St James's Street: Hatters, Wine Merchants and Clubs
Why is it significant?
Walk slowly down the slope of St James's Street towards the red brick gatehouse at the bottom, and keep an eye on the shopfronts.
Key Facts
| Place | St James's Street: Hatters, Wine Merchants and Clubs |
|---|---|
| Address | St James's Street, London SW1A 1EF, United Kingdom |
| Geo Coordinates | 51.50640, -0.13890 |
| Part of Walk | Crowns, Pelicans and Bearskins: Royal London from The Mall to St James's |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk slowly down the slope of St James's Street towards the red brick gatehouse at the bottom, and keep an eye on the shopfronts. On your left, near the foot of the street, you will find a dark old shop window full of hats, and next to it a wine merchant's with bare wooden floors that tilt like a ship's deck. These two shops are older than the United States.
The hatter is James Lock and Co., founded in 1676 and at number 6 since the 1760s. They made hats for Admiral Nelson, including one with a built-in shade for his damaged eye, and for the Duke of Wellington. And in 1849 a customer called Edward Coke ordered a hard, low-crowned hat to protect his gamekeepers' heads from branches and poachers. The world calls it the bowler. In this shop it is still called the Coke.
Next door, at number 3, Berry Bros. and Rudd have been selling wine since 1698. They began as a grocer's shop, and a giant set of scales for weighing coffee hangs inside. In the eighteenth century fashionable customers started weighing themselves on it, and the shop kept the ledgers. Lord Byron's weight is in them, and so is the Prince Regent's.
Beside the wine shop a narrow timber passage leads into Pickering Place, one of the smallest squares in London. A plaque there recalls that the Republic of Texas kept its legation in this courtyard in the 1840s, before Texas joined the United States. Legend says the last duel in London was fought in this tiny yard.
Look back up the street and you are looking at clubland. White's, the oldest gentlemen's club in London, began as a chocolate house in 1693, and its betting book recorded wagers on almost anything, from elections to the weather. For three centuries, this street decided who was in and who was out. Now walk to the bottom of the street and face the Tudor gatehouse with the clock.