Mayfair - "Bespoke tailoring & red carpet shopping"

Location

• Mayfair is roughly bordered by Hyde Park to the west, Oxford Street to the north, Piccadilly and Green Park to the south and Regent Street to the east. It is named after the annual fortnight-long ‘May Fair’ that took place from 1686 until it was banned in 1764 on the site that today is Shepherd Market – previously it was held in the Haymarket, and after being banished from Mayfair it moved to Fair Field in Bow, east London.

Historical facts

• From a farming area north of Piccadilly, Mayfair has today become associated with luxury and opulence.
• Planned development in the 17th century turned its streets from a haunt for drunks, prostitutes, crocked traders, donkey races and duck hunts into a fashionable residential district by numerous landlords – the most wealthy & powerful being the Grosvenor family. Today a large section Mayfair’s freehold belongs to the Crown Estate.
• Mayfair is now mainly commercial consisting of major corporate headquarters, hedge funds, and real estate businesses with rents that are amongst the highest in London (the renown and prestige of Mayfair is said to have grown in the popular mind due to its designation as the most expensive property on the British Monopoly set).
• There is also a substantial quantity of residential property, as well as some exclusive shopping and London’s largest concentration of luxury hotels. Notable buildings include the United States embassy in Grosvenor Square, the Royal Academy of Arts, The Handel House Museum, the Grosvenor House Hotel, the Dorchester, Hilton and Claridge’s.

Shopping

• Bond Street’s elitist shops (Cartier, Tiffany and Asprey)
• Bar and Clubs
• Savile Row
• Burlington Arcade – exclusive red-carpet shopping
• Oxford Street
• Regent Street

Famous residents

• Aristocratic residents have consisted of dukes, earls and baronets
• Royal, foreign dignities and celebrity status temporary residents stay at Mayfair’s top hotels
• Madonna & Guy Ritchie own a pub in the area