VicLondon-Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury, the City
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District Traits
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Notable Locations
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Owned mostly by the Duke of Bedford, this small strip of the city is sandwiched between Holborn and St. Pancras. The development of the area began almost a century ago as improvements to the duke’s estate, Woburn. New gardens were added, roads improved (they are paved with tar macadam as of the 1880s), and terraces and homes were put in, all designed by Thomas Cubit of Belgravia fame. The revenues from the leases are the main income for the Bedford fortunes. Once a wealthy region, most of the upper-class residents have moved on to Marylebone or Kensington’s various neighbourhoods, leaving the large homes to the wealthier middle-class and poorer gentry. The district is very quiet, especially at night, and crime is low, despite relatively low policing.
Bloomsbury is home to the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic and the Italian Hospital, dedicated to the care of expatriate Italians and funded by the embassy. University College sits on Gower Street and is a favourite alma mater for the middle-class. It requires no entrance exams and costs only £60 per year. The college teaches most practical professions, such as the law, medicine, and engineering, and has the Slade School of the Arts, as well.
Last, there is Bedford Square, dedicated to the duke that created Bloomsbury. It is a pleasing spot for a quiet sit in the park. There is a stature of the duke in the square, hand on a plough and a stalk of corn in the other hand, an allusion to his being a ‘