Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tomers living in the country and for officers serving abroad. A pair of
boots cost Major Crowder £3 16s 6d.
Nearby, on the corner with Piccadilly, stood a shop that seems to epitomise the masculine
world of St James's: the boot and shoemaker George Hoby. It was Hoby, who, redesigning
the fashionable Hessian boots to the Duke's specification, produced the famous Wellington
boot - an elegant yet practical leather creation far removed from today's 'wellies'.
The men did not have the street to themselves, however. In 1807 Mrs Clark, whose shop
was at No. 56, advertised '…a large assortment of corsets of every size, and superior make,
so that ladies may immediately suit themselves without the inconvenience of being meas-
ured.' Fashions in corsets changed regularly and Jane passed on the latest London intelli-
gence on the subject in September 1813. 'I learnt from Mrs Tickar's young Lady, to my
high amusement, that the stays now are not made to force the Bosom up at all;
that
was a
very unbecoming, unnatural fashion.'
As you walk down the hill you come to chemists Henry and Daniel Rotely Harris, selling
some delightfully old-fashioned colognes and flower waters. They came to the street in
1790.
Next door is Boodles club, No. 28. It was a favourite of country squires and moved here
in 1783 to premises originally occupied by the Savoir Vivre, a notorious 'hell'.
Detail of a window at Boodle's Club. The curved white surround con-
ceals the external blinds.
Cross the road, taking advantage of one of the traffic islands that were originally intro-
duced in the early nineteenth century to make life safer for the slightly inebriated clubmen
as they negotiated the busy, very wide, street.
Cleveland Court off St James's Place, location of Henry Austen's bank
premises before he moved to Albany.
