Central Mayfair - What to See and Where to Eat and Drink (2.4 Km)
- philip carey
- Jul 9, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: May 30, 2024
Start at Bond Street Station
Finish at Bond Street Station
THE EXPERIENCE
The hidden areas of Central Mayfair and Berkeley Square.
This route sits in the heart of Mayfair with Oxford Street to its north, Piccadilly to its south and Regent Street to its west and Park Lane on its eastern side. This discovery route will also explore the ‘Eat, Drink and Be Merry’ theme that takes you on a southerly circular route from Bond Street station on Oxford Street. The route explores the centre of Mayfair through Duke Street, Grosvenor Square, Mount Street, Bruton Street, Berkeley Square and Davis Street. It will pass gardens, squares, luxury shops, fanatic restaurants, 5-star hotels, exclusive private clubs, Georgian houses, and architecture.
The route is excellent for history, iconic sights, squares, hotels, private clubs, casinos, art galleries, luxury shops, narrow streets, and places to eat, drink and be merry.
BEST TIME
Morning - Most of the route will be reasonably quiet except for the areas around Oxford Street. The best time to explore the route is early morning when the lighting is at its best and few people are around. It is also a great way to discover places for breakfast.
Day - This route will get slightly busier during the day, but it is generally quiet.
Evening -This route will be quieter in the evening, except for the areas around Mount Street and Berkeley Square.
ROUTE OVERVIEW
This 2.4 Km discovery route has an ‘Eat, Drink and be Merry’ theme,, which takes you south from Bond Street Station across Grosvenor Square and into South Audley Street and Mount Street – one of the principal luxury shopping and eating areas in Mayfair. It then heads off towards Berkeley Square and does a tour around the key areas of Berkeley Square, highlighting the places to eat and drink (and places of interest), before returning to Bond Street Station via Davies Street.
See the route at speed (2:48)
Use this to see what the route looks like as if you were doing it at speed and to make you more familiar with what you will see along the way.
GOOGLE AND STRAVA MAPS
Use 'My Google Maps' to explore this route's venues. If you are using a mobile device, the map can help you find the start point for the route, navigate to places of interest, and show your position on the map.
What to see and places to eat, drink and be merry.
What to See List
1 St Christopher’s Place
2 Selfridges
3 Dukes Street
4 Brown Hart Gardens
5 Claridge’s
6 September 11 Memorial Garden
7 Grosvenor Square
8 Mount Street Luxury Shopping
9 Mount Street Gardens
10 Grosvenor Chapel
11 Annabella
12 Berkeley Square
13 Bruton Street – Designer Clothes
14 New Bond Street
Central Mayfair - Pubs and Bars
There are lots of bars and pubs are along the route, with more nearby.
Here is a listing of nearby pubs and bars.
PUBS
The Footman
5 Charles St, London W1J 5DF
Coach & Horses
5 Hill St, London W1J 5LD
www.coachandhorsesmayfair.co.uk
The Punchbowl
41 Farm St, London W1J 5RP
The Duchess
39 Duke St, West Central, London W1U 1LP
Spread Eagle
8 Woodstock St, London W1C 2AD
The Burlington Arms
21 Old Burlington St, London W1S 2JL
Duke Of York
8 Dering St, London W1S 1AF
Coach & Horses Mayfair
5 Bruton St, London W1J 6PT
The Running Horse
50 Davies St, London W1K 5JE
www.therunninghorsemayfair.co.uk
The Iron Duke
11 Avery Row, London W1K 4AN
Windmill
6-8 Mill St, London W1S 2AZ
The Audley Public House
41-43 Mount St, London W1K 2RX
The Guinea Grill
30 Bruton Pl, London W1J 6NL
Lamb & Flag
24 James St, London W1U 1EL
German Kraft Mayfair
St. Mark's Church, N Audley St, London W1K 6ZA
BARS
Red Bar
Grosvenor Hotel
86-90 Park Ln, London W1K 7TL
The Terrace Bar
The Chesterfield
35 Charles St, London W1J 5EB
Burlock Rum Room
31 Duke St, London W1U 1LG
The May Fair Bar
Stratton St, London W1J 8LT
Mr Fogg's Residence
15 Bruton Ln, London W1J 6JD
Mr Fogg's Apothecary
Basement, 34 Brook St, London W1K 5DH
Dickie's Bar at Corrigan's Bar & Restaurant
Grosvenor Hotel
28 Upper Grosvenor St, London W1K 7EH
dickies.corrigancollection.com
The Loop Bar
19 Dering St, London W1S 1AH
Sexy Fish
Berkeley Square House, Berkeley Square, London W1J 6BR
Be At One - Berkeley Square
59 Berkeley Square, London W1J 8EQ
Simmons Bar | Bond Street
11 Woodstock St, London W1C 2AE
Bond St. Lounge Bar
350 Oxford St, London W1C 1BY
Tosi Gorgonzola Bar
46 Bruton Pl, London W1J 6PD
Comptoir Cafe & Wine
21-22 Weighhouse St, London W1K 5LU
The Barley Mow Pub Mayfair
82 Duke St, London W1K 6JG
Le Magritte Bar & Terrace
The Beaumont, 8 Balderton St, Brown Hart Gardens, London W1K 6TF
The Luggage Room
The Marriott Grosvenor Square, London W1K 6JP
The Pine Bar
The Biltmore
44 Grosvenor Square, London W1K 2HP
The Connaught Bar
Connaught, The Connaught, 16 Carlos Pl, London W1K 2AL
Brooks Mews Wine House
24 Brook's Mews, London W1K 4EA
The Painter's Room
Claridge's, Brook St, London W1K 4HR
Claridge's Bar
Brook St, London W1K 4HR
The Dragon Room
(Private members with limited availability)
26b Albemarle St, London W1S 4HY
Central Mayfair - Places to Eat
There is a wide selection of places to eat along the route. These links will help you find the ones that suit your taste and pocket.
