In 1686 Sir Thomas Bond, a wealthy financier, together with John Hinde, began laying out what was to become known as Old Bond Street. The second half of the street was completed by the Earl of Oxford, as far as Oxford Street, in 1721 as New Bond Street and it quickly acquired a reputation as a luxury shopping area. The Bond Street in Plymouth, unlike so many that share London links, is actually named after JT (John Thomas) Bond who was Mayor of Plymouth when the town boundaries were extended in 1896. They weren’t extended as far as the land now occupied by Bond Street, Southway, however, as the properties there date from the 1960s.
JT Bond was born, in the Sutton constituency he was later to represent, in 1854, he went to Public School in Cobourg Street, leaving early to work for local solicitor, Eliot Square, as office boy and clerk. Subsequently articled and qualified as a solicitor in his own right, he later took over the business after the unfortunate demise of his former employer. As the business grew he took Percy Pearce into partnership, creating a very large practice that still operates today – Bond Pearce. Temperate and a great champion of the common man, Bond was Mayor twice and his name appears on many boundary stones marking the 1896 extensions.
