Back Bay Boston: Newbury Street, Copley Square & the Neighbourhood Guide

Back Bay is Boston's most elegant and orderly neighbourhood — a planned Victorian district laid out on landfill in the 1850s and 1860s, with alphabetically named cross streets (Arlington, Berkeley, Clarendon, Dartmouth...) imposing a rational European grid on the otherwise organic Boston street plan. The result is one of the finest intact Victorian urban neighbourhoods in North America, with brownstone-faced row houses, wide Commonwealth Avenue lined with a central garden mall, and world-class retail and cultural institutions concentrated in a highly walkable area.

Newbury Street is Back Bay's commercial spine — eight blocks of retail running parallel to Commonwealth Avenue that combine high-street fashion, luxury brands, independent boutiques, art galleries, and some of Boston's best cafes and restaurants in a genuinely excellent pedestrian shopping experience. The blocks nearest the Public Garden (1st through 4th) skew toward upscale boutiques and fine dining; the western blocks toward Massachusetts Avenue have more independent character. The cafes and restaurants with outdoor seating on Newbury become the most pleasant streetside dining in Boston during spring and summer.

Copley Square at the neighbourhood's heart contains two of Boston's architectural treasures within metres of each other: Trinity Church (H.H. Richardson's 1877 Romanesque masterpiece, considered one of the 10 most significant buildings in American architectural history) and the Boston Public Library, whose Renaissance palazzo facade and McKim, Mead & White interior — with murals by John Singer Sargent — constitute one of the great civic building experiences in the United States. The John Hancock Tower's sleek glass facade reflects Trinity Church's exterior in a famous juxtaposition of architectural eras. Back Bay is served by Copley and Arlington Green Line stations.