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This is undoubtedly London’s most elegant park, with dazzling flower beds, exotic wildfowl on the lake (watch the pelicans being fed at 3pm), a good café with outdoor seating and music on the bandstand in summer. The bridge over the lake has a good view to the west of Buckingham Palace and, to the east, of the former Colonial Office where just 125 civil servants once governed the British Empire that covered one fifth of the world.

Major visiting art exhibitions are staged at Burlington House, home of Britain’s most prestigious fine arts institution. The building is one of Piccadilly’s few surviving 17th-century mansions – you can see the former garden front on the way up to the Sackler Galleries. Near the entrance to the galleries is Michelangelo’sMadonna and Child (1505) – part of the Royal Academy’s permanent collection and one of only four Michelangelo sculptures outside Italy. In the Academy’s popular, annual summer exhibition, new works by both established and unknown artists are displayed.

Built by Henry VIII, on the site of the former hospital of St James, the palace is the official residence of Prince Charles. The red brick Tudor gatehouse is a familiar landmark.

London’s most exclusive shopping street, Bond Street (known as New Bond Street to the north and Old Bond Street to the south) has long been the place for high society to promenade: many of its establishments have been here for over 100 years. The street is home to top fashion houses, elegant galleries such as Agnews and the Fine Art Society, Sotheby’s auction rooms and jewellers such as Tiffany and Asprey. Where Old and New Bond Street meet, there is a delightful sculpture of wartime leaders Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill – well worth a photograph.

The market was named after Edward Shepherd who built a two-storey house here in around 1735. Today, this pedestrianized area in the heart of Mayfair is a good place to visit on a summer evening for a drink or meal. Ye Grapes, dating from 1882, is the principal pub, while local restaurants include L ’Artiste Musclé, Le Boudin Blanc and The Village Bistro. During the 17th century, an annual May Fair was held here, giving the area its name.

The home of the Duke of Wellington, Apsley House is still partly occupied by the family. Designed by Robert Adam in the 1770s, the mansion is given over to paintings, and memorabilia of the great military leader. Paintings include several fine works by Diego Velázquez, includingThe Waterseller of Seville . Antonio Canova’s nude statue of Napoleon has special poignancy.

This pocket of green in the middle of Mayfair was planted in 1789 and its 30 huge plane trees may be the oldest in London. In 1774 Clive of India, hero of the British Empire in India, committed suicide at No. 45. Memorial benches in the square bear moving inscriptions, many from Americans who were billeted in Mayfair during World War II. The main UK Bentley and Rolls-Royce dealer’s showroom is on the east side of the square.

This arcade of bijou shops was built in 1819 for Lord George Cavendish of Burlington House (see Royal Academy of Arts) to prevent people from throwing rubbish into his garden. The arcade is patrolled by uniformed beadles who make sure that no unseemly behaviour, such as whistling, takes place.

Michael Faraday (1791–1867), a pioneer of electro-technology, experimented in the laboratories of the Royal Institution, where he was Professor of Chemistry from 1833–67. These Neo-classical laboratory buildings now house a museum.