St Christopher's Place - What to See and Where to Eat and Drink (1.4 Km)
- philip carey
- Jul 9, 2023
- 10 min read
Updated: Aug 10, 2024
Start at Bond Street Station
Finish at Bond Street Station
THE EXPERIENCE
A hidden network of pretty streets for food lovers, shoppers, and explorers just north of Oxford Street.
This delightfully hidden route is tucked away just north of Oxford Street’s Bond Street Station and offers plenty of places to eat, drink and be merry.
You enter St Christopher’s Place by James Street, which has many eating and drinking venues, and then head off to the Wallace Collection in Manchester Square, close to the start of Marylebone High Street. This route has a lovely ‘London village’ feel, which you can experience on the return path along Marylebone Lane (with all its fine eating and drinking venues), Wigmore Street, and St Christopher’s Place before emerging back onto Oxford Street by Bond Street Station.
The route is excellent for atmosphere, history, iconic sights, crowds, shops, cinemas, museums, a village feel, a narrow street, and many places to eat, drink and be merry.
BEST TIME
Morning- This route can be quite busy along Oxford Street, St Christopher's Place and Marylebone Lane. 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 busy along Oxford Street, St Christopher's Place and Marylebone Lane.
Evening - This route will be busy along Oxford Street, St Christopher's Place and Marylebone Lane in the evening.
ROUTE OVERVIEW
This 1.4 km route starts facing west on Oxford Street outside Bond Street Station and takes the first right to James Street into St Christopher Place. It emerges onto Wigmore Street and doglegs right into Manchester Square and the Wallace Collection. It continues north to the southern edge of Marylebone High Street via Manchester Street and Blandford Street before returning to Oxford Street via narrow alleys of Marylebone Lane and St Christopher’s Place and their delicious assortments of places to eat and drink.
See the route at speed (2:29)
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 Oxford Street
2 James Street – food and drink
3 St Christopher’s Place – food and drink
4` The Wallace Collection
5 Chiltern Street Firehouse
6 Blandford Street
7 Marylebone High Street
8 Marylebone Lane – food and drink
9 Wigmore Hall and Wigmore Street
10 Selfridges
St Christopher's Place- Pubs and Bars
Many bars and pubs are along the route, with more nearby.
Here is a listing of nearby pubs and bars.
PUBS
Lamb & Flag
24 James St, London W1U 1EL
The Duchess
39 Duke St, West Central, London W1U 1LP
The Barley Mow Pub Mayfair
82 Duke St, London W1K 6JG
The Running Horse
50 Davies St, London W1K 5JE
www.therunninghorsemayfair.co.uk
Cock & Lion
62 Wigmore St, London W1U 2SA
Spread Eagle
8 Woodstock St, London W1C 2AD
Duke Of York
8 Dering St, London W1S 1AF
Golden Eagle
59 Marylebone Ln, London W1U 2NY
+44 20 7935 3228
Angel In the Fields
37 Thayer St, London W1U 2QY
The Coach Makers Arms Pub Marylebone
88 Marylebone Ln, London W1U 2PZ
Devonshire Arms
7 Duke St, London W1U 3EE
The Cavendish
35 New Cavendish St, London W1G 9TR
The Kings Head
13 Westmoreland St, London W1G 8PJ
+44 20 7935 2201
The Barley Mow
8 Dorset St, London W1U 6QW
BARS
Burlock Rum Room
31 Duke St, London W1U 1LG
Bond St. Lounge Bar
Radisson 350 Oxford St, London W1C 1BY
Mr Fogg's Apothecary
Basement, 34 Brook St, London W1K 5DH
Simmons Bar | Bond Street
11 Woodstock St, London W1C 2AE
All Bar One Picton Place
5-6 Picton Pl, Greater, London W1U 1BL
The Fount Bar
Selfridges
400 Oxford St, London W1A 1AB
Mayahuel Mezcaleria
56-60 Wigmore St, London W1U 2RZ
Io 8 Bar/Brasserie
108 Marylebone Ln, London W1U 2QE
Be At One - Oxford Street
94 Wimpole St, London W1G 0EH
The Cocktail Bar
Welbeck St, London W1G 8DN
The George Bar
Durrants Hotel, Durrants Hotel Ltd, 32 George St, London W1H 5BJ
http://www.durrantshotel.co.uk/
Purl London
50-54 Blandford St, London W1U 7HX
The Marylebone
93 Marylebone High St, London W1U 4RD
St Christopher's Place - 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.
