Mayfair: A Social History

The British author's detailed, colorful history traces the rise and decline of London's ""very exclusive village'' from the 18th century onward. The name Mayfair evolved from the agricultural May Fair as the area spread with mansions of the wealthy. During succeeding eras, Mayfair's fame and notoriety also spread, with the peerage, authors, publishers and other notables settling there. Kennedy's lively stories recall Disraeli, Macaulay, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward et al. Cafe society, it is said, was born at Mayfair's Cafe de Paris during the 1930s, a decade of lavish private parties and public entertainments. The cafe and many other buildings were destroyed during the Blitz, presaging Mayfair's neardemise especially as different kinds of people moved into the neighborhood after World War II. Photos. (May)