T his is about a London street

that does not actually exist.

You won’t find it on any

accurate map. Put the name

into a Sat Nav and the

computer will be baffled,

offering you alternatives in

Harrow or Harrogate. Yet we all know this place,

not, perhaps, as a physical entity, but as a concept,

an elite construct. It is Bond Street in Mayfair.

Just a minute, you might say, of course it

exists. It’s the elder sibling of Rue du Faubourg-

Saint Honoré in Paris, the Via Condotti in Rome or

Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. ‘Bond Street’ is

a byword for ultra-luxury, a boulevard of achieved

dreams. It has been a convenient shorthand for

retail finery for over 300 years; yet it never actually

existed, because this is a street of two halves – the

LUXURY ROW

Bond Street in london haS long Been aSSociated with Beauty, Splendour and excluSivity. RobeRt Ryan recountS a hiStory

aS colourful aS the characterS that it haS attracted

photography Dan Burn-Forti

old and the new. And even the new is quite old.

New Bond Steet runs south from Oxford

Street to Conduit Street, where it narrows, and

then at Burlington Gardens changes its name, and

for the last 200 metres becomes Old Bond Street.

There is no section just called ‘Bond Street’ –

except on the Monopoly board, where, just like

in real life, it attracts the highest prices and best

rents, and is also the name of the local tube

station. So how did this dichotomy come about?

The answer lies back in the days when

Mayfair was a patchwork of green fields, and site

of the annual fortnight-long May Fair, which was

held in the area until the late 18th century. But

even before the fair decamped to Bow (it was

thought it lowered the tone of the up-and-coming

neighbourhood), Mayfair was being targeted by

property speculators. Chief among them, in the

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early 1680s, was wily Sir Thomas Bond, whose

family motto, ‘Orbis non sufficit’ – The World is

Not Enough – was borrowed by Eon Productions

for the title of a James Bond movie. In fact, in the

novel of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, it is

suggested to 007 that he might be the heir to the

street that bears his name. He declines to pursue

the genealogical maze, being rather busy saving

Western civilization.

It was Bond (the original one, not 007)

who developed Old Bond Street between

Piccadilly and Burlington Gardens. He then ran

into a small problem: the rest of the land was

owned by the City of London – and they were not

selling. Then Bond died in 1685 and one of his

fellow developers went bankrupt, driving work to

a standstill. A Mayfair building boom in the 1720s

reinvigorated the project, and, with the land now

Sparkling hiStory Graff recently re-opened its flagship store on Bond Street, opening page, which was redesigned with a contemporary and luxurious interior, right. The iconic street, circa 1925, opposite, top. Nineteenth century dandy Beau Brummell frequented Bond Street, opposite, bottom, while 20th century icon Ingrid Bergman, below (in 1957), also shopped there

grotesques, called High Change in Bond Street,

ou La Politesse de Grande Monde. Note that he,

too, used the street name without a prefix: it was

already a state of mind.

The following year Lord Nelson moved

in – shopkeepers let out apartments on the

upper floors – and he lived in two places, hence

the brace of blue plaques on the west side of the

street. His mistress, Lady Emma Hamilton, was

also lodged at two addresses on the street for

a time, hence the claim that Nelson lived at four

addresses. Other famous residents included

William Pitt the Elder, James Boswell (famous

for his Bond Street literary soirées) and Henry

Fielding, who wrote part of the rollicking Tom

Jones there, perhaps inspired by the upmarket

brothels that once populated the area.

It helped the street’s reputation no end

that the window shoppers included nobility and

royalty. Beau Brummell’s friend, the Prince of

Wales (George VI), was a regular in the late 18th

century and a subsequent Prince of Wales

(Edward VII) patronised Madame Charbonnel’s

(est 1874) chocolate shop – Charbonnel et Walker

is still on Old Bond Street, at 28. That shop is at

the entrance of The Royal Arcade, which added

the ‘Royal’ prefix when none other than Queen

Victoria came shopping there in 1882, marking

the end of her long mourning for Albert.

In the Hound of the Baskervilles, originally

serialised in The Strand Magazine from 1901-2,

Arthur Conan Doyle has Holmes saying: ‘And now,

Watson, …we will drop into one of the Bond Street

picture galleries and fill in the time until we are

due at the hotel.’

Today the picture galleries are still there.

