The Grosvenor family (who became Dukes of Westminster) acquired the land through marriage and began to develop it under the direction of Thomas Barlow.

By the end of the 18th century, most of Mayfair had been rebuilt with high-value housing for the upper class; unlike some nearby areas of London, it has never lost its affluent status.

The decline of the British aristocracy in the early 20th century led to the area becoming more commercial, with many houses converted into offices for corporate headquarters and various embassies.

Mayfair retains a substantial quantity of high-end residential property, upmarket shops and restaurants, and luxury hotels along Piccadilly and Park Lane.

[7] Whitaker's Almanack suggested that Aulus Plautius built a fort here during the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43 while waiting for Claudius.

[12] Mayfair consisted mainly of open fields until development began in the Shepherd Market area around 1686–88 to accommodate the May Fair, which had moved from Haymarket in St James's because of overcrowding.

The 6th Earl of Coventry, who lived on Piccadilly, considered the fair to be a nuisance and, with local residents, led a public campaign against it.

[17] The origins of major development began when Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 3rd Baronet, married Mary Davies, heiress to part of the Manor of Ebury, in 1677.

[12] In 1721, the London Journal reported "the ground upon which the May Fair formerly was held is marked out for a large square, and several fine streets and houses are to be built upon it".

[14] Sir Richard Grosvenor, 4th Baronet, asked the surveyor Thomas Barlow to design the street layout, which has survived mostly intact to the present day despite most of the properties being rebuilt.

Much of the land was owned by seven estates: Burlington, Millfield, Conduit Mead, Albemarle Ground, the Berkeley, the Curzon and, most importantly, the Grosvenor.

Of the original properties constructed in Mayfair, only the Grosvenor estate survives intact and owned by the same family,[2] who became the Dukes of Westminster in 1874.

The Hanover Square Rooms became a popular place for classical music concerts, including Johann Christian Bach, Joseph Haydn, Niccolò Paganini and Franz Liszt.

The requirements of the aristocracy led to stables, coach houses and servants' accommodation being established along the mews running parallel to the streets.

[29] The future Prime Minister Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, was born in Charles Street in 1847, and grew up in the area.

[31] A small memorial park in Mount Street Gardens has benches engraved with the names of former American residents in and visitors to Mayfair.

[32] The death of Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster in 1899 was a pivotal point in the development of Mayfair, following which all redevelopment schemes not already in operation were cancelled.

In the following years, Government budget proposals such as David Lloyd George's establishment of the welfare state in 1909 greatly reduced the power of the Lords.

[33] Following World War I, the British upper class was in decline, for the reduced workforce meant servants were less readily available and demanded higher salaries.

Mayfair attracted commercial development after much of the City of London was destroyed during the Blitz, and many corporate headquarters were established in the area.

Emma, Lady Hamilton, in 1791, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1814, and Prime Ministers Benjamin Disraeli and H. H. Asquith in 1839 and 1894 respectively were all married in the church.

[47] Straddling Albemarle and Dover streets, it is thought to have been a popular tea location for Queen Victoria, and it was from the hotel that in 1876 Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful telephone call in Britain.

Certain writers were known to stay there frequently; Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book and Agatha Christie's At Bertram's Hotel were each partly written during a visit to Brown's.

The district—especially the vicinity of Bond Street—is also the home of numerous commercial art galleries and international auction houses such as Bonhams, Christie's and Sotheby's.

[58] From the early 19th century, tailors, attracted by the affluent and influential residents, began to take up premises on Savile Row in south-eastern Mayfair, beginning in 1803.

In the 1980s, Jeffrey Archer was alleged to frequent the area and was accused of visiting Monica Coghlan, a call girl in Shepherd Market, which eventually led to a libel trial and his imprisonment for perverting the course of justice.

[88] Mayfair (spelled "May Fair") is the home of Sir Brian in Thackeray's The Newcomes, and otherwise features as the most desirable part of London.

[90][91][92] Mayfair has featured in a number of novels, including Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust (1934) and P. G. Wodehouse's The Mating Season (1949).

[94] He regularly socialised in the artistic quarter along Half Moon Street, which is mentioned in both The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest.

[95] Mayfair is the most expensive property on the standard British Monopoly board at £400, and is part of the dark blue set with Park Lane.