Bond Street

BOND STREET

One of the main stories to recently hit the British press outside of the ‘hung parliament’ resulting from the UK General Election on May the Sixth, concerns the start of the trial in relation to Britain’s biggest ever jewellery robbery. Nine defendants are all charged in connection with the £40 million jewellery heist on New Bond Street in London’s West End. The De Graff heist took place in August 2009 when a gang forced an employee to fill a bag with watches, earrings and necklaces at gunpoint. The proprietors of Bond Street’s luxury high-end retail stores are no strangers to robberies, but this raid was particularly well orchestrated with raiders hiring a professional make-up artist to disguise their looks. A high level of violence was involved and the trial is likely to last for two months.

How Bond Street became and remains one of London’s most exclusive shopping streets is an interesting story. Nowadays Regent Street is considered the easterly boundary of Mayfair, but traditionally it was Bond Street, which stretches from Oxford Street in the north to Piccadilly in the south. Requesting “Bond Street” to a taxi driver will invariably be met with the reply, “Old or New?” The one seamlessly turns into the other for pedestrians, but taxis and all other vehicles cannot drive through, an enduring reminder of their separate origins.

Old Bond Street was laid out by the seventeenth century financier, Sir Thomas Bond, in 1686, as London expanded to the four compass points in the decades after The Great Fire of London and The Great Plague. It very early acquired a reputation as a luxury shopping area and with its popularity, it was decided to extend the street. The Earl of Oxford, who owned much land in the area, raised funds for the creation of New Bond Street, which was completed in the 1720’s, cementing the shift of luxury shopping from The City to the West End.

Just as groups of youths lounge around shopping malls today, Bond Street had its eighteenth century equivalent, although typically for the area these were not casual hoodies, but the dandy offspring of Mayfair’s wealthiest subjects. Known as the ‘Bond Street Loungers’ they had their own way of talking, walking and dressing. ‘The Bond Street Roll’ was much copied and was nicely satirised by George Colman The Younger in his play, ‘The Heir At Law’ set in 1794. The character Lord Duberly describes of his son, “The boy rolls about like a porpoise in a storm.” His son, Dick Dowlas responds, “That’s the fashion, father; that’s modern ease. A young fellow is nothing now without the Bond Street roll, a tooth-pick between his teeth and his knuckles cramm’d into his coat-pocket. Then away you go, lounging lazily along.”

Dozens of historical figures are associated with the area. James Boswell held well documented literary gatherings at his home on Bond Street. Admiral Lord Nelson lived at no fewer than four different Bond Street addresses. The Regency Dandies were equipped for everything they needed on Bond Street and the most well known of them all, Beau Brummell, lived a short walk away. Lord Byron was a member of the Pugilist Club at number thirteen. The statesman Charles James Fox, is documented as having had a bet with Prince George as to the number cats to be seen on either side of Bond Street. As they strolled its length, Fox counted thirteen cats and the prince, (later to be crowned George IV) counted none. Fox, not known for his prowess at gambling, uncharacteristically made a small fortune, having wisely chosen the sunny side of the street.

Amongst Bond Street’s most famous institutions is Sotheby’s, the celebrated auctioneer, established in 1744 and originally it sold only books. By 1840, Bond Street hosted twenty-two tailors, seventeen milliners and a dozen of both wine merchants and booksellers. After twenty years of seclusion following her retreat from public duties after the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria chose the location of Bond Street for her first reappearance, to purchase hankies, perhaps persuaded by her courtiers that a timeless spot of retail therapy might cheer her up.

Bond Street has never fallen from fashion and many of the early occupants are still resident, prospering both before and after the tumultuous events of the twentieth century. Between the world wars Queen Elizabeth II was born on Bruton Street, in a house a mere two minute walk from Bond Street, onto which it leads. A statue of her first prime minister is positioned where Old and New Bond Street meet. Passers-by are met by the unobtrusive street level bronze sculpture by Lawrence Holofcen, depicting Winston Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt in conversation and both sitting on a bench.

In nearby Berkeley Street is the Fleming Collection of Scottish art, acquired by the banker grandfather of novelist Ian Fleming. Despite its close proximity, Fleming took Bond’s name not from Bond Street, but from an ornithologist he admired, a certain James Bond who wrote ‘Birds of The West Indies.’ Nevertheless, fans of Ian Fleming will know that in the novel, ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ James Bond was told he might be related to Sir Thomas Bond, founder of the street. James Bond was too busy serving his country to follow up talk of chasing a begging inheritance. Ian Fleming is known to have choosen character names from the members’ list of Boodles Club, a stone’s throw from the southerly corner of Old Bond Street.

In the twenty-first century, British traditions still prevail in the street where prices are seldom marked and never asked. Asprey’s, the royal jeweller and its ilk are juxtaposed with the most contemporary international names. From tiny boutiques in the Royal Arcade to the large interiors of Loewe, the Spanish company founded in 1744, the street continues to sell, ‘nothing essential to man’s survival and anything for a man or woman with everything.’ Tens of thousands of people, to whom Bond Street is prohibitively expensive, are nevertheless keenly aware of its ‘cost’, as it is priced at a handsome three hundred and twenty pounds on the London Monopoly board.

Loewe, Chanel, Valentino, Yves St Laurent, Armani, Tiffany, Calvin Klein, Donna Karen, Bulgari, Alexander McQueen, Dolce Gabbana, Etro, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Versace, Louis Vuitton, Nicole Farhi, Westwood, Jigsaw, Rolex, Prada, Holland and Holland, Mulberry, Fenwicks, Hardy Amies, Cartier, Church’s, Mont Blanc and Smytheson’s for stationery and many others are all located there. London Underground (Tube) Bond Street or Green Park.

Where to view Bond Street and video clips of London
London in Motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Bond St’ category of this website.  New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.