Mediterranean Restaurant Shepherd Market
Shepherd Market in Mayfair has always been a bit edgy. For a start, it was built on the site of the original May Fair, known for its boxing booths, bawdy drolls (satires) and brothels. By all accounts, it was huge fun.
But fun usually comes to an end, and the May Fair had fallen into disrepute even by the time George I became king in 1714. In 1735, the prominent Georgian architect Edward Shepherd – the chap who designed The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden – began work on the site. By 1746, he had created the paved alleys we still see there today as well as a two-storey market topped by a theatre – and, curiously, a duck pond, now long gone.
Market forces
The spirit of the May Fair lingered on, though. During the 1920s, Shepherd Market was a seedy area popular with artists, writers and ‘ladies of the night’. The author and screenwriter Michael Arlen – real name Dikran Kouroumdjian – lived there, and it was Arlen who wrote the short story When a Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square first published in his collection These Charming People. The title was later ‘borrowed’ by lyricist Eric Maschwitz for one of the most famous ballads ever written, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.
Today, Shepherd (never Shepherd’s) Market has been transformed and is home to high-end retailers, art galleries and restaurants. In a subtle nod to the district’s past, Kitty Fisher’s Restaurant is named after prominent British courtesan from the heyday of Shepherd Market in the mid 1700s.
If you’re looking for a fun evening out, though, you might just stroll through Shepherd Market into Down Street where a hidden gem – Mayfair’s oldest tapas restaurant, El Pirata – will provide you with the warmest of welcomes..