Open Table London prides itself on bringing together people and the restaurants they love in the moments that matter, offering dining options, experiences, and offers.
The Fork—This is a Tripadvisor company that relies as much on its communities of users as its communities of restaurateurs. You can search by price, cuisine, rating, and special offers.
Hardens – This is probably the UK's most comprehensive independent restaurant guide, with reviews written by its members. It ranks each place by its food, services and ambience and has extensive search capabilities.
Design My Night This site is designed to help you discover and unlock secret, new and unique city experiences, from events to bars and restaurants, but it is also a site to help plan and book online. It has categories for restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, and 'what's on'.
Afternoon tea This is an Afternoon Tea guide to help you find the 'perfect venue for afternoon tea' in London and the UK. It provides descriptions, offers, booking facilities and an extensive search option.
Central Mayfair - Things to Do
This area has a few galleries, museums, and historic houses on the route, as well as theatres and cinemas nearby. Here are some of them.
Shepherd Market
Shepherd Market, London W1J 7QS
Twist Museum
248 Oxford St, London W1C 1DH
The London Palladium
8 Argyll St, London W1F 7TF
Faraday Museum at The Royal Institution of GB
21 Albemarle St, London W1S 4BS
Curzon Mayfair
38 Curzon St, London W1J 7TY
Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD
Handel & Hendrix in London
25 Brook St, London W1K 4HB
Wigmore Hall
36 Wigmore St, London W1U 2BP
Halcyon Gallery
29 New Bond St, London W1S 2RL
PHOTO GALLERY
This gallery provides a descriptive and visual reference to many sights along this route. Double-click to see the image in full size.
HISTORY & INTERESTING FACTS
Around Grosvenor Square and South Audley Street
Grosvenor Square
Sir Richard Grosvenor obtained a licence to develop Grosvenor Square and the surrounding streets in 1710, and it was one of the most fashionable squares in London. At the eastern end of the garden there is a small memorial dedicated to the British victims of the September 11 attacks. Grosvenor Square has been the traditional home of the official American presence in London since John Adams established the first American mission in 1785.
The American Embassy used to be in Grosvenor Square from 1938 and was situated on its western side from the 1960s to 2017, before moving to new home in Nine Elms. The Embassy here over 600 rooms on nine floors. It is now being converted into a retail destination and Chancery Rosewood and is set to open in 2025.
Memorial Garden September 11
The memorial garden in Grosvenor Square is opposite the old US Embassy and was opened in 2003 to honours all victims of 9/11. However, there is a particular focus on the 67 UK citizens who lost their lives in the attacks. The poem ‘For Katrina’s Sundial by Henry van Dyke’ was chosen for inscription on an elliptical granite block – it reads.
‘Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is not.’
Duke Street
Duke Street starts by Manchester Square in the north, crosses Oxford Street by Selfridges and ends up at Grosvenor Square.
The ‘Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral’ by the junction of Weighhouse Street and Duke Street is connected with the King's Weigh House that was located in London Bridge in the 16th century. The King's Weigh House was a place where ‘merchant strangers’, (i.e not authorized London merchants), used to go and weigh their goods for customs and taxes before entering the City of London. The Kings Weigh House building in London Bridge also included a congressional church, which was run by Thomas Reynolds (1695). As London grew in the 19th century the church was forced from its London Bridge location , and was able to relocated to Mayfair thanks to the Duke of Westminster who offered them the site that we see today. The church itself was built in 1891 by Alfred Waterhouse, who also built the National History Museum. The church was given over to the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family in Exile’ in 1967.
