Bloomsbury is an area of the London Borough of Camden, in central London,
between Euston Road and Holborn, developed by the Russell family in the
17th and 18th centuries into a fashionable residential area. It is
notable for its array of garden squares, literary connections, and numerous
cultural, educational and health-care institutions. Although Bloomsbury was
not the first area of London to have acquired a formal square, Bloomsbury
Square, laid out in 1660 by Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, as
Southampton Square was the first square to be named as such.
Bloomsbury is home to the University of London's central bodies and departments,
including the Senate House Library and School of Advanced Study, and to several
of its colleges, including University College London, the Institute of
Education, Birkbeck, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the
School of Oriental and African Studies. It is also home to the New College of
the Humanities. The numerous health-care institutions located in Bloomsbury
include the British Medical Association, Great Ormond Street Hospital, the
National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College
Hospital and the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine. London
Contemporary Dance School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and are also
located in the area. Bloomsbury is in the parliamentary
constituency of Holborn and St Pancras. The western half of the district
comprises Bloomsbury ward, which elects three councillors to Camden Borough
Council. History
The earliest record of what would become Bloomsbury is in the 1086 Domesday Book,
which states that the area had vineyards and "wood for 100 pigs". But it is not
until 1201 that the name Bloomsbury is first noted, when William de Blemond, a
Norman landowner, acquired the land. The name Bloomsbury is a development from
Blemondisberi – the bury, or manor, of Blemond. An 1878 publication, Old and
New London: Volume 4, mentions the idea that the area was named after a village
called "Lomesbury" which formerly stood where Bloomsbury Square is now, though
this etymology is now discredited. At the end of the 14th century, Edward
III acquired Blemond's manor, and passed it on to the Carthusian monks of the
London Charterhouse, who kept the area mostly rural.
In the 16th century with the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII took the
land back into the possession of the Crown and granted it to Thomas
Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton. In the early 1660s, the Earl of
Southampton constructed what eventually became Bloomsbury Square. The Yorkshire
Grey public house on the corner of Gray's Inn Road and Theobald's Road
dates from 1676. The area was laid out mainly in the 18th century, largely by
landowners such as Wriothesley Russell, 3rd Duke of Bedford, who built
Bloomsbury Market, which opened in 1730. The major development of the squares
that we see today started in about 1800 when Francis Russell, 5th Duke of
Bedford removed Bedford House and developed the land to the north with
Russell Square as its centrepiece. Governance
William de Blemond in the 13th century, a Norman, was the first landowner.
Edward III acquired Blemond's manor, and passed it on to the Carthusian monks who
governed it until Henry VIII granted it to the Earl of Southampton. The Russell
family became landowners in the 18th century.
The area lay within the parishes of St Giles in the Fields and St George's,
Bloomsbury, which were absorbed into the St Giles District as part of the
Metropolis Management Act 1855. It is now controlled by the London Borough of
Camden, and is in the parliamentary constituency of Holborn and St Pancras.
Geography Bloomsbury has no official boundaries,
but can be roughly defined as the square of territory bounded by Tottenham Court
Road to the west, Euston Road to the north, Gray's Inn Road to the east, and
either High Holborn or the thoroughfare formed by New Oxford Street, Bloomsbury
Way and Theobalds Road to the south. Bloomsbury merges gradually with Holborn
in the south, with St Pancras and King's Cross in the north-east and with
Clerkenwell in the south-east. The area is bisected north to south by
the main road Southampton Row/Woburn Place, which has several large tourist
hotels and links Tavistock Square and Russell Square – the central points of
Bloomsbury. The road runs from Euston and Somers Town in the north to Holborn
in the south. East of Southampton Row/Woburn Place are
the Grade II listed Brunswick Centre, a residential and shopping centre, and
Coram's Fields children's recreation area. The area to the north of Coram's
Fields consists mainly of blocks of flats, built as both private and social
housing, which is often considered part of St Pancras or King's Cross rather
than north-eastern Bloomsbury. The area to the south is generally less
residential, containing several hospitals, including Great Ormond Street
Hospital|Great Ormond Street, and gradually becomes more commercial in
character as it approaches Holborn at Theobald's Road.
The area west of Southampton Row/Woburn Place is notable for its concentration
of academic establishments, museums, and formal squares. Here are the British
Museum and the central departments and colleges of the University of London,
including Birkbeck College, University College London, the School of Oriental
and African Studies, and the University of London's School of Advanced Study.
The main north-south road in west Bloomsbury is Gower Street which is a
one-way street running south from Euston Road towards Shaftesbury Avenue in
Covent Garden, becoming Bloomsbury Street when it passes to the west of the
British Museum. Parks and squares
Bloomsbury contains some of London's finest parks and buildings, and is
particularly known for its formal squares. These include:
Russell Square, a large and orderly square; its gardens were originally
designed by Humphry Repton. The square is a short distance from Russell Square
tube station. Bedford Square, built between 1775 and
1783, is still surrounded by Georgian town houses.
