Mayfair, Belgravia, and Bayswater

Mayfair, Belgravia, and Bayswater

Mayfair is at the present time the most fashionable part of London, so much so that the name has come to be a synonym for wealth or pride of birth. Yet it was not always so, as he who runs may read, for the derivation is simple enough, and differs from most cases in that the obvious meaning is the right one. In James II.'s reign a permission was given for a fair to be held on the north side of Piccadilly, to begin on the first day of May, and to last for fifteen days. This fair, we are told, was "not for trade and merchandise, but for musick, showes, drinking, gaming, raffling, lotteries, stageplays and drolls." It was immensely popular, and was frequented by "all the nobility of the town," wherein, perhaps, we see the germs of the Mayfair we know. It must be remembered that Grosvenor and Berkeley Squares, with their diverging streets, were not then begun, and that all this land now covered by a network of houses lay in fields on the outskirts of London, while Hyde Park Corner was still the end of the world so far as Londoners were concerned. It was about the end of the seventeenth century that the above-mentioned squares were built, and at once became fashionable, and as the May fair continued to flourish until 1708, it must have seen the growth of the district to which it was to give its name. Though suppressed, doubtless on account of disorders, it revived again, with booths for jugglers, prize-fighting contests, boxing matches, and the baiting of bears and bulls, and was not finally abolished until the end of the eighteenth century.

But Mayfair is not the only district to be noticed; we have also its rival--Belgravia--lying south of Hyde Park Corner, which is equally included in the electoral district of St. George's, Hanover Square. This electoral district takes in the three most fashionable churches in the Metropolis, including the mother church, St. Paul's, Wilton Place, and St. Peter's, Eaton Square, besides many others, whose marriage registers cannot compete either in quantity or quality of names with these three. The district can also show streets as poor as some are rich; it includes not only Park Lane and Piccadilly, but also Pimlico and the dreary part to the south of Buckingham Palace Road. It is a long, narrow district, stretching from the river to Oxford Street. As a parish, St. George's was separated from St. Martin's in 1724, and it is now included in the city of Westminster, with which it has been associated from its earliest history. In the charter given by King Edgar to the monks at Westminster, their possessions were defined as reaching to the highroad we now call Oxford Street on the north, and to Tyburn Lane, or Park Lane, on the west. But of this the parishes of St. Margaret and St. John at Westminster were the City, and the rest lay in the "Liberties."

The larger portion of the district is included in the ancient estate of Eia, 890 acres in extent, reaching from the Bayswater Road to the Thames, which was given by William the Conqueror to Geoffrey de Mandeville, who at his death bequeathed it to the Abbey of Westminster. In Domesday Book it is divided into three manors of Hyde, Ebury, and Neyte. Of these the first occupies the site of Hyde Park; Ebury, from Knightsbridge to Buckingham Palace Road; Neyte, nearer the river, was the favourite residence of the Abbots. Here John of Gaunt lived, and here, in 1448, John, son of Richard, Duke of York, was born. The monks remained in possession until dispossessed by Henry VIII. in 1536. Hyde then became a royal hunting-ground. Neyte, or Neat, and Ebury remained as farms, which in 1676 came into the possession of the Grosvenor family by the marriage of Mary, daughter and heiress of Alexander Davies of Ebury, with Sir Thomas Grosvenor, Bart. With her came also the Grosvenor Square property, extending from Oxford Street to Berkeley Square and Dorchester House, and from Park Lane to South Molton Lane and Avery Row. Other large landholders in the district are the Crown--Hyde Park, and Buckingham Palace; Lord Fitzhardinge, the Berkeley estate; the City of London, New Bond Street and parts of Conduit Street and Brook Street; Earl Howe, Curzon Street; Sir Richard Sutton, Piccadilly; the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, Knightsbridge; and the Lowndes family, Lowndes Street and Chesham Place.

