JO MALONE On the trail of a new scent - Mayfair Times

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news
Burlington Arcade ‘will get makeover’
MARKUS MEIJER, chief executive of Meyer
Bergman, which bought the Burlington Arcade
along with Thor Equities for £104 million last
year, has told Mayfair Times that he is
confident that plans to carry out a £2.5 million
makeover of the arcade will be approved by
Westminster City Council by the end of this
month. This is despite a much-publicized
campaign against the changes.
Antique-silver dealer Daniel Bexfield, who
says he faces eviction because his shop
doesn’t “fit the look”, is leading the campaign,
which is backed by celebrities including
Michael Winner and Dame Judi Dench.
Protesters have criticised the new floor and
lighting plans, and say art installations by
Anthony Gormley aren’t in keeping with the
heritage of the arcade.
But Meijer said: “We are trying to make the
arcade a real shopping destination without
detracting from the historical character, which
we can’t change because of the Grade II
listing. We will keep the real historical part of
the arcade – the shop fronts, the brick walls,
the structure of the roof and the facades – and
Quadrant 3 proves a
hit with Al Gore
THE CROWN ESTATE has completed its £300 million
mixed-use Quadrant 3 development off the southern
end of Regent Street, next to Piccadilly Circus.
The scheme’s sustainable features, including
energy-efficiency measures, have been key to
attracting its first office tenant, Generation Investment
Management, co-founded by former US Vice President
Al Gore. The independent investment-management
firm, dedicated to long-term, sustainable investing,
has signed a 15-year lease for the top-floor space.
So far, close to a quarter of the development is let
or under offer. Two 1930s art deco restaurants – once
home to the Atlantic Bar and Grill and Titanic
Restaurant – have been restored. One of the
restaurants has been let to Chris Corbin and Jeremy
King’s company Rex Restaurant Associates, owner of
The Wolseley in Piccadilly. Called Brasserie Zedel, it
will provide an all-day brasserie/café and is due to
open next summer. Whole Foods Market also plans to
open a 1,580sq m store at Quadrant 3 next spring.
Roger Bright, who stepped down as chief
A month
in Mayfair
THE SALE of a huge Imperial
Chinese vase has put Bonhams
ahead for sales of Chinese art in
Europe. The turquoise vase,
decorated with
chrysanthemums, went for
£9 million, making it the highestpriced
Asian artwork in London
this year. Its pre-sale estimate
was £5 million to £8 million.
just work with the pieces [the lighting and
flooring] that we can change, to make them
more like the original and more attractive.”
Campaigners are also worried that major
luxury brands will take the place of smaller,
independent retailers, but Meijer insists that
claims he plans to transform the arcade into “a
Dubai-style mall” are unfounded.
“When people say we want to turn
Burlington Arcade into a high street, that’s
impossible, because the shop units aren’t big
enough,” he said. “It’s about finding the right
mix between iconic British brands and the right
international brands. Of the five new leases that
we’ve signed, three of them are existing leases
and only two of them are new – Lulu Guinness
and Jimmy Choo.
“We [don’t] only want to be a place where
people walk and look in the windows like a
museum, we want to be a place where people
really like to shop, because that’s good for
retailers, it’s good for the community and it’s
good for London.”
See next month’s Mayfair Times for the full
interview with Markus Meijer.
executive of The Crown Estate last month, said:
“Quadrant 3 is the latest development in our £1 billion
Regent Street investment programme and delivers a
wholesale transformation to this prominent part of the
West End.
“It is the largest and most ambitious scheme we
have ever undertaken, and as my time at the helm of
The Crown Estate draws to a close, I can’t think of a
more fitting symbol of all we have achieved in Regent
Street during the last decade.”
ALLENS OF MAYFAIR in Mount
Street has been named the best
butcher in the south of England in
the Butcher’s Shop of the Year
Awards 2011. Michael Gale, Allens
shop manager, was presented with
the award by Ed Bedington, editor
of Meat Trades Journal (right) and
Laura Bishop, marketing manager
at award sponsor Eblex.
Trees, please
THE DORCHESTER planted the first of
80 trees for London as part of the hotel’s
80th anniversary tree-planting project, in
collaboration with international tree
charity Trees for Cities.
