Burlington Arcade is not a high street with a roof on it. We have taken five units inside it, for five different brands.
Transaction facts
| Service | Retail acquisition and leasing |
| Location | Burlington Arcade, Mayfair W1 |
| Units secured | Five, including Units 5, 6 and 7 and a double unit at 56–57 |
| Clients | Include J&M Davidson and Sermoneta Gloves |
| Period | 2022 to 2024 |
The brief
Brands ask for Burlington Arcade by name. Very few of them understand what they are asking for. The units are small, the trading hours are set by the arcade rather than by the tenant, the shopfronts are controlled, and — the part that surprises people — you are not renting a box. You are being admitted to a curated mix, and the landlord’s question is not whether you can pay but whether you improve the line-up.
What we did
We have secured five units in the arcade for five different brands between 2022 and 2024: Units 5, 6 and 7, and a double unit at 56 and 57. Working repeatedly inside one arcade compounds in a way that working across a district does not. We know which units come up and roughly when, what the management is trying to achieve with the mix, and how a brand needs to be presented to be wanted rather than merely accepted.
For each brand the work was the same shape and a different answer: establish whether the format genuinely suits the product, because a very small footprint is punishing for some models and ideal for others, then position the brand as the tenant the arcade would choose.
The result
Five units, five brands, one arcade. The arcade is a good test of whether an adviser is any use, because you cannot get in by offering more money. You get in by being the right tenant, and someone has to make that case.