Tour of London's Mayfair

Tip-tally-ho! Welcome to Jewel's Guide, in which I wander around London and tell you interesting things about various areas. And today we're walking through Mayfair, so come along Simon, let's go! Where are we? This is Claridges, which is where celebrities usually stay when they come to London and it was actually opened by a butler in 1855, but it received royal patronage in 1860 when Queen Victoria and her husband Albert were invited to come and have dinner there by Empress Eugenie of France who was staying there and I think ever since then there's been this kind of tradition for royal guests to invite the Queen for dinner here at Claridges. In the Second World War there were a lot of royal families in exile from Europe and one of them was King Peter of Yugoslavia and he came here and he ended up fathering his son Prince Alexander in room 212. But Winston Churchill, who was Prime Minister at the time, he said let's try and make it so he's being born on Yugoslavian soil. So they took some Yugoslavian soil and they put it underneath the bed where he was being born and then he declared room 212 as a part of Yugoslavia for that day, which was rather nice. Then Churchill discovered that he hadn't been re-elected after the war. That's thanks for you, after all that hard work he sorted out the war and everything and then he discovered that he hadn't been re-elected and so he came back here to commiserate in a gin and tonic I think. Green cross code man, we need him. I won't be there when you cross the road so always use the green cross code. And to our American listeners, the green cross code man is Darth Vader. Dave Prowse, yeah he used to do adverts when we were kids all about, you know, look, listen and think when you're crossing the road. But it's really expensive in here, I remember I did a job in here once where I had to be a tree, that was it was some sort of promotional thing and they ordered some food for us and they said oh will you get a burger or something so I ordered a hamburger. It was like 25 quid or something, amazing. This is called Brook Street by the way and it's called Brook Street because of the river Tyburn that used to trickle along near here so I dare say maybe this was a tributary of the river or something, yeah Tyburn as in Tyburn gallows up where they used to hang people. So yeah here at number 25 is where George Frederick Handel lived for many years, one of our greatest composers, well he's not one of ours, he's German I suppose, we always try and claim other people as our own don't we, especially sportsmen. From 1685 to 1759 he even composed the famous Handel's Messiah here, you know Handel's Messiah? The interior of the museum has been preserved as an 18th century home just as he would have known it and it's got all these harpsichords and things like that inside the authentic creaky staircase and just downstairs. Jimi Hendrix also lived there and they've recreated the room so you can go in and you can see Jimi Hendrix's bedroom just as it used to be. It's amazing that it's Jimi Hendrix and not someone like, I don't know, Vanilla Rice or someone like that. Well another great musician like Vanilla Rice. It would have made such a lame story if it If you want to make some sexy time Simon you can buy your kit here in Victoria's Secrets. It's where I generally go to buy my crutchless panties and things like that. This whole area of Mayfair used to just be fields up until the 18th century and then the Grosvenor family, I think they inherited or they bought up some property and then they started developing all these squares around here like Grosvenor Square and Hanover Square and then it became a very aristocratic affluent area but of course by the beginning of the 20th century all the aristocrats got booted out and then they sort of sold all those nice big grand houses off for embassies and offices and prêt-à-manger. This is Savile Row and I've been here before. It's a Savile Row in another video. Well of course yeah you know this is where James Bond gets his suits and Withnail in fact and Withnail and I. Oh this is Henry Poulenco. This is what happened when I went in there a while ago. So I understand this is the place where a tuxedo was invented. Well yes the evening suit. The Prince of Wales had just bought Sandringham and the whole idea was to have something that was a little bit less formal so we came to see Henry Poul who in theory cut the tails off a white tine tail suit. So hence we ended up making something a little bit similar to this. It was a sort of smoking jacket style. We did it in a midnight blue satin silk with matching trousers and that's really how the evening suit began and it sort of morphed more into the one which you normally get today. How did it get the name tuxedo then? Well Prince of Wales had an American gentleman come to visit James Potter and knowing that he was off to see the Prince of Wales he came in to see Henry Poul and Henry said we've only just made him this so let me make one for you as well and he liked it so much that when he went back to New York he happened to be a member of the tuxedo club just outside of New York. So they adopted it as their sort of informal attire and that's how it became known as the tuxedo in the States. I prefer dinner jacket don't you? What do you call it? An evening suit. An evening suit, very nice. It's a privy council uniform that we used to make between about 1846 and 1947. We did quote someone not too long ago for a new one at about 32,000. You know I've just lost my wallet. So oh number 23 over here and that's quite interesting because this used to be Apple Records and that was the last place where the Beatles ever did a concert. It's just on the roof up there yeah and then all the locals, it was in 1969 and all the locals complained and police came and shut it down 40 minutes later. Burlington Arcade. In 1819 Lord Cavendish inherited Burlington House which was next door. I think he was tired of people throwing stuff over the wall into his garden so he decided to create one of the first covered shopping arcades in the world and in order to prevent his wife and friends from being molested whilst they're doing their shopping he decided to hire like a mini police force from his old regiment which was the 10th Hussars and sort of turned them into these Beatles which we can still see here now. They constitute more or less the oldest police force in the world. No running, shouting, piddling in the shallow end or whistling or opening umbrellas and the reason for that was a lot of the upstairs rooms here were occupied by prostitutes. If they'd whistled it would alert the pimps down here and the pickpockets to the fact that the Beatles were arriving or the police. This whole area's got all these lovely arcades. I actually prefer the Piccadilly Arcade in terms of what they've got for sale. You see now this sort of stuff I actually buy this. In fact I only just bought a new cravat today. So actually speaking of cravats this fellow at the end that's Bob Rummel. He invented the cravat. This guy yeah. No look there he is wearing one. He invented the cravat. Apparently they say that it took him four hours to get dressed in the morning. He also invented wearing what we understand as a sort of tight fitting cut suits and wasn't very fond of cricket. Terrible cricketer. Had a batting average of 13 I understand. Yeah. He played one game in his life. It's true I think he played for Hampshire Gentlemen or something. He scored 13. Preferred being what they call a dandy. This is old Bond Street where you come if you want to go to Tiffany's or something to buy a wedding ring or anyway my favorite thing down here is the chocolate shop down here. At least my favorite chocolate shop. Charbonnel and Walker. Sometimes you can get free stuff. I'm going to see if I can. It's my mum's favorite chocolate shop so I thought I'd just come and see. Can I try one of those? Well thanks very much. English chocolates. Excellent. Why such a foreign name? Charbonnel was from Paris. Oh okay. She teamed up with Madame Walker who did intricate jewelry boxes. Talk to me Harry Winston. You know in that Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend he goes talk to me Harry Winston tell me all about it. I never knew that Harry Winston was actually a jewelry shop. I had no idea because I always thought she was talking about Winston Churchill who is right over there incidentally. It's quite difficult to fit in here. You look. You have to cross your legs. Like resting on your shoulder. A special relationship we have you know. Pint at the punch bowl I think Simon don't you? I agree indeed. Sounds good to me. There it is. It was bought in 2008. That was the pub that was bought by Madonna and Guy Ritchie. Prince William and Harry used to go there and Leonardo DiCaprio, David Beckham, Robert Downey Jr. Eventually he sold it. Thanks for watching. If you've enjoyed my videos please hit the subscribe button. Tell your friends. Have a look at my other videos on the Jewelsguides channel and indeed on my website Jewelsguides.com where you can contact me if you want a private guided tour of London or you can be my Patreon or even throw me a donation on Paypal if you like. Sorry hon.