Piccadilly

Welcome to one of the world's most famous streets, a grand boulevard that owes its name to fashionable lace collars worn 400 years ago. Stretching nearly 1 mile between Hyde Park Corner in the west and the bustling junction of Piccadilly Circus in the east, this wide, straight thoroughfare has witnessed centuries of British history. The street's unusual name comes from piccadills, decorative collars with scalloped lace edges that were the height of fashion among wealthy Elizabethans.

Around 1612, a shrewd tailor named Robert Baker made a fortune selling these expensive accessories. With his newfound wealth, he bought land along what locals then called the road to Reading and built himself a mansion so grand it rivaled the homes of nobility. Neighbors mockingly called it Piccadilly Hall, a jab at the upstart tradesman living like an aristocrat. In 1663, authorities officially renamed the street Portugal Street to honor Catherine of Braganza, wife of King Charles II. But the nickname proved more popular, and by the 1740s everyone simply called it Piccadilly.