London Calling.
London Walks connecting.
This is London. This is London Walks. Streets Ahead. Story time.
History time.
Scampering like a hamster on a wheel here.
Newsletter deadline. And the heat.
Plan A was a Burlington Arcade epic. A proper doorstopper. A great lumbering Yeti.
But I rather like Plan B better.
A spot of London Calling, whamming, bamming, thanking Ma’aming.
Here’s the first.
Here’s a question for you.
Where do you go in London if you want to travel two hundred years into the past?
No time machine required.
Just walk down Piccadilly.
Then, almost without noticing it, step into Burlington Arcade.
It’s one of those magical London moments.
The traffic noise fades.
The pace slows.
The light softens.
The twenty-first century loosens its grip.
And for a few delicious minutes you’re somewhere else entirely.
The first of a three-part love letter to one of London’s most enchanting places.
Burlington Arcade.
It’s the oldest and grandest shopping arcade in Britain. One of the most beautiful anywhere in the world.
And here’s the remarkable thing.
It wasn’t built for shopping.
Not primarily.
It was built to solve a problem.
The year is 1819.
Napoleon has been defeated just four years earlier.
Waterloo is still fresh in everybody’s memory.
The Prince Regent is ruling because poor old George III has descended into madness.
Across the Atlantic, James Monroe is in the White House.
Charles Dickens is seven years old.
London is booming.
Elegant.
Confident.
Fashionable.
But also noisy, muddy and, shall we say, untidy.
Immediately behind Piccadilly stood Burlington House, home to Lord George Cavendish.
The lane beside his garden had become a favourite dumping ground.
People tossed oyster shells.
Old food.
Litter.
Refuse of every description.
Something had to be done.
Lord George’s solution was inspired.
If people insisted on walking along the edge of his property, he’d give them somewhere infinitely better to walk.
So he commissioned an elegant covered passage lined with shops.
A place where ladies and gentlemen could promenade in comfort, whatever the weather.
A place that was clean.
Orderly.
Refined.
A place that celebrated quality.
It opened in 1819.
And, extraordinarily, that’s still exactly what it does today.
Walk into Burlington Arcade and you aren’t just entering a shopping arcade.
You’re stepping into an idea.
The idea that buying something could be civilised.
That craftsmanship mattered.
That beauty belonged in everyday life.
That elegance never goes out of fashion.
And here’s something I love.
You don’t have to buy anything.
You can simply stroll.
Look.
Wonder.
Drink it all in.
Tomorrow we’ll meet the extraordinary custodians who’ve kept Burlington Arcade civilised for more than two centuries.
They’re called Beadles.
There isn’t another shopping arcade in the world quite like this one.
Or another story quite like theirs.
Until tomorrow.