6 minute read
BEADLES & BAUBLES
JON ARNOLD/AWL © PHOTOS:
London’s elegant and historic arcades are atmospheric places to shop, especially when festooned with festive trimmings at Christmas
WORDS ROSE SHEPHERD
PRISMA BY DUKAS PRESSEAGENTUR GMBH/ALAMY © PHOTO:
Left: A bronze statue of dandy Beau Brummell stands outside the Piccadilly Arcade Previous page: The Burlington Arcade, one of Britain's oldest covered arcades
In September 1817, The Gentleman’s Magazine announced plans for a covered double row of shops between Piccadilly and Burlington Gardens, in the swanky Mayfair district of London, ‘for the sale of jewellery and other fancy articles… for the gratification of the publick and to give employment to industrious females’.
Plans had been afoot for two years for ‘a Piazza for all Hardware, Wearing Apparel and Articles not Offensive in appearance nor smell’, and Lord George Cavendish had commissioned Samuel Ware to design a splendid galleria along the west side of his Palladian mansion, Burlington House (today home to the Royal Academy of Arts). This would provide his lordship’s wife and her friends with a safe place to shop, and prevent hoi polloi from throwing discarded oyster shells and other litter over his garden wall.
By late 1819, every shop in the splendid new Burlington Arcade had been let – to hosier and hatter, goldsmith and engraver, jeweller, watchmaker, wine merchant and pastry cook. It was the place to go for bonnet or umbrella, shawl or a shooting stick, with so many fashionable boutiques under one roof, while the precinct was patrolled by beadles recruited from Lord Cavendish’s regiment, the Royal Hussars, to watch for pickpockets and to enforce decorum. Today, the Burlington beadles, Britain’s oldest, smallest police force, still parade in their frock coats and top hats, to prevent such infractions as humming or hurrying, behaving boisterously or bicycling, and,
Clockwise, from above: Benson & Clegg, in the Piccadilly Arcade, holds a Royal Warrant; a modern-day Burlington beadle patrols the arcade; the Royal Arcade on Old Bond Street is a Victorian-era shopping arcade more importantly, to contribute a quaint picturesqueness to the longest and one of the most beautiful of London’s shopping arcades.
A far cry from sterile, modern shopping malls, it is especially magical at Christmas, after the ceremonial ‘switch on’ of the lights, when the shops are bedecked, ablaze and abuzz. You can browse for beautiful handmade shoes at Church’s and Crockett and Jones, crystalware at Lalique, scents in bottles topped with a Swarovski gold-coated cap at Roja Parfums; or pause for a shoeshine, enjoy a coffee at Noxy Brothers, or hot chocolate, French pastries and macarons from Ladurée.
Just across the road, an Edwardian gem, the Piccadilly Arcade, runs through to Jermyn Street, where a bronze statue of Regency dandy George ‘Beau’ Brummell graces the entrance, and tailor, shirtmaker and barber cater to the elegant man about town.
Built in 1908, in Portland stone, to designs by architect George Thrale Jell, with ornate iron balconies over bow-windowed shopfronts, this arcade is very much geared to a male clientele. Gentleman’s haberdasher and shirtmaker Budd has been a tenant since the beginning, though its original home at No. 4 was burnt out when a bomb hit the building in April 1941. Here, too, you will find the tailor and Royal Warrant holder Benson & Clegg,
luxury leather goods at Swaine Adeney Brigg, and one of the world’s oldest pharmacies, Santa Maria Novella.
On Old Bond Street, which runs parallel to Burlington Arcade, the High Victorian Royal Arcade connects to Albemarle Street, and is, to some eyes, the fairest of them all, with its orange and white livery, saddled glass roof, stucco arches, curved windows and Ionic columns. Look up at either entrance to admire relief panels of recumbent female figures, caryatids and iron balcony.
You’ll notice that it says simply ‘The Arcade’, and so it was known when it was built in 1879. It acquired its ‘Royal’ status in the early 1880s, when Queen Victoria patronised shirtmakers HW Brettell at No. 12, today occupied by Ormonde Jayne perfumers. The original tenants included court florist Edward Goodyear, bootmaker John Latha, a glass stainer and a heraldic stationer. Today you might come for bespoke jewellery at Calleija and shoes from George Cleverley, handmade spectacles from EB Meyrowitz, and for pink champagne truffles from Charbonnel et Walker, chocolatiers to Her Majesty the Queen.
For more chocolate heaven, a little to the east, the Art Deco Princes Arcade is home to Prestat, founded in 1902 by Antoine Dufour, whose chocolate truffles inspired Roald Dahl’s adult novel, My Uncle Oswald.
Built between 1929 and 1933, the arcade was relaunched by the Crown Estate in 2018 with a more modern feel and striking new entrance canopies by artist Andrew Bick.
Be sure to check out Sirplus, which was founded in 2010 as a market stall to sell boxer shorts made from surplus shirtmakers’ fabric, before diversifying into recycled cashmere scarves, ties, bags and hats, with the promise of turning ‘would-be waste into lifetime companion pieces’. Here, too, are hatters Christy’s, maker of the Homburg sported by Marlon Brandon in The Godfather, and for two centuries official helmet manufacturer to the UK Police Force.
If, now, you hop on the Tube to Monument, you will discover a very different feel at Leadenhall Market. On the edge of the City financial district, at the heart of Roman Londinium, it is ever beautiful, and positively resplendent in the festive season, when the Lord Mayor of London switches on the Christmas lights.
There has been a market on this site since the 14th century. In 1411 the lease was acquired by the most famous of all Lord Mayors, Dick Whittington, and gifted to the City. It was for centuries a prime site for the sale of meat, fish, poultry and game, but the building you see, under a roof of wrought iron and glass, was designed in 1881 by Sir Horace Jones, architect of Billingsgate fish market and Smithfield meat market.
You can shop here for off-the-peg fashion clothing, cigars, books, flowers, jewellery and watches, but above all it is a foodie destination. Delectable pastries can be had from Aux Merveilleux de Fred (speciality: meringues coated in chocolate whipped cream with dark chocolate shavings). Viandas serves charcuterie and cheeses from their own farm in the Douro valley. Eat Italian at familyrun Rocca or at Osteria del Mercato, go for fish and shellfish fresh from Billingsgate Fish Market at Chamberlain’s, or a pint and a ploughman’s lunch at the atmospheric Lamb Tavern.
If cobbled Bull’s Head Passage seems spookily familiar, it may be because it appeared as ‘Diagon Alley’ in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone; the Leaky Cauldron wizarding pub is an optician’s shop. Magic!
Clockwise, from above: The Art Deco Princes Arcade; Ladurée sells macarons at Burlington Arcade; Leadenhall Market, located in the City of London
PRISMA BY DUKAS PRESSEAGENTUR GMBH/GRANT ROONEY PREMIUM/ALAMY/TAKA PRODUCTION © PHOTOS:
