Bond Street, London: How to Walk Old and New Bond Street

Where do you go in London when you have had an exhausting week? I go to New Bond Street. It is my London buzz quick fix. After a bad day, I want the kind of forgetfulness only a busy London street can give me.

I get on the Elizabeth line and, twenty minutes later, I am there. Everything is within a mile: the best of London fashion, the buzz, the food. One hour and I am healed. I walk this street up and down regularly, in every season, and I usually finish at the Royal Academy and Fortnum & Mason.

This is my guide to Bond Street in London: why it is two streets, why it is not named after 007, and how to walk it end to end.

Is Bond Street Named After James Bond?

No, and the order is the other way round. The street is more than two hundred years older than the spy. It is named after Sir Thomas Bond, whose syndicate of developers bought Clarendon House on Piccadilly in 1686. They pulled it down and laid out streets on its land.

James Bond got his name from a bird book. Ian Fleming borrowed it from an American ornithologist called James Bond, because he wanted the dullest name he could find. The street just happens to share it.

Why Are There Two Bond Streets?

Strictly speaking, there is no street in the West End called just Bond Street. There is Old Bond Street and there is New Bond Street, end to end, and together they run about half a mile from Piccadilly to Oxford Street.

The first Bond Street, begun in 1686, was only about two hundred yards long. It ran north from Piccadilly to where Burlington Gardens is now. Early in the eighteenth century it was extended north through the fields. The extension reached Oxford Street around 1720 and became New Bond Street, and the original stretch became Old Bond Street.

Everyone still calls the whole thing Bond Street. So does the Tube station, which sits at the Oxford Street end. So does the Monopoly board, and so does David Bowie, who called a song on his 1967 debut album The Maid of Bond Street.

Where Does Old Bond Street Become New Bond Street?

At the junction with Burlington Gardens, and you cannot miss it. There is a red telephone box, a red pillar box and a bronze of a naked man riding a horse, all in a little paved square.

The sculpture is Horse and Rider by Dame Elisabeth Frink, made in 1975. It stood on the corner of Dover Street and Piccadilly for decades and was moved here in 2016. Historic England lists it at Grade II. It also marks the back entrance to the Royal Academy, on Burlington Gardens.

Further north, on New Bond Street, is Allies by Lawrence Holofcener. It shows Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt chatting on a bench, and Princess Margaret unveiled it in May 1995. There is room on the bench to sit between them.

What Is Bond Street Famous For?

Luxury, above all. Most of the big fashion and jewellery houses have a flagship here, including Cartier, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Graff and Hermès. Many of the shop fronts are narrower than twenty feet, so a walk along it feels like flicking through a very expensive catalogue.

It is also expensive to be here. In November 2025, the property firm Cushman & Wakefield named New Bond Street the most expensive shopping street in the world for the first time. Rents reached $2,231 per square foot a year, overtaking Via Montenapoleone in Milan and Fifth Avenue in New York.

And it is an art street. Sotheby's has been at 34 and 35 New Bond Street since 1917. Its pre-sale exhibitions are free to walk into. Between the fashion houses there are galleries and antique dealers, if you look up from the windows.

What Happened to the Asprey Building on New Bond Street?

For as long as I have walked Bond Street, the building at 166 New Bond Street was Asprey. The jeweller had been there since 1847. In June 2026 it reopened as the Hermès Bond Street Maison, after Hermès had owned the freehold for seventeen years.

It fills six Georgian houses knocked through into one. Inside there is a Victorian lift, a spiral staircase and a botanical room painted by a Brighton illustrator. It is less a shop than a building worth seeing, and it is the newest reason to walk the northern half of the street.

Who Lived on Bond Street?

For most of the eighteenth century Bond Street was an address as well as a shopping street. The upper floors were let as lodgings to people who needed to be seen in town.

Jonathan Swift lodged here, and so did William Pitt the Elder. The novelist Laurence Sterne died in lodgings on Old Bond Street in 1768. Admiral Nelson stayed on Bond Street in 1797 and 1798, and Emma, Lady Hamilton lived here from 1811 to 1813.

The beau monde came to stroll, to shop and above all to be seen. That part has not changed at all.

What Is the Royal Arcade on Old Bond Street?

A covered Victorian shopping arcade that cuts through from 28 Old Bond Street to Albemarle Street. It was built in 1879 and 1880, and it is Grade II listed.

It got its royal name in the early 1880s, when Queen Victoria became a customer of the shirtmaker H. W. Brettell, who had a shop there. It is often called the oldest arcade in London, but that is the Royal Opera Arcade on Pall Mall, built in 1816 to 1818. The Royal Arcade is still one of the prettiest, especially when every shop has its own Christmas tree.

When Is the Best Time to Visit Bond Street?

Any season. I walk it all year, and it is a good walk in all of them. A weekday morning gives you the emptiest street and the best photographs.

But Christmas is when it shows off. From November the street is strung with lights, and the big houses dress their whole buildings, not just their windows. I have a separate guide to the Bond Street Christmas displays, window by window.

Cartier is the one everybody photographs. It wraps its New Bond Street building like a present, with a giant red ribbon and bow across the facade. A white panther lies on top.

Even the pavement joins in. Shops put out trees hung with red, green and gold baubles, and the whole street glitters after dark.

How Do You Walk Bond Street From End to End?

My way is north to south, from the Tube to Piccadilly. I come out of Bond Street station on Oxford Street and turn into New Bond Street.

New Bond Street comes first, the longer half, with Sotheby's, the Hermès Maison and the big flagships. At Burlington Gardens I say hello to Frink's horse. Then Old Bond Street takes me down to Piccadilly, with a detour through the Royal Arcade.

At the bottom I turn left for the Royal Academy, then cross over to Fortnum & Mason. If there is time, Hatchards, the oldest bookshop in London, is next door. An hour, and the week has gone.

Visiting Bond Street: Practical Notes

📍 Where: Old Bond Street runs north from Piccadilly to Burlington Gardens, and New Bond Street continues to Oxford Street. About half a mile in all, in Mayfair, London W1.

🚇 Getting there: Bond Street station (Central, Jubilee and Elizabeth lines) is at the Oxford Street end. Green Park (Victoria, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines) is closest to the Piccadilly end.

⏰ Opening: Shop hours vary by house. Larger shops in England can only open for six hours on a Sunday, so a weekday is easiest if you want to go inside.

🎫 Admission: The street, the Royal Arcade and the sculptures are free. So are the Sotheby's pre-sale exhibitions.

⏳ How long: An hour end to end at window-shopping pace. Half a day with the Royal Academy and Fortnum & Mason.

📷 Best time: A weekday morning for an empty street. From November to early January for the Christmas lights and wrapped buildings.

☕ Food: I usually finish at Fortnum & Mason on Piccadilly, a few minutes' walk from the bottom of Old Bond Street.

🗺️ Nearby: The Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington Arcade, Fortnum & Mason and Hatchards at the Piccadilly end. The Wallace Collection is a short walk north of Oxford Street.

♿ Access: Pavements are level, and part of New Bond Street between Grafton Street and Clifford Street is pedestrianised.

Where do you go in London when you need the buzz?

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All photos were taken by Ina/WithinLondon, unless stated otherwise.