Mayfair Eccentrics

Home of Style and Bon Mots

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A character driven expose of Mayfair Past & present by resident inky-scribe voted Most Eccentric British Thinker Eccentrics Club patron HRH Prince Philip @tyneoconnell

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#dandizette spotted on Old Bond Street in purple #ballgown - all is right with the world (at Cartier)

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The #Eccentrics essential map to the World as we know it - #Mayfair http://bit.ly/MayfairMap (at Mayfair)

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Tea makes life a journey both happy and rare... #tea lends a gladness and makes care depart for tea is liquid poetry and goes straight to the heart! (at St James's)

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Every cup of tea I sip is #atoast to #QueenCatherineofBraganza who gave us tea & tolerance & our stiff upper lips with her philosophy of bear and forebear. Though a serious & devout Catholic herself she loved nothing more than throwing decadent parties & masque balls especially on Sundays which shocked the sensibilities of protestants but thrilled the saloniers & eccentrics of King Charles II’s Court of cavaliers. For in giving us tea & ports of Tangiers and Bombay, CATHERINE opened up #BritishSociety to women, extravagantly dressed dandies & dandizettes who had hitherto been excluded from Coffee houses where conversations of religion & politics ruled & instead gave us #afternoon-tea #salons where chat of fashion, philosophy and larks held sway! (at Mayfair, London City)

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The immense joy of Christmas expressed in the lifting of the lid of an F&M box of treats. @fortnums @tyneoconnell (at Royal Over-Seas League)

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Congratulations to The Great Rake Liberator #dandy & general splendid chap voted by The Rake Magazine @newsva @therakeonline (at London, United Kingdom)

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Tweed brings all the majesty of the highlands & the #grousemoors & the glorious smells of wet spaniels & fabulous Edwardian breakfasts & more distant memories of those fabulous teenage romantic young etonians who climbed up unstable piping to get to our rooms & pass us illicit slugs of vodka after balls...tweed evokes the very best of everything British. The beauty & timeless Magic of drizzle (without the fizzy hair) Tweed is ever young (at St James Park, Buckingham Palace)

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I'm out of #hospital; rattling with pills, my veins ruined from ineptly inserted catheters. I snuck out as all the medics can do now is "monitor" me & my #iPhone can do that. I'm an infamous runaway-patient & expertly remove catheters as other mothers remove splinters. My family have been conspiring in my hospital escapes since I first gave birth to my daughter in the bath, assuring all I wasn't in labour at all. I just needed a "nice little soak." OConnell women have a predisposition for absconding & dissent & my husbands & children have aided me in my MayfairEscapades more than expected, despite my prenup full disclosure. I strictly adhere to Tradition etiquette & #good-manners but hospital-confinement, panjandrums & men-in-polyester-uniforms make me #bolt. My children suffered terribly with me constantly urging them to "skip school darling & spend the day with Mummy" at the #V&A @Fortnum's or "playing with jewels at @Aspreys." Probably why they ran away to #boarding-school. They were frequently pressed to rescue me in scaling over the Church-Gates of @MountStGardens when I'd come home from my #Park-Lane revelry after the #church-gates had already been locked. I probably could have found an alternative route to our #MountStreetFlat but when it comes to navigation-skills, I score about as low as a #Spaniel. Getting up the blessed gates was a breeze, but once up I couldn't face the drop. I'd phone the family & they'd all clamber onto the window-seat on MountSt Mayfair & look down on me dangling off the gate post like a distressed cat. After their laughter & general merriment, the husbands & children would eventually clamber down the four flights of stairs with the ladder & rescue me. Throughout my self-inflicted "spot-of-bother" (as I described these regular predicaments to my own #mad-madre) #Jesuit-Priests, Mayfair-doormen & patrons of #scott's would amble past without a second glance. It takes more than a Mad-Mayfair-Matron in six-inch #crocodile-shoes dangling from the church gates to raise an eyebrow in My Manor! Not without reason has Mayfair & St James's been home to #RomanCatholics #eccentrics #royals #spies & #bluestocking-salons (at The Ritz London)

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Manicured on #BerkeleyStreet at #top1one. A strange experience after over a year sans manicure. Apparently my nails are as frail as the rest of me so we shan't be repeating the experience anytime soon! Oh but what fun to be a girl being beautified once again... as #vladimirnabokov said "speak memory" for there was a time when fun girly beautification treatments were a quotidian part of my life like eating... (at Berkeley Street, Mayfair, W1)

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#tiaras & #tea in bed. There's nothing like a pot of @fortnums Countess Grey Tea & a #Georgian #Tiara to bring sparkle & lark song to a day. Every moment needs magic. (at Green Park)

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My days of swinging from chandeliers at hunt balls, elephant polo, champagne fountains & dancing on tables are behind me yet my quest & thirst for beauty, larkiness, & laughter still sustain me - along with Eton Mess & my unshakable faith in Our Lady, The Miracles of Lourdes & Literature.

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Now I can no longer wear heels I rely on a wiggie to jolly up my outfit & bring a sense of occasion & accessorise my drip. Bring back hats & a sense of occasion to our streets. http://bit.ly/1mVlcQ7

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Where have all the jaunty #hats gone? #Hats add a sense of occasion that #shoes & #bags - however finely crafted - simply can't. One sees so few Nelson Hats on the streets of #Mayfair these days proving mattered sartorial are as dictated by the winners as is history, for of course one sees chaps & chappesses in Wellington Boots everywhere! Now I can no longer wear heels I rely on jolly hats or wiggie stop jolly up my outfit & bring a sense of occasion to my sic-bed. Bring back hats & a sense of occasion to our streets & visit #lockshatters - http://bit.ly/1mVlcQ7

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Miss u my DARLING #DADDY but every pavement of #Mayfair & #StJames's is imbued with your bravery wit & sweet charm. You brought #TheRitz alive for me with your stories of #CharkesdeGaulle at the bar & larks & laughter of the ballroom. I smell your perfectly cut suits every time I walk past @andersonandsheppard. Life without you lacks a grace. You taught me how to "stay in the moment for that is all there really is...the moment we're in. The rest is dreams & memories." You said, "Guard your dignity for in the changing fortunes of life that's all any of us truly own & no one can take it from you but your self. L" You said, "Treasure those you love for life is brief & time is fleeting." You also taught me how to dance, I remember standing on your shoes as you counted out the steps & you taught me how to catch a Trout as the frost bit at our faces, and how to say no to a marriage proposal, eschew fish knives & eat a quail. All the important things. You taught me. I search for you in every sky, for it embodies the scope with which you urged me to view my life - an expanse of endless possibility. For while you to gave me the courage to travel the road less travelled, you urged me believe in miracles too, and to believe none of what I hear & half of what I see. Your sardonic wit remains as matchless as your sweet-charm. But I will search for you always in the skies; at the wheel of your spitfire, your focus sharp "in the moment - always always always in the moment...for that is all there is" the rest is dreams and memories & this moment is full of sweet, dear memories of you my Darling Daddy. I Love you endlessly xxx Tyne

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"Books are the #bubbles in my Vintage #Champagne, #Poetry the madness that keeps me sane. Literature is #BOND ST on Sample Sale Day. I am lost without books"©TyneO'Connell

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#StJames's - The majesty & history this vista inspires is always a shock. One is transported to the splendour of the court of King Charles II & Catherine of Braganza. I look about for #SamualPeypes or #Evelyn & reach for my quill. The paradise for #InkyScribes Everywhere.