Bloomsbury Square has a small circular garden surrounded by Georgian buildings.
Queen Square, home to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
Gordon Square, surrounded by the history and archaeology departments of
University College London, as well as the former home of John Maynard Keynes,
the economist. This is where the Bloomsbury Group lived and met.
Woburn Square and Torrington Square, home to other parts of University
College London. Tavistock Square, home to the British
Medical Association; its eastern edge was the site of one of the 7 July 2005
London bombings. Mecklenburgh Square, east of Coram's
Fields, one of the few squares which remains locked for the use of local
residents. Coram's Fields, a large recreational
space on the eastern edge of the area, formerly home to the Foundling Hospital.
It is only open to children and to adults accompanying children.
Brunswick Square, now occupied by the School of Pharmacy and the Foundling
Museum. Culture
Historically, Bloomsbury is associated with the arts, education, and medicine.
The area gives its name to the Bloomsbury Group of artists, the most
famous of whom was Virginia Woolf, who met in private homes in the area in the
early 1900s, and to the lesser known Bloomsbury Gang of Whigs formed in 1765
by John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford. The publisher Faber & Faber used to be
located in Queen Square, though at the time T. S. Eliot was editor the offices
were in Tavistock Square. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded
in John Millais's parents' house on Gower Street in 1848.
The Bloomsbury Festival was launched in 2006 when local resident Roma Backhouse
was commissioned to mark the re-opening of the Brunswick Centre, a residential
and shopping area. The free festival is a celebration of the local area,
partnering with galleries, libraries and museums, and achieved charitable status
at the end of 2012. As of 2013, the Duchess of Bedford is a festival patron
and Cathy Mager is the Festival Director.
= Educational institutions= Bloomsbury is home to Senate House and
the main library of the University of London, the Bloomsbury colleges
Birkbeck, Institute of Education, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,
School of Pharmacy, School of Oriental and African Studies, and the Royal
Veterinary College and University College London, a branch of the
University of Law, London Contemporary Dance School, the Royal Academy of
Dramatic Art, and Goodenough College. Other colleges in the area include the
University of London's School of Advanced Study, the Architectural
Association School of Architecture in Bedford Square, and several London
campuses of American colleges including the University of California London
Centre, University of Delaware London Centre, Florida State University London
Study Centre, Syracuse University London Facility, NYU London, and the London
campus of the Hult International Business School.
= Museums= The British Museum, which first opened
to the public in 1759 in Montagu House, is at the heart of Bloomsbury. At the
centre of the museum the space around the former British Library Reading Room,
which was filled with the concrete storage bunkers of the British Library,
is today the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, an indoor square with a glass
roof designed by British architect Norman Foster. It houses displays, a
cinema, a shop, a cafe and a restaurant. Since 1998, the British Library has been
located in a purpose-built building just outside the northern edge of Bloomsbury,
in Euston Road. Also in Bloomsbury is the Foundling
Museum, close to Brunswick Square, which tells the story of the Foundling
Hospital opened by Thomas Coram for unwanted children in Georgian London.
The hospital, now demolished except for the Georgian colonnade, is today a
playground and outdoor sports field for children, called Coram's Fields. It is
also home to a small number of sheep. The nearby Lamb's Conduit Street is a
pleasant thoroughfare with shops, cafes and restaurants.
The Dickens Museum is in Doughty Street. The Petrie Museum and the Grant Museum
of Zoology are at University College London in Gower Street.
Hospitals Great Ormond Street Hospital for
Children and the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine are both located
on Great Ormond Street, off Queen Square, which itself is home to the
National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Bloomsbury is also the
location of University College Hospital, which re-opened in 2005 in new buildings
on Euston Road, built under the government’s private finance initiative.
The Eastman Dental Hospital is located on Gray’s Inn Road close to the Royal
National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital administered by the Royal Free Hampstead
NHS Trust. Business
In February 2010, businesses were balloted on an expansion of the
InHolborn Business Improvement District to include the southern part of
Bloomsbury. Only businesses with a rateable value in excess of £60,000
could vote as only these would pay the BID levy. This expansion of the BID into
Bloomsbury was supported by Camden Council. The proposal was passed and
part of Bloomsbury was brought within the InHolborn BID.
Controversy was raised during this BID renewal when InHolborn proposed
collecting Bloomsbury, St Giles and Holborn under the name of "Midtown",
since it was seen as "too American". Businesses were informed about the BID
proposals, but there was little consultation with residents or voluntary
organisations. InHolborn produced a comprehensive business plan aimed at
large businesses. Bloomsbury is now part of InMidtown BID with its 2010 to 2015
business plan and a stated aim to make the area "a quality environment In which
to work and live, a vibrant area to visit, and a profitable place in which
to do business". Churches
Bloomsbury contains three notable churches:
St George's Church, located on Bloomsbury Way in the south of the area,
was built by Nicholas Hawksmoor between 1716 and 1731. It has a deep Roman porch
with six huge Corinthian columns, and is notable for its steeple based on the
Tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus and for the statue of King George I on the
top. The Early English Neo-Gothic Church of
Christ the King on Gordon Square. It was designed for the Irvingites by Raphael
Brandon in 1853. Since June 10, 1954 it has been a Grade I listed building.
