Burlington Arcade, a covered shopping arcade in…
March 1819 CE
The Burlington Arcade is built "for the sale of jewellery and fancy articles of fashionable demand, for the gratification of the public".
It is one of the London's earliest arcades, built at a time when the arcade is a new form of retail shopping designed to serve the growing middle classes.
It consists of a single straight top-lit walkway lined with seventy-two small two-story units.
Built to the order of Lord George Cavendish, younger brother of the 5th Duke of Devonshire, who had inherited the adjacent Burlington House, on what had been the side garden of the house and reputedly to prevent passers-by throwing oyster shells and other rubbish over the wall of his home, opens on March 20, 1819.
His architect is Samuel Ware.