West End of London [ Cities / Institutions ]
… squares and town houses for the elite in the West End) shopkeepers in St James's Street, the Strand and Old Bond Street began to offer the best fashions from Paris and to inform women what was in and what was out. The top shops in the … the ‘ beau monde ‘. 5 They showed up for the aristocratic season and were the people to be seen with. Gentlemen began to pursue life in the clubs of St. James's. The first of the West End clubs was White's, founded in a chocolate … urban culture. New forms of sociability emerged around the networks offered by luxury entertainment and retail. Pierce Egan's novel Life in London (1821) expressed the way in which the West End offered spaces for the man about town. …
Aristocracy | Consumption | Clubs | Elite | Gambling | Gender | Opera
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