Jermyn Street Hat Shop Open on Sundays: Bates Hatters

Bates Hatters sells its hats from inside the Hilditch & Key shop at 73 Jermyn St, London SW1Y 6NP, directly opposite Piccadilly Arcade. Unlike most of the old St James's hatters, it is open seven days a week: Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm, Saturday 10am to 6pm and Sunday 11am to 5pm. A wool flat cap costs £175, a fur felt fedora £250, and a beaver fur felt top hat £695, so this is the practical hat shop for a Sunday in the West End.

Bates calls itself hatters since 1898, and its own page describes it as one of London's historic hatmakers, with patrons it names as David Beckham, Jason Statham and the late David Bowie. Hilditch & Key, the shirtmaker that now houses it, has served customers from its Jermyn Street home since 1899. The old Bates domain now redirects to the Hilditch & Key site, and the hats are sold from a dedicated corner of the shirt shop rather than a separate storefront.

That arrangement is worth knowing before you arrive. You walk in past racks of shirts and knitwear, and the hats are there for the trying, as the shop puts it: top hats, flat caps, deerstalkers, fedoras, trilbies, Panamas, boaters and angling hats in a spread of grades and fabrics. Staff from the shirt floor will help with sizes and styling, and the store offers style advice as one of its listed in-store services.

The core of the felt range is the Jermyn Ligero fur felt fedora at £250, offered in black, navy, slate grey, olive green, camel and several more shades. The Regent trilby, in rabbit fur felt with a modest 6cm brim, a white satin lining and a grosgrain band, is £255. Step up to £345 and you get the Weekender, a sharper-lined rabbit fur felt trilby, or the Burlington, which the shop links to the 1894 novel Trilby by George du Maurier that gave the shape its name.

Rabbit fur felt is the material to pay attention to. The product notes stress that it holds a crisp edge and resists water, which matters on Jermyn Street in November more than any colour choice. The Camel Pioneer Fedora at £345 is unlined to keep it light enough for year-round wear, and it is the one to try if you run warm.

Caps make up most of the stock. Toni caps, Gatsby caps and flat caps in Donegal tweed, linen, silk herringbone and corduroy are almost all £175, and a navy cashmere flat cap is £225. Linen baseball caps are £195, and a navy cashmere baseball cap is £495, which is a lot to spend on a baseball cap. Buy the tweed Toni at £175 instead unless cashmere is the point.

For summer and the races there are Panamas from the Brac Natural Fedora at £325 to the Montecristi Fedora and Montecristi Trilby at £845, plus the Mocha Brown Antibes in Brisa Grade 20 straw at £695. Formal hats are limited to two top hats: the Black Melusine at £545, in rabbit fur with a satin lining and leather sweatband, and the Black Tall Top Hat in beaver fur felt at £695, which the shop pitches as a wedding-day hat.

The shop sells the basics to keep a felt hat in shape. The Bates hat brush is £45 and a card hat box is £60, while the leather hat box is £600 and really a piece of luggage. Buy the brush. A soft-bristle brush stroked with the nap after each wear does more for a fur felt fedora than anything else, and it costs less than a taxi across town.

For damaged hats, the Hat Care page has a form to request a repair quote, and the Jermyn Street shop also lists alterations and repairs among its in-store services for clothing. Returns within the UK can be collected free of charge by DHL, which is useful if a hat bought on a Sunday turns out to be a size off once you get it home.

Sundays are the reason to remember Bates. Lock & Co. Hatters, the best-known hatter in the area, is closed on Sunday, and the 11am to 5pm slot here makes Bates an easy stop after a walk through Green Park. On weekdays the shop opens at 9am, an hour earlier than many West End shops, so a hat can be bought before work. The Panama to look at in any season is the Soho Trilby, which the shop calls its most modern Panama: a narrow brim like the Weekender with a teardrop crown, handwoven in Ecuador and finished in Spain, at £345 in cashew or £395 in natural.

If Bates does not have your size, Lock & Co. Hatters on St James's Street is about five minutes away on foot from Monday to Saturday. Laird Hatters also has a Jermyn Street branch, open Monday to Saturday 10am to 7pm and Sunday 10am to 6pm.

Step straight across the road into Piccadilly Arcade, a glass-roofed Edwardian passage of small shops that comes out on Piccadilly. Where the arcade meets Jermyn Street stands the statue of Beau Brummell, the Regency dandy who set the rules for menswear on this street. Walking along the street you pass Paxton & Whitfield, the cheesemonger, and Floris, the perfumer, has traded on Jermyn Street since the eighteenth century.

Turn up towards Piccadilly and Fortnum & Mason is a few minutes away for tea, while St James's Church Piccadilly, designed by Christopher Wren, sits just behind on Piccadilly. The whole loop takes under half an hour.

Address: Bates Hatters at Hilditch & Key, 73 Jermyn St, London SW1Y 6NP. Hours: Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm, Saturday 10am to 6pm, Sunday 11am to 5pm. Email: enquiries@hilditchandkey.co.uk. Green Park and Piccadilly Circus Underground stations are both within a short walk.

Prices are from the Hilditch & Key online shop: wool flat caps and Toni caps £175, Jermyn Ligero fedoras £250, Regent trilbies £255, Weekender trilbies £345 and the Black Tall Top Hat £695. Ask the Karpo APP for a Sunday lunch near Piccadilly once you have picked your hat.