bond street in graff
DESCRIPTION
Rob Ryan on the history of Bond Street, LondonTRANSCRIPT
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
corbis/a
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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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