St Pancras New Church on the northern boundary, near Euston station. This
church was completed in 1822, and is notable for the caryatids on north and
south which are based on the "porch of the maidens" from the Temple of the
Erechtheum. The church of St George the Martyr in
Queen Square was built 1703–06, and was where Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath
married on Bloomsday in 1956. Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church on
Shaftesbury Avenue, is the central church of the Baptist denomination. It
was opened in 1848, having been built by Sir Samuel Moreton Peto MP, one of the
great railway contractors of the age. Transport
The area surrounding Bloomsbury has several London Underground stations,
although only two of these have entrances in Bloomsbury itself. The
other stations, located on the fringes of Bloomsbury, are Euston, Goodge
Street, Warren Street, Tottenham Court Road, Holborn, Chancery Lane and King's
Cross St. Pancras. The mainline rail stations Euston,
King's Cross and St. Pancras are all just north of Bloomsbury. Since 14
November 2007, Eurostar services have relocated to St Pancras, promising
shorter journey times to Paris and Brussels and better connections to the
rest of the UK. Bloomsbury is also the site of the
disused British Museum tube station. It is well served by buses, with over 12
different routes running south down Gower Street, London|Gower Street and
both north and south through Russell Square. Route 7 goes along Great Russell
Street, past the British Museum, and on to Russell Square.
One of the 13 surviving taxi drivers' shelters in London, where drivers can
stop for a meal and a drink, is in Russell Square.
Notable residents J. M. Barrie, playwright and novelist,
lived in Guilford Street and 8 Grenville Street when he first moved to London;
this is where Barrie situated the Darlings' house in Peter Pan.
Vanessa Bell, painter, sister of Virginia Woolf, lived at 46 Gordon
Square. William Copeland Borlase M.P., died
bankrupt and disowned by his family at 34 Bedford Court Mansions.
Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby lived at 58 Doughty Street.
Randolph Caldecott, illustrator, lived at 46 Great Russell Street.
William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, sold the Old Devonshire
House at 48 Boswell Street. Charles Darwin, lived at 12 Upper Gower
Street in 1839. George Dance, architect, lived at 91
Gower Street. Charles Dickens, novelist, lived at 14
Great Russell Street, Tavistock Square and 48 Doughty Street.
George du Maurier, artist and writer, lived at 91 Great Russell Street.
Benton Fletcher, housed his keyboard collection at the Old Devonshire House,
48 Boswell Street, in the 1930s and 40s. Ricky Gervais, comedian, lived until
recently in Southampton Row, Store Street and owned one of the penthouses
in Bloomsbury Mansions in Russell Square, WC1.
Mary Anne Everett Green, Calenderer of State Papers, author of Lives of the
Princesses of England, mother of Evelyn Everett-Green, a prolific 19th-century
novelist. Philip Hardwick and Philip Charles
Hardwick, father and son, architects, lived at 60 Russell Square for over ten
years. John Maynard Keynes,, economist, lived
for 30 years in Gordon Square. Emanuel Litvinoff, author, poet,
playwright and human rights campaigner, lived for 46 years in Mecklenburgh
Square. Edmund Lodge, officer of arms and writer
on heraldry, died at his Bloomsbury Square house on 16 January 1839.
Bob Marley, musician, lived in 34 Ridgmount Gardens for six months in
1972. Charlotte Mew, poet, was born at 30
Doughty Street and lived there until the family moved nearby to 9 Gordon Street,
in 1890. Dorothy L. Sayers, novelist lived at 24
Great James Street from 1921–1929. Her main female character Harriet Vane also
lived in Bloomsbury. Alexei Sayle, English stand-up comedian,
actor and author. John Shaw Senior and John Shaw Junior,
father and son, architects, lived in Gower Street.
Catherine Tate, actress and comedienne, was brought up in the Brunswick Centre,
close to Russell Square. Virginia Woolf, author, essayist, and
diarist, resided at 46 Gordon Square. Thomas Henry Wyatt, architect, lived at
77 Great Russell Street. John Wyndham, lived at the Penn Club in
Tavistock Square and then at the Club's present address, 21–22 Bedford Place,
off Russell Square, until his marriage in 1963 to Grace Isabel Wilson, who had
left in the next room at the Club. William Butler Yeats, poet, dramatist
and prose writer, lived at Woburn Walk. See also
References Further reading
"Bloomsbury". London. Let's Go. 1998. p. 164+. OL 24256167M.
External links London/Bloomsbury travel guide from
Wikivoyage Bloomsbury area guide