Burlington Arcade

The lowdown

Burlington Arcade opened in 1819 and is the longest and grandest of London's covered Regency shopping arcades, a single elegant avenue of small shops beneath an arched glass roof, running off Piccadilly beside the Royal Academy. Walking through it is free and feels like stepping back two centuries.

It was built, the story goes, so the neighbouring lord would stop people throwing oyster shells and rubbish over his garden wall. To keep order it employed Beadles, uniformed guards in top hats and frock coats, and they are still there, the oldest and smallest private police force in Britain, gently enforcing old rules against running, whistling and singing.

The shops sell jewellery, cashmere and antiques far beyond most budgets, but looking costs nothing, and the real pleasure is the arcade itself, the polished shopfronts, the glass roof and the sense of a perfectly preserved slice of Regency London.