Bond Street in Graff

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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

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PHOTOGRAPHY Dan Burn-Forti

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 FaubourgSaint 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

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

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

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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,

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

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

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

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 classiccontemporary 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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