Around Mount Street and Berkeley Square
On South Audley Street
James Purdey & Sons
The British gunmaker James Purdey & Sons, specialises in high-end bespoke sporting shotguns and rifles. They also holds three Royal Warrants of Appointment as gun and rifle makers to the British and other European royal families. Queen Victoria is recorded as having bought a pair of Purdey pistols in 1838.
Thomas Goode
This china, silverware and glass shop on South Audley Street moved here in 1845. It holds two royal warrants to supply the British royal household, - one from Queen Elizabeth II and the other from the Prince of Wales, now King Charles III.
William Goode travelled extensively to find appropriate porcelain and china for the shop, which resulted in several notable customers, including Queen Victoria and the Tsar of Russia. The seven-foot-high Elephants of Thomas Goode at its entrance were part of The Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889.
Grosvenor Chapel
The Chapel has served the parish of Mayfair since 1730, providing worship, music and preaching to its Anglican congregation at its site on South Audley Street.
The chapel has been the spiritual home to several famous people, including John Wilkes, Garret Wesley, (who was the 1st Earl of Mornington and father to the Duke of Wellington), Florence Nightingale, and U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower. During the Second World War, the chapel was used by the men and women of the American armed forces for their Sunday services.
Around Mount Street Berkley Square
Mount Street Gardens
Mount Street Gardens was laid out in 1889 with plants, paths and a small fountain designed by Ernest George and Harold Peto. It was initially named Mount Field, after the English Civil War fortifications that were set up here called Oliver's Mount.
The garden features a bronze-topped fountain from the 19th century, gate piers made of Portland stone, trees from north and southeast China, and a host of nesting birds. There are two churches, the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception, and the neighbouring Grosvenor Chapel. There are also around 90 sponsored benches lining the paths, almost all of which were donated by Americans due to the proximity of the US Embassy.
The land was first put to use as a burial ground in 1723. A workhouse was added to the site two years later, followed by Grosvenor Chapel in 1730.
In Victorian London, dead bodies were in high demand and surgeons needed to test their new medical theories. This gave rise to grave robbers or “resurrectionists” who would loot graveyards and sell what they could find to medical schools. In the 1850s, a series of Burial Acts were passed to prevent grave robbing, and any graveyard seen as at risk from graverobbers was closed. The burial ground at Mount Street Gardens was one such victim of this legislation.
Mount Street
Mount Street in Mayfair is one of London’s most luxurious shopping destinations for designer fashion and boutique. There is also the Connaught Hotel, Mount Street Gardens, and plenty of places to dine in style. At the western end by South Audley Street there is The Audley, a traditional neighbourhood pub.
The Connaught
The Connaught is a five-star hotel that was built in 1897 in the heart of Mayfair. It was initially called the Prince of Saxe Coburg Hotel, but in 1917, because of the war with Germany, they decided to rename it after Queen Victoria's third son, Prince Arthur the first Duke of Connaught – Connaught, now spelt Connacht, being one of the four provinces of Ireland. The Hotel's proximity to the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square meant that it was popular with American visitors, as well as being a favourite rendezvous for Edward VII as well as Alec Guinness. The hotel is owned by the Mak Group, which also owns Claridge's. The hotel is on Mount Street, which stretches from Berkeley Square all the way to the Grosvenor Hotel near Hyde Park.
Berkeley Square
We have John Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley of Stratton. to thank for Berkeley Square. The square was originally at the bottom of his large garden within Berkeley House on Piccadilly, and he loved the view. In 1696, when John Berkeley sold the house to the Duke of Devonshire, he stipulated that no buildings were to be built that would obscure the view from the newly named Devonshire House all the way up to Mount Street – a ruling that lasted for over 200 years.
Today, the left-hand side of the square still preserves the old townhouses, but unfortunately, there's only one which is still residential. On the right, the original buildings have been replaced and turned into offices, restaurants, and a big Bentley car showroom, but it is still a very pleasant street to walk down.
The thirty enormous London Plane trees you see here were planted in the late 18th century.
VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE AREA
Click on the picture below to go on a 360 virtual tour of the shopping areas and look around.
Use the route to explore this location by looking around in 360, taking in the sights and sounds, listening to an audio recording about the area and going on a virtual tour.
Browse the gallery to find out what you can see along the way.
Comments