St Christopher's Place - Things to Do
This area has several things to do along the route. Here are some of them.
The Wallace Collection
Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN
Wigmore Hall
36 Wigmore St, London W1U 2BP
Grosvenor Casino
1 Baker St, London W1U 8ED
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 St Christopher's Place
Bond Street Station
Bond Street Station is on Oxford Street, not Bond Street, but you can quickly get to Bond Street via South Moulton Street. The station was opened in 1900 by the Central London Railway and is now served by the Central and Jubilee underground lines and National Rail’s Elizabeth line. This exit is right on the doorstep of Mayfair, with Selfridges and St Christopher’s Place nearby.
St Christopher’s Place
Tucked up a narrow alley off Oxford Street’s north side, St Christopher’s Place has been a popular shopping destination for many years. You can access St Christopher’s Place by small, interesting alleyways from Oxford Street and Wigmore Street or via James Street, which runs between them.
Most buildings are Victorian or later, but the street dates to the 1760s. When it was first built up, most of the surrounding area belonged to just a couple of landholdings – the Portman estate and what is now the Howard de Wal-den estate.
However, the area became overpopulated, and the alleyways and courtyards were made for poor living conditions, with some houses housing 30-40 people. The housing reformer Octavia Hill began to buy up properties in this area in the 1870s and began improving the living conditions for many of its inhabitants. Octavia Hill is said to have suggested the name St Christopher’s Place when the area was being redeveloped.
St Christopher’s Place was again improved and regenerated during the 1970s and 1980s. The old tenements on the west side were refitted as luxury apartments and offices. At the same time, the street was repaved, and buildings were refurbished as craft and other specialist shops, galleries, restaurants, and wine bars. By the early 1980s, it had become established as a centre for high-class fashion and fashion accessories.
The Lamb & Flag by James Street is a traditional Georgian pub built in the centre of St Christopher’s Place. This pub was first licensed in 1777 and rebuilt in its current form in 1890.
Duke Street
This is the northern part of Duke Street, stretching from Oxford Street in the south to Manchester Square in the north. Its southern section has several shopping outlets, Selfridges, and a three-screen cinema on its western-hand side.
It has two pubs – the Duchess and the Devonshire Arms- and direct access to St Christopher’s Place and many eating venues via Barrett Street.
Around Manchester Square
Mandeville Place
Construction of Mandeville Place began in the 1870s. Its name was chosen for its association with the nearby and highly salubrious Manchester Square, Hertford House, and the Wallace Collection. The building's design reflected the grandeur of the area’s more upmarket enclaves.
After the Second World War, Sir Maxwell Joseph converted almost the entire terrace of houses on the eastern side into the Mandeville Hotel. The façade, including its multiple front doors, was retained. It remains one of the area’s more unusual and attractive hotel frontages.
Mandeville Hotel
The Mandeville Hotel is a luxury boutique hotel in Marylebone styled by designers from around the globe. It has elegant rooms and suites. It has been described as quirky yet elegant, progressive yet old school, blissfully quiet yet centrally located.
It is located on the south side of Marylebone, close to Oxford Street, Bond Street, and Marylebone High Street shopping areas and eating and drinking areas such as St Christopher’s Place, Marylebone Lane, and Mayfair.
Manchester Square
This 18th-century garden square was constructed in the 1770s. This included a mansion on its northern side called Manchester House. This later became Hertford House, and it has been the home of the Wal-lace Collection of fine and decorative arts since 1897.
After Charles II's restoration in 1660, the Spanish Embassy was re-established in London, first on Ormond Street and then at Hertford House—hence why the street to the east is called Spanish Place.
