COMMUNICA | No.3
Mayfair is home to many luxury
fashion houses and iconic haute
couture shopping
A
t the very heart of the London borough of Westminster is Mayfair, one
of the city’s finest residential areas
and one of London’s most attractive
villages.
Whether you know it as the most expensive square
on the Monopoly board, or because in Ian Fleming’s
novels, it’s where James Bond bought his signature
triple-banded ‘Commander’ ‘Turkish’ blended cigarettes, Mayfair boasts considerable international
prestige as a destination for internationally rich and
famous.
It is also one of London’s most photographed districts partly because of its luxurious and spacious
Victorian and Edwardian town houses, demarcated
by black-painted railings and immaculately kept Rhododendron, Pansy and Azalea planter boxes.
Named after the annual ‘May Fair’, a popular event
held in the district’s Shepherd Market in the mid-tolate 18th Century, the area now boasts a world-fa
mous array of five star luxury hotels including
Claridge’s; The Art Deco chic rertreat famed for its
Houses frequently exchange
for prices in excess of £12m
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afternoon teas and its restaurant which was once
steared by Gordon Ramsay, the glitzy-signed Ritz
Hotel in Green Park and the Grosvenor House Hotel,
once the family home to the Duke of Westminster,
whose family’s name is Grosvenor.
From a retail perspective, its haute couture stores
include Fortnum and Mason and the famous Burlington Arcade – an airy, oak-window fronted and tiled
floored Victorian runway shopping arcade which runs
to Bond Street from Piccadilly through to Burlington
Gardens.
The arcade’s shops include luxury fashion brands
like Cartier, Rolex and Church’s. With people living
and working in the magnificent terraced and town
houses that frequently exchange for prices in excess
of £12m.
As a district, Mayfair is situated near Hyde Park Corner, to the South-West of Regent Street and Oxford
Street, encased by Green Park to the south and
Park Lane. Mayfair is also but a stone’s throw from
Buckingham Palace, Soho and Chinatown.
And on the edge of the district, sits the Embassy of
the United States of America in Grosvenor Square.
Some of history’s most influential characters have
also lived in the district; such as Benjamin Disraeli,
who lived in Curzon Street; Sir Robert Peel, who was
also responsible for the creation of the Metropolitan
Police Force; Prime Minister William Pitt the