Piccadilly

About Piccadilly

Piccadilly, to the north is Mayfair stretching from Piccadilly Circus to Hyde Park Corner, is one of London's most famous streets. It contains a number of high class hotels, most notably The Ritz, and shops selling expensive luxury items such as Fortnum & Mason.

The name Piccadilly arises from a tailor (Robert Baker) who sold picadils - a type of stiff collar in vogue in the seventeenth century - in a shop in The Strand. He went on to purchase a lot of land and had a mansion built there around 1612, and this subsequently became known as became known as the Piccadilly Hall. Later the house was knocked down and a street built on the land.

Piccadilly also leads onto The Burlington Arcade, an elegant 18th century style shopping arcade.