Bloomsbury
| Bloomsbury | |
| Middlesex | |
|---|---|
 Bedford Gardens, Bloomsbury | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ299818 |
| Location: | 51°31’13"N, 0°7’45"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 10,892 (2011) |
| Post town: | London |
| Postcode: | WC1, NW1 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Camden |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Holborn and St Pancras |
Bloomsbury is an urban village Middlesex, in the heart of the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions.
The British Museum, the largest museum in the United Kingdom, is in Bloomsbury, as are several educational institutions, including University College London and a number of other colleges and institutes of the University of London as well as its central headquarters, the New College of the Humanities, the University of Law, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the British Medical Association and many others. Bloomsbury is an intellectual and literary hub for London, as home of world-known Bloomsbury Publishing. It gave a name to the Bloomsbury Group, a group of British intellectuals which included author Virginia Woolf, biographer Lytton Strachey, and economist John Maynard Keynes.
Bloomsbury began to be developed in the 17th century under the Earls of Southampton,[1] but it was primarily in the 19th century, under the Duke of Bedford, that the district was planned and built as an affluent Regency era residential area by famed developer James Burton.[2] The district is known for its numerous garden squares, including Bloomsbury Square, Russell Square and Bedford Square.
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Bloomsbury's built heritage is currently protected by the designation of a conservation area and a locally based conservation committee. Despite this, there is increasing concern about a trend towards larger and less sensitive development, and the associated demolition of Victorian and Georgian buildings.[3]
History
Bloomsbury (including the closely linked St Giles area) has a long association with neighbouring Holborn; but is nearly always considered as distinct from Holborn.
Origins and name
The area appears to have been a part of the parish of Holborn when St Giles hospital was established in the early 1100s.[4]
The earliest record of the name, Bloomsbury, is as Blemondisberi in 1281. It is named after a member of the Blemund family who held the manor. There are older records relating to the family in London in 1201 and 1230. Their name, Blemund, derives from Blemont, a place in western France.[5] 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. The area remained rural at this time.
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.
Development
In the early 1660s, the Earl of Southampton, who held the manors of St Giles and Bloomsbury,[6] 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 estate passed to the Russell family following the marriage of William Russell, Lord Russell (1639–1683) (third son of William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford) to Rachel Wriothesley, heiress of Bloomsbury, younger of the two daughters and co-heiresses of Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton (1607–1667). Rachel's son and heir was Wriothesley Russell, 2nd Duke of Bedford (1680–1711), of Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, whose family also owned Covent Garden, south of Bloomsbury, acquired by them at the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
The area was laid out mainly in the 18th century, largely by Wriothesley Russell, 3rd Duke of Bedford, who built Bloomsbury Market, which opened in 1730. His younger brother, John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, would have built a circus here but he died in 1771, leaving his wife to continue development of the area. She commissioned the construction of Bedford Square and of Gower Street.[7] The major development of the squares that we see today started in about 1800 when Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford, demolished Bedford House[7] and developed the land to the north with Russell Square as its centrepiece. Much is still owned today by the Bedford Estate in trust for the Russell family.
John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, extended development on the north and east side of the estate, this area would then be frequented by writers, painters and musicians as well as lawyers due to the nearby Inns of Court. The area was enclosed by gates until these were abolished under a 1893 Act of Parliament. In the 19th century, the Bloomsbury area became less fashionable, now dominated by the University of London and the British Museum as well as numerous new hospitals. Modern development has destroyed several Georgian-era buildings, but some remain.[7]
London Beer Flood
The London Beer Flood (also known as the Great Beer Flood) was a disaster that occurred in October 1814, when a large vat of porter at the Horse Shoe Brewery, just west of Dyott Street, burst open, releasing a 15-foot wave of beer onto the surrounding streets, killing eight people.[8]
Boundaries
The formal historic boundaries of the combined parish of St Giles in the Fields and St George Bloomsbury (as adjusted in some places to reflect the modern street pattern) include Tottenham Court Road to the west, Torrington Place (formerly known, in part, as Francis Street) to the north, the and Marchmont Street and Southampton Row to the east.
The western boundary of Tottenham Court Road is common to all and a northern limit of Euston Road is often understood, though Coram's Fields and the land to the north, consisting mainly of blocks of flats, built as both private and social housing was traditionally associated as being north Bloomsbury with Judd Street and its surrounding squares being part of St Pancras, King's Cross. The eastern boundary is sometimes taken to be in the region of Southampton Row[9] or further east on Grays Inn Road.[1] The southern extent is taken to approximates to High Holborn or the thoroughfare formed by New Oxford Street, Bloomsbury Way and Theobalds Road.
