London Belongs to Me (again) - part four

Time for a little retail therapy in St James's but solely for photographic purposes, you understand. I've always loved walking through London's historic shopping arcades. The first of these was opened in 1816, although some of their elegant and expensive shops are struggling in these recessionary times. A few traders have given up altogether. This is the Princes Arcade, which dates from 1883 and runs from Piccadilly to Jermyn Street:

Leaving Princes Arcade at the Jermyn Street end, the first thing you see is this:

England's great polymath lived at number 87 from 1697 to 1709. 

But back to retail - number 89 is home to this splendid shopfront:

Floris has been trading here for almost 300 years, since Juan Famenias Floris arrived in England from Menorca and opened up shop in 1730. Everything here carries the scent of history; the Spanish mahogany showcases, for example, were made originally for the Great Exhibition of 1851. I sometimes wear Floris's Stephanotis, which is so much more than the fragrance of a single flower; it combines orange blossom, carnation, coriander, lily of the valley, jasmine and sandalwood, as well as its eponymous blossom, the traditional wedding flower. Women have been wearing this perfume since before the French Revolution . . . 

There's  also a reassuringly fat cake of Edwardian Bouquet soap by the bathtub (and it has to be a bathtub, doesn't it, not just a bath?): bergamot, hyacinth, mandarin, jasmine, rose, ylang ylang, amber, oakmoss, patchouli, sandalwood . . . That's something of a newcomer; Edwardian Bouquet has been around for a mere 108 years, created in 1901 to celebrate the new century. 

I would be quite happy to spend an entire day here, preferably curled up on a chair in the corner of the shop, reading Patrick Süskind's Perfume. In fact, I'd be happy to be official Reader-in-Residence and I'm wondering if I've stumbled upon a potential - and immensely satisfying - post-retirement career. You know, just moving from one interesting location to another, with a pertinent selection of books and chatting to people about them. Now, that would be true retail therapy.

Meanwhile, at number 93 is Paxton & Whitfield: 

arguably London's most famous cheese shop and certainly its oldest. Paxton & Whitfield has been trading in St James's for over 200 years and at this particularly shop for more than a century. Sadly no sign of Wallace in pursuit of the finest Wensleydale. Nor Gromit waiting patiently outside. (No dogs allowed.)

Comments

[Weeping Sore]

Your photos show small shops facing the street, with residences upstairs. This model, also greatly evident in Paris, is something Americans never figured out.

Instead, we generally prefer to segregate our living space from our working space. The result is soulless urban areas that are deserted after working hours, and cookie cutter residences that are deserted during the workdays.

I particularly love your reference to "retail therapy". I intend to appropriate your term the next time I need new shoes.

[Jay]

Oh, I love those elegant old arcades and shop fronts, too! I always find myself wondering about the lives of those people who first opened a shop there.

And that cheese shop definitely looks worth a visit!

[Liz]

As someone who has only been able to dip in and out over the years, I'm learning so much about London from this series of posts. But I am familiar with these two shops and that perfume (which was worn by some character in a novel I read many years ago and I just had to seek out. As you do).