A hike up Park Lane and around historic Mayfair, where two centuries ago Beau Brummell kept a future king waiting while the prince kept his "wife" waiting, and prime ministers, scientists, poets and scoundrels lived lavishly, not necessarily on their own money.

The 24 sample nuggets of history on this tour were culled from a pair of online goldmines of information, both of them fascinating and often funny. One is the Centre for Metropolitan History's many pages of extracts from the 1878 memoir "Old and New London". The other is GardenVisit.com's edited version of Findlay Muirhead's 1927 London guidebook.

Some of the placemark locations will be approximate, possibly off by quite a bit. I'm open for corrections.

Below, the entrance to Grosvenor Street as seen from Hyde Park around 1780.