The first tree – a Liriodendron
Tulififera, or Tulip Tree – was planted on
Curzon Street by entrepreneur Jo Wood.
Roland Mouret, Lily Cole and Anya
Hindmarch have also lent their support
to the project.
A further 79 long-living trees will be
planted across London in time for the
Olympics, including 15 in Mayfair and
St James’s to form The Dorchester
Anniversary Walk. Among those will be
an English oak to be planted in Green
Park and an Ash in Hyde Park.
Two-way Piccadilly
THE MAYOR OF LONDON Boris Johnson helped
mark the completion of a £14 million overhaul of
Piccadilly and its surrounding streets. The Mayor led
a convoy of vintage cars and a classic Routemaster
bus along Piccadilly, which has returned to two-way
traffic for the first time since the early 1960s.
The return to two-way traffic on Piccadilly, Pall
Mall and St James’s Street, combined with improved
traffic signalling, is expected to reduce congestion.
The improvement plan, led by Westminster City
Council, Transport for London and The Crown
Estate, was completed on schedule and ahead of
the 2012 Games. Restoring two-way traffic has
opened up a key gateway to St James’s Park, the
Mall and Horse Guards Parade, which will be the
venue for beach volleyball during the Olympics.
Mayfair clubs
open up doors
MADDOX NIGHTCLUB (3-5 Mills
Street) has opened its restaurant to
non-members so that international
visitors and locals alike can enjoy
Mayfair’s nightlife without having to
navigate their way around the maze
of membership policies associated
with many clubs in the area.
Other clubs that have recently
opened up their restaurants to nonmembers
include the Cuckoo Club
in Swallow Street, where guests can
dine in the restaurant and then gain
access to the club afterwards, and
the Playboy Club, which has just
launched a series of monthly food
and wine evenings for nonmembers.
ERIN O’CONNOR, Philip Treacy,
and Stephen Jones attended a
party at Il Bottaccio to celebrate
the opening of Carmen: A Life in
Fashion at the London College of
Fashion – the first exhibition to
document the life of supermodel
Carmen Dell’Orefice. Pictured are
Carmen Dell’Orefice and Erin
O’Connor.
BIBA FOUNDER BARBARA
HULANICKI IS BEHIND THE
RECENT REDESIGN OF THE
CUCKOO CLUB
PHOTO: ALEX MAGUIRE
Lights on for Christmas
THE REGENT STREET Christmas lights
were switched on last month by movie
stars from the new 3D family Christmas
film Arthur Christmas. British actors Bill
Nighy and Ashley Jensen waved to
thousands of fans for the traffic-free
event on Regent Street.
Pop stars Kelly Clarkson and Matt
Cardle entertained the audience with live
SELFRIDGES IS OFFERING a collection of
miniature shoes, housed in a bespoke, five-foot
recycled cabinet hand-made by Hendzel & Hunt.
Forming an advent calendar, with each
drawer, door or flap opening via a bespoke key,
wooden padlock, cryptic message or riddle, the
24 sections each contain scaled-down
collectable replicas of shoes (10cm
from heel to toe) from designers
including Fendi, Maison Margiela
and Dries Van Noten.
The cabinet house is the only full
collection of shoes and is available for one
collector to buy from Selfridges in Oxford Street.
The miniature concept continues with other
exclusives available, including Charlotte
Olympia limited-edition miniatures in six
colourways for £295 each, Fendi mini baguette
bags and Louboutin’s pack of Barbie shoes.
THE MAY FAIR HOTEL scooped the
award for Most Excellent Bedroom for its
colourful Schiaparelli suite at the 30th
annual dinner for the Condé Nast
Johansens 2012 UK & Ireland Awards for
Excellence. The suite, a tribute to retro
glamour, won the award for its attention
to decorative and theme detail and its
unique interior design that “really makes
it stand out from the crowd”.
performances, supported by the cast of
the West End musical Thriller and The
West End Gospel Choir.
Over in Oxford Street, pop group The
Saturdays pressed the button outside the
Marks and Spencer shop at Marble Arch
and performed their new single My Heart
Takes Over to thousands of people who
had gathered along the street.
Small but perfectly formed
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