Established in 1806 and the oldest tailor on Savile Row, Henry Poole & Co. has been making liveries – “The clothing worn by those attached to or in the service of the great households and institutions,” in the words of Keith Levett, its Head of Ceremonial Tailoring - since 1869 when it received a Royal Warrant for its Ceremonial Tailoring from Her Majesty Queen Victoria.

But that made by Mr Levett for The Burlington Arcade’s guardian Head Beadle is among the first new examples he has designed and produced in all of his twenty three years at Henry Poole.

“It’s not often I’m asked to create a new livery” he says “and dress liveries have remained largely unchanged for two centuries, the designs have literally endured for a couple of hundred years.”

The new Beadles’ liveries, however, allowed him to take a completely fresh look at this historic, most exacting branch of Savile Row tailoring. “The previous Beadle’s uniforms were grey and trimmed in gold. They wore frockcoats. It was a generic look and I didn’t think it was in keeping with the standards and quality of the Arcade. I wanted to get away from boxy frockcoats – you can see enough of them outside hotels.”

What Mr Levett proposed was something slightly more clean-lined and distinguished. “I wanted to put the Beadles into a plain, almost Edwardian livery. And, importantly, it had to be something that would work across all physiques. At first, the Head Beadle said it looked too much like a gentleman’s dress coat, but we moved in a different direction and settled on what is essentially a late 18th/early 19th century livery design..”

The Burlington Arcade – the oldest and grandest shopping arcade in the world - was established by Lord George Cavendish, the younger brother of the 5th Duke of Devonshire, in 1806 and the Beadles were originally recruited from his regiment, the 10th Hussars. The smart dark blue, cherry red and silver colours of the new liveries were drawn from the primary colours of the Cavendish family’s arms.

There has been no change in the amount of work and the attention to detail that has gone into the new liveries: for example, there are ten to fifteen yards of silver lace in each coat and five more in each waistcoat. New button designs were created by referencing Poole’s archive of livery buttons, and were based on the type of monogrammed buttons frequently found on livery uniforms in the 19th century.

See for yourself at The Burlington Arcade.