Mayfair, from Curzon Street outwards

Start on Curzon Street, Mayfair. It's the calm spine of the southern half, and within a few minutes of it you've got one of London's best small bookshops, a barber that's been shaving the neighbourhood since 1875, the lanes of Shepherd Market and Green Park, with everything else a short walk on from there.

Curzon Street and Shepherd Market

Heywood Hill, at 10 Curzon Street, is a small and serious bookshop where you tell the staff what you last enjoyed and they build you a pile. It also posts books worldwide on subscription, a good present to take home. A few steps along, Geo. F. Trumper at 9 Curzon Street does wet shaves and haircuts in mahogany cubicles. Book both on a weekday.

A passage off Curzon Street takes you into Shepherd Market, a knot of 18th-century lanes full of small restaurants and pubs. Ye Grapes, at 16 Shepherd Market, is a proper Mayfair pub with a Thai menu, and on warm evenings the drinkers spill right across the lane.

Galleries, two houses and the shopping streets

The Royal Academy fills Burlington House on Piccadilly. Its Collection Gallery is free, while the ticketed exhibitions change through the year, so check what's on and book a timed slot for anything big; weekday mornings are calmest. Up Albemarle Street, the Royal Institution keeps the Faraday Museum in its basement, Michael Faraday's magnetic laboratory included. Allow half an hour, and expect it to be one of the least crowded things to do in Mayfair.

George Frideric Handel lived at 25 Brook Street from 1723 until he died in 1759, and Jimi Hendrix rented the top-floor flat next door in 1968. Handel Hendrix House joins the two up, with Handel's rooms furnished to his period and Hendrix's flat restored to how he kept it. Check opening times on the website before you walk over.

Burlington Arcade, off Piccadilly, is a covered Regency arcade of jewellers and watch dealers, still patrolled by beadles in livery. Bond Street runs north from Piccadilly with the big fashion houses, and Savile Row is parallel if you want to look in on the tailors. Maddox Street, over towards Regent Street, is Mayfair with its tie loosened: good for a quick lunch, and home to Goodman, a steakhouse that takes its beef seriously.

Mount Street, and somewhere to sit

Mount Street is Mayfair's dining street. Scott's, at number 20, is the seafood restaurant everyone asks about, and in summer its handful of pavement tables are the ones to ask for, and the first to go. Bacchanalia, at the Berkeley Square end, is the opposite mood entirely, with Greco-Roman statues, a Mediterranean menu and a dining room built to be photographed.

For something quicker and cheaper, Mercato Mayfair has turned the Grade I-listed St Mark's church on North Audley Street into a food hall with counters on two levels. It's the easiest place in Mayfair to feed a group that can't agree.

Mount Street Gardens has the best bench in Mayfair, shaded and missed by most visitors. Berkeley Square and Grosvenor Square are bigger and busier. For a longer walk, cross Piccadilly from the Athenaeum hotel into Green Park and follow it down towards Buckingham Palace.

Mayfair is a twenty-minute walk end to end, and ringed by stations. Green Park, at the Curzon Street end, has the Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria lines. Bond Street, to the north, has the Central, Jubilee and Elizabeth lines, and the Elizabeth line goes direct to Heathrow, the City and Canary Wharf. For Curzon Street itself Green Park is nearest: walk up Half Moon Street or White Horse Street from Piccadilly and you're there in five minutes.

Mayfair is dense with old buildings and with places to eat, and most of those places get top marks from the Food Standards Agency for hygiene. There are thirty-odd serviced residences here, from just under £200 a night, several of them within a few minutes of Curzon Street in the quieter southern half. The smaller restaurants round Shepherd Market and Mount Street often cut their hours on Sundays, so book Sunday dinner before you arrive.

Food hygiene ratings for the places in this guide

Official fact Food Standards Agency Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, checked 23 September 2026. 5 is the top rating.

Name	Registered address	Rating	Inspected
Ye Grapes	16 Shepherd Market, W1J 7QQ	3	May 2026
Goodman Mayfair	26 Maddox Street, W1S 1QH	5	Jul 2026
Bacchanalia	Connaught House, 1-3 Mount Street, W1K 3NB	5	Mar 2025

Ratings cover hygiene only, not food quality. Matched by name and address; a venue not shown was not found or could not be matched with confidence.