More than a quarter of the district is covered by Hyde Park, 394 acres in extent. Long before its acquisition by the Crown in 1536 it had been a favourite royal hunting-ground, and it so continued until Charles I.'s accession, when it was opened to the public. During this reign, and until 1736, the world of fashion centred round the Ring, a circular drive planted with trees, some of which are still carefully preserved on the high ground near the Ranger's house, though all trace of the roadway has long been obliterated. The Park was sold by auction during the Commonwealth, but resumed by the Crown at the Restoration, and in 1670 was enclosed with a brick wall and restocked with deer, who have left their traces in the name of Buck Hill Walk and Gate, close to the east bank of the Serpentine. This prettily-laid-out area, formerly known as Buckden Hill or the Deer Paddock, is now tenanted only by peacocks, ducks and rabbits.

The Serpentine, a noble stretch of water of 50 acres, has already been described in "Kensington."

Hyde Park has always been noted for its springs. In 1725 the Chelsea Waterworks Company obtained a license to supply the surrounding districts, and built a reservoir and engine-house near Grosvenor Gate, which existed until 1835, when, on the recall of the license, the engine-house was demolished and the basin laid out with flower-beds and a fountain. The present reservoir stands in the centre of the Park, while opposite Stanhope Place on the north side is a Gothic drinking fountain, the gift of the Maharajah of Vizianagram. The oldest of the present roads in Hyde Park is Rotten Row, made by William III.; it is now reserved for riding only, while under the trees on either side rank and fashion have lounged and gossiped since the days of the Ring. The popular derivation of the name is from Route du Roi, since it was known first as the King's or Lamp Road; but possibly it has its origin in the soft soil of which the ride since 1734 has been composed. The south road, now the fashionable drive, was made by George II. about 1732, as a short way to Kensington Park. The road from Alexandra Gate to Victoria Gate crosses the Serpentine by a stone bridge built by Rennie in 1826, and is the only one open to hired vehicles, which were first forbidden the use of the Park in 1695. From the Serpentine a soft ride runs parallel to the roadway as far as the Marble Arch; from this point Hyde Park Corner is reached by a broad drive bordered with flower-beds and trees, which replace the famous double avenue of walnuts cut down in 1811. It is much patronized by society, who congregate opposite Hyde Park Corner, near the Achilles statue, by Sir R. Westmacott, R.A., cast from captured French cannon, and erected at a cost of L10,000 by the women of England in 1820, "in honour of the Duke of Wellington and his brave companions in arms." It is copied from a Roman antique, but the name is a misnomer. The road along the north side of the Serpentine is now thronged every day with bicyclists, to whom the Park has been lately thrown open. Here also are held the annual meets of the Four-in-Hand and Coaching Club during the season. This road was widened in 1852. Of past and present buildings in Hyde Park the following may be noted: When the Serpentine was made, an old lodge was demolished which may have been the tavern known in the reign of James I. as the "Grave Maurice's Head," and which later became Price's Lodge. Up to 1836, on the bank of the Serpentine stood an old house called the Cake House, and close to it was the old receiving house of the Royal Humane Society, which was replaced in 1834 by the present building, designed by Decimus Burton. Among the trees behind it is an old farmhouse (Hyde Park Lodge), the residence of Major-General Bateson, Deputy Ranger, adjoining which are the old barracks, now a police-station and guard-room, the head-gardener's house, built in 1877, and the old magazine. The new magazine stands close to the Serpentine Bridge, and contains over 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition. Near Grosvenor Gate stood the Duke of Gloucester's riding-house, built in 1724, which, after serving as the headquarters of the Westminster Volunteer Cavalry, was demolished in 1824. The old Ranger's Lodge at Hyde Park Corner was pulled down when Apsley House was built.

The principal entrance to Hyde Park is at Hyde Park Corner, and consists of a triple archway combined with a fluted Ionic screen, by Decimus Burton, completed in 1828. The iron gates are by Bramah. Cumberland Gate, the next in importance, was opened in 1744, with wooden gates. Here in 1643 was posted a court of guard to watch the Oxford Road, where the Court was residing, and here also military executions took place. The Marble Arch, an imitation by Nash of the Arch of Constantine at Rome, erected originally as an entrance to Buckingham Palace, was moved to this site in 1851. Albert Gate was made in 1841, on the site of the Cannon Brewery. The iron gates were set up in 1845, and the stone stags on either side were brought from the old Lodge in the Green Park.