bond Street has been mentioned in a numerous works of literature, including Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility, Virginia Woolf's 1925 novel Mrs Dalloway and Suzanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. 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.

For his first appearance on This Is Your Life, Rolf Harris was unexpectedly stopped on Bond Street by the host, Eamonn Andrews, in December 1971.^[8]

See also

• Bond Street (film)
• Graff Diamonds robbery

References

• London's Mansions by David Pearce (1986). ISBN 0-7134-8702-X. (Development details.)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bond Street.

• Official website
• Bond Street at DMOZ

Coordinates: 51°30′45″N 0°08′41″W / 51.5126°N 0.1448°W / 51.5126; -0.1448