Nearby highlights Bond Street is classy. Start by browsing Gray's Antiques (58 Davies Street, graysantiques.com – don't miss the subterranean river Tyburn running through the basement) and then drop into Sotheby's (34-35 New Bond Street, sothebys.com) for lunch. Its gourmet cafe menu changes every week to complement the art on sale. Complete your culture fix in the stunning 18th-century Wallace Collection (Manchester Square, wallacecollection.org) which can easily eat up a whole afternoon, and either stay for dinner in their bijoux courtyard restaurant, or pop along to the Wigmore Hall (36 Wigmore Street, wigmore-hall.org.uk) to hear some chamber music. Either way, finish the evening at Purl (50 Blandford Street, purl-london.com) for clandestine, wow-factor cocktails in a snug underground vault.
Did you know? Bond Street does not appear on the original plans for the Central London Railway, with its place between Oxford Circus and Marble Arch taken instead by a proposed Davies Street station. Bond Street won out, however, and the station opened three months after the rest of the CLR in September 1900. From 2018, if things go to plan, it will also form part of Crossrail line 1.