Culture
Historically, Bloomsbury is associated with the arts, education, and medicine. The area gives its name to the Bloomsbury Group of artists, among whom was Virginia Woolf, who met in private homes in the area in the early 1900s,[10] 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,[11] and achieved charitable status at the end of 2012. As of 2013, the Duchess of Bedford is a festival patron and Festival Directors have included Cathy Maher (2013), Kate Anderson (2015–2019) and Rosemary Richards (2020–present). [12]
Educational institutions
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Bloomsbury is home to the University of London's central administrative centre and library, Senate House, as well as many of its independent members institutions including Birkbeck College, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, School of Oriental and African Studies, School of Advanced Study, Royal Veterinary College, and University College London (which has now absorbed the formerly separate School of Eastern European and Slavonic Studies, School of Pharmacy, and Institute of Education academic institutions). Bloomsbury is also home to London Contemporary Dance School, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, a branch of University of Law, Architectural Association School of Architecture, and the London campuses of several American colleges including Arcadia University, University of California, University of Delaware, Florida State University, Syracuse University, New York University, and Hult International Business School.
The growing private tutoring sector in Bloomsbury includes various tutoring businesses.
Museums
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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 café 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 Charles Dickens Museum is in Doughty Street. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and the Grant Museum of Zoology are at University College London in Gower Street.
The Postal Museum is on 15-20 Phoenix Place.
Churches
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Bloomsbury contains several notable churches:
- St George's Church, Bloomsbury, on Bloomsbury Way, is Bloomsbury's own parish church. It was 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.
- St Giles in the Fields, also known as the Poet's Church. The current church building was built in the Palladian style in 1733.
- Church of Christ the King on Gordon Square, in the Early Neo-Gothic style, was designed for the Irvingites[13] by Raphael Brandon in 1853.
- St Pancras Church, near Euston station 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.
- St George the Martyr Holborn, in Queen Square was built 1703–1706, It was where Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath married on Bloomsday in 1956.[14]
- Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church in 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.[15]
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
- 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, philosophy and archaeology departments of University College London, Birkbeck College's School of Arts. The former home of Virginia Woolf was here and this is where the Bloomsbury Group lived and met.
- [Woburn Square, home to other parts of University College London. Named after Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, the main seat of the Dukes of Bedford.
- Torrington Square, home to other parts of University College London. Named after Hon. Georgiana Byng, daughter of George Byng, 4th Viscount Torrington, and wife of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford (1766–1839).
- Tavistock Square, home to the British Medical Association. Named after Tavistock Abbey in Devon, granted to the Russell family at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and after which they took the title Marquess of Tavistock, since held as a courtesy title by the eldest son and heir apparent of the Duke of Bedford.
- Mecklenburgh Square, east of Coram's Fields, home of Goodenough College; it is one of the few squares which remains locked for the use of local residents. Named after the mother of King George IV.
- Coram's Fields, a large recreational space on the eastern edge of the area, formerly home to the Foundling Hospital
- Brunswick Square, now occupied by the University of London's School of Pharmacy and the Foundling Museum. Named after the wife of King George IV.
- St George's Gardens, originally the burial ground for St George's Queen Square and St George's Bloomsbury.
- Cartwright Gardens.
Hospitals
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine (formerly the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital) are both located on Great Ormond Street, off Queen Square, which itself is home to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (formerly the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases). 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 (PFI). The Eastman Dental Hospital is located on Gray's Inn Road close to the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Bloomsbury) |
- Bloomsbury Conservation Areas Advisory Committee (BCAAC)
- UCL Bloomsbury Project: University College London
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The London Encyclopaedia, Edited by Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert. Macmillan London Ltd 1983
- ↑ Burton's St. Leonards, J. Manwaring Baines F.S.A., Hastings Museum, 1956.
- ↑ Owen Ward (11 January 2021). "Bloomsbury Conservation Area". http://bloomsburyconservation.org.uk/conservation-areas/bloomsbury-conservation-area/.
- ↑ A History of the County of Middlesex - Volume 1 pp 204-212: Religious Houses: Hospitals (Victoria County History)
- ↑ The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, Eilart Ekwall, 4th Edition
- ↑ "Introduction | British History Online". https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol19/pt2/pp1-31.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Weinreb, Ben (1986) (in en). The London encyclopedia. Bethesda, Maryland, US: Adler & Adler. pp. 75. ISBN 978-0-917561-07-8. http://archive.org/details/londonencycloped00ias.
- ↑ Palace, Steve (2020-07-01). "The Great London Beer Flood of 1814 - When a Giant Wave of Suds Crushed the City | The Vintage News" (in en). https://www.thevintagenews.com/2020/07/01/london-beer-flood/.
- ↑ London for Dummies, Donald Olson, p93
- ↑ Fargis, Paul (1998). The New York Public Library Desk Reference – 3rd Edition. Macmillan General Reference. pp. 262. ISBN 0-02-862169-7. https://archive.org/details/newyorkpublicli100newy.
- ↑ "Preview: The Bloomsbury Festival". Londonist. 16 October 2012. http://londonist.com/2012/10/preview-the-bloomsbury-festival.php.
- ↑ "The Team". Bloomsbury Festival. October 2013. http://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/the-team/.
- ↑ Church of Christ the King Template:Webarchive. Retrieved 8 March 2007.
- ↑ Walking Literary London, Roger Tagholm, New Holland Publishers, 2001.
- ↑ Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church History Page Template:Webarchive. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
- Tames, Richard: 'Bloomsbury Past' (Historical Publications, 1993) ISBN 978-0-94866-720-6