Hyde Park and Marble Arch Tube Station in the southern part of this area form the foundation of this highly-desirable neighbourhood. Oxford Street is on the southern border of this area also, which caters to every shoppers’ need, featuring the UK flagship stores of many of the biggest clothing and goods suppliers in the world such as Selfridges, Adidas, Dr Martens, Disney and Debenhams. On the western side of this neighbourhood, there is a number of Middle-Eastern restaurants and food centres serving world-renowned falafel and baklava. If this wasn’t enough, the aesthetics alone make this area worthy of a visit. Featuring a complex mixture of architecture that showcases a history of London in just a few hundred square metres, visitors can see stunning Gothic Victorian towers, Regency-era apartments, disarmingly well-aged post-war flats, precise Georgian manors and red-brick Elizabethan buildings.

The landscape of this neighbourhood has changed dramatically over the last few hundred years, evidenced by the architectural styles throughout the area. The reason for this was mainly due to much of the pre-20th century buildings being destroyed in the Second World War. For example, where the Radisson SAS Portman Hotel currently stands was originally occupied by a building named Montagu House. It was designed by the neoclassical architect James Stuart and built for Elizabeth Montagu, a wealthy widow and patron of the London arts scene. The building was completed in 1781, but, like many buildings in this area, was destroyed by an incendiary bomb in the Blitz of London in the 1940s.

Hertford House, located in Manchester Square, offers a major collection of fine and decorative arts. Many famous residents have also lived in the square, including Julius Benedict, a German composer who composed The Legend of St Cecilia and The Brides of Venice, as well as John Hughlings Jackson, an English neurologist who contributed immensely to the diagnosis and understanding of epilepsy.

The main downsides of this neighbourhood are fairly typical of central London – air and noise pollution is particularly high at all times of day, and property prices average at £2 million. There is a reason this area is so desirable, however, with its proximity to Oxford Street, Hyde Park, Marble Arch Station, and an endless number of entertainment venues, eateries, and pubs.

Nearby Oxford Street was due to become fully pedestrianised by the end of 2018, though this plan was scrapped by Westminster Council. Westminster City Council stated that residents had spoken out against making the area traffic-free. In response, another plan, worth £150 million of investment by the council, was announced and intended to transform Oxford Circus and the stretch of Oxford Street to Great Portland Street into a series of pedestrian piazzas. The project was sadly also canceled in late Summer 2022, only a year after it was announced. The council’s greatest ‘achievement’ in public realm improvements in most recent times has been limited to the controversial ‘Marble Arch Mound’, which was finally dismantled in January 2022 and gained the reputation of London’s worst attraction.