Issue 1

WELCOME TO ISSUE 1

Welcome to The Mayfarer. Our aim with these pages is to shine a light on Mayfair’s culture and history, to promote its businesses, to champion its people and to highlight connections between two of the most fascinating and colourful areas in London – Covent Garden (where our sister publication The Covent Gardener resides) and now Mayfair.

The Covent Gardener and The Mayfarer have been designed in conjunction with each other, starting with the covers… try placing The Covent Gardener on the left and The Mayfarer on the right and you’ll see the bigger picture. Our brilliant cover artist John Broadley has exceeded all expectations for these remarkably intricate covers.

The name The Mayfarer is a play on words combining Mayfair with ‘wayfarer’, an allusion to the very short walk between our two areas. Woven through both magazines are fascinating connections to each other. The more we look the more connections we find.

The Mayfarer magazine will be packed full of illustrations, fun facts, regular columns and tips for restaurants, shopping and so much more.

The Curious Wayfarer will be a regular section headed up by world famous lifestyle photographer Sasha Gusov. Sasha will travel by foot between Covent Garden and Mayfair each issue, capturing the neighbourhoods as we have never seen them before.

We hear in this issue from Mark Fox how Mayfair originally got her name, and over in The Covent Gardener Mark tells us about the origins of the May Fayre puppet festival.

We also have two fabulous walking tours for you to do this summer — Art Historian Lucy Moore outlines 3000 years of art spanning over half a mile in Mayfair, with a delve into our neighbour’s hidden treasures for The Covent Gardener. It would be wonderful to hear how many of you already knew about these pieces.

Artist Adam Dant, a regular over in The Covent Gardener, has created our Mayfair map where each issue we will be adding only the most interesting and deserving of Mayfair characters. Do get in touch if you or your business would like the opportunity to be featured.

I am in Mayfair every morning then back home in the afternoon in Covent Garden where I’m based. Do say hello if you see me out and about and if you ever need tips on Covent Garden…