The cover photograph for ‘Please Please Me’, the first LP by The Beatles, was taken on the staircase of EMI house at No. 20 Manchester Square in 1963.
Wallace Collection
The Wallace Collection is located at Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford.
It was established in 1897 from the private collection mainly created by Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford, who left both it and the house to his illegitimate son Sir Richard Wallace, whose widow Julie Amelie Charlotte Castelnau bequeathed the entire collection to the nation. The collection is arranged into 25 galleries, it is open to the public, and entry is free.
Around Marylebone Lane
St James’ Roman Catholic Church
St James' is a large Roman Catholic church in George Street with a strong connection with the Spanish Embassy, dating back to Charles II when the Spanish Embassy was re-established in nearby Manchester Square. This church on the corner of Spanish Place and now George Street was initially designed as a chapel by Joseph Bonomi shortly after the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1791. It kept its connection with the embassy until 1827, but many examples of its Spanish heritage still exist.
Marylebone Lane
Marylebone Lane is one of the original streets of the Marylebone district. It runs from Oxford Street in the south to Marylebone High Street in the north. Its winding shape follows the course of the river Tyburn that it once ran alongside here. It dates to the original medieval village of Tyburn, which stood at the south end of the lane near Oxford Street, where Stratford Place is now.
Today, the lane is largely composed of small shops, cafes, pubs, and restaurants, with some small apartment blocks, and it is a lovely street to walk down.
Hinde Street Methodist Church
Methodists were present in London's West End from the earliest days of the Methodist movement. The Hinde Street Methodist Church in Hinde Street has been here since 1810 but was rebuilt to its current design in the 1880s. It is part of the West End Mission, which has two churches (Hinde Street and Kings Cross) with six congregations (including a sizeable Chinese congregation) and a work programme with students and young adults. It runs a weekly drop-in for homeless people, a Winter Night Shelter, and a social and study group.
Wigmore Street
Wigmore Street runs parallel with Oxford Street and is named after the village of Wigmore and its castle in Herefordshire, a seat of the family of Robert Harley, a politician around the time of Queen Anne, who owned land in the area.
In the late 1890s, the area became famous for pianos, the key form of home entertainment. The Brinsmead Galleries, which had nine showrooms, were built for John Brinsmead & Sons piano manufacturers. The Wigmore Hall concert hall was created for the German company C. Bechstein, a piano manufacturer.
Wigmore Hall was designed by the architect Thomas Collcutt as a venue that was both grand and intimate. Early reviews praised its acoustic and described its marble-lined, gilded and illuminated interior as luxurious, tasteful and ‘the most sumptuously comfortable place of its kind to be found’.
Marylebone High Street
Marylebone High Street runs parallel to Baker Street and terminates here at Thayer Street in the south and Marylebone Road in the north. Given its secluded location, the street has been described as "the hidden wonder of the West End”.
During the late 18th century, the main street, lined with shops and houses, became the Marylebone High Street we might recognise today. The Portland Estate leased pieces of land out on 99-year leases, on which builders of all types built according to plans approved by the Estate. This led to many buildings being built in terms of style, size, and occupancy. Tradesmen included an apothecary, baker, goldbeater, hairdresser, shoemaker, and watchmaker. Alongside buildings developed by private speculators were others built for the public good, like the workhouse and schools and a police station that was opened in 1821.
Most of the buildings in the street today date from 1900, and the area has been revitalised by Howard de Walden Estates, which has been credited with turning a "once-shabby area of central London" into an elegant street we see today".
Angel in the Fields
The Angel in the Fields pub can be found on a 1746 map where Marylebone Lane turns left and meets the road marked as St. Mary Le Bone. At the junction are several buildings, and the Angel pub is in the lower right building, within a small patch of land with trees edging the boundary. The pub was first recorded in 1720 and rebuilt in 1770 as the area developed. Today, this Sam Smiths Pub at the junction of Marylebone Lane has warm wooden panelling and striking stained-glass windows that make for a unique environment for a quick pint.
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.
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