The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Bond No. 9 released this fragrance in 2010, commissioning perfumer Laurent Le Guernec to bottle a particular patch of downtown New York. Le Guernec built the composition around tarragon, an herb more often found in French sauce than in a New York floral, threading it through bergamot, geranium, and a purple rose. The combination reads as bohemian and literary, just formal enough to wear a collar. Tarragon opens with that distinctive green-anis snap, sharp enough to cut through the opening citrus and signal immediately that this is no standard florist's bouquet. The bergamot adds a brief bright peel before receding, and the geranium steps in with its rosy-minty greenness, bridging the herbal top to the floral heart.
The tarragon-led structure is what gives this composition its particular character. Where many fragrances reach for pepper, cardamom, or cinnamon to deliver warmth, tarragon carries both anise's sweetness and a green, almost mentholated clarity. The geranium and purple rose don't decorate the composition so much as anchor it, keeping the herbal top from drifting too far into kitchen-garden territory.
The evolution
The opening is green and bracing, tarragon and bergamot pulling in opposite directions, the anis note lifting while the citrus snaps. Purple rose and geranium arrive relatively soon after, and the composition softens without losing its shape. Honey seeps in at the edges, giving the floral heart a golden weight that wasn't there at the start. Leather enters quietly, more suggestion than statement, the way a jacket slung over a bench might hint at the person who left it. As the fragrance wears on, the musk and vetiver base settles into something warm and powdery, close to the skin, almost suede-like. What remains in the later hours is a faint honey-amber trace, the tarragon eventually receding into the background and replaced by something quieter and more private.
Cultural impact
Washington Square arrived in 2010 as part of Bond No. 9's exploration of New York through fragrance. By naming a perfume after the Greenwich Village park rather than a skyline view or a borough, Bond No. 9 anchored itself in a particular kind of New York, one associated with literary tradition and creative gathering rather than corporate towers or tourist landmarks. The tarragon-forward composition stands apart from the gourmand and fruity flankers that populate much of the niche market, favoring instead an herbal-spicy register that feels closer to a French apothecary than a dessert counter.