Not quite as many as in Doyle’s day, but the street

still features many prestigious galleries specialising

in a wide range of genres from fine art to modern

and contemporary. And, of course, the auction

houses Sotheby’s (est 1744, but in the street at

34-35 since ‘only’ 1917) and Bonham’s both have a

strong presence.

Then there is the public art. The

Time & Life Building (now containing Hermès)

actually has a Bruton Street address – No 1 – but

its main façade faces onto New Bond Street. On

that side, quite elevated, is a panel of four abstract

pieces by sculptor Henry Moore, put there in 1953.

Created from Portland stone in his garden, it is

alleged that Moore offered to buy them back,

sold by the City of London, the road – the only

thoroughfare to link Piccadilly and Oxford Street

– was finally finished, the second phase being

christened New Bond Street. So New Bond Street

is new in the sense that the New Forest (est 1079)

is: it was new, once.

So why did it become so fashionable?

Well, promenading and shop gazing were just as

much a pastime back then as they are today.

Regency dandies such as Beau Brummell would

use the street to display their latest outfits – there

was even a particular kind of peacock swagger

they affected, called the Bond Street Roll.

By 1796, James Gillray was caricaturing

the fashionable fops (known as Bond Street

Loungers) and style-makers of their day – big

feather plumes on large hats were all the rage for

young women, it appears – with a cartoon of corbis/a

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promenading and shop gazing were just as much a pastime then as they are on the street today. regency dandies would use the street to display their latest outfits

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because he thought the third floor was too high

for them to be appreciated properly. Rather easier

to see, and touch, is the nearby Allies, which shows

Churchill and Roosevelt sitting on a bench, chatting

like old friends. The work, by American Lawrence

Holofcener, was unveiled in 1995 by Princess

Margaret, to mark 50 years of peace in Europe.

Allies is hugely popular with passers-by

– there always seem to be someone having their

photograph taken with the great men – but few

latter-day loungers will notice the effigy of

Sekhmet, the lion-goddess, over the door of

Sotheby’s. The black basalt animal, which dates

back to about 1320 BC, has been a Sotheby’s

mascot since 1880, when it was sold for £40 but

never collected by the buyer. It is believed to

be the oldest outdoor statue in London. So

Mr Holmes would still find plenty to distract

him for an afternoon.

But, let’s face it, the chances are you

are not in Bond Street just for art. You are unlikely

to be there for the architecture, which is not its

strong suit and, although there are some lovely

buildings, the street as a whole is not particularly

harmonious. No, the thing here, as it has always

been, is the exclusive shops themselves, and

particularly the interiors. A store on Bond Street is

a global flagship for a brand, a window for the

world. Which is why Graff Diamonds has had

a flagship store on New Bond Street since 1993.

Graff has recently re-opened its Bond

Street doors, to reveal a newly redesigned and

expanded store. It is exciting to see the London

Whitbed Portland stone floral relief pattern around

the entrance, a less abstract echo of Moore’s work

on the Time & Life Building. The double door

features Graff’s signature fishscale motif,

characteristic of Graff stores worldwide. And the

window displays, featuring macassar ebony

showcases set within large bronze windows, of

course, dazzle – as you would expect from Graff

Diamonds – but it is the interior that takes the

breath away.

Designed with a contemporary but

luxurious direction by Graff’s own Monaco-based

interior design team, stylistic influences from Graff

grand interior Graff’s renewed Bond Street flagship store, now extending over four floors, has fine marble underfoot, lacquered walnut walls and stitched leather viewing desks

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stores around the world have been referenced

with striking new design elements. Spread over

four floors, it is the lofty height of the ceilings, the

lacquered European walnut panels, the marble

underfoot, the stitched leather desks and the

bronze panels (which slide back to reveal small

private viewing spaces) which impress and

complement the beautiful space. This classic-

contemporary style suggests effortless opulence;

in fact the main salon feels less like a retail

environment and more like the lounge of the

grandest six-star hotel you have never heard of.

There is even an in-store museum, showcasing

replicas of some of the many ultra rare and historic

diamonds that have passed through the company.

The newly re-opened Graff store adds an

even greater dimension to both New Bond Street

and to the mythical ‘Bond Street’; which, after all,

is a byword for dreams, beauty, exclusivity, and

the ultimate in luxury. Here is to another 300 years

and more for all three streets – Old, New and just

plain Bond – and the exclusive stores that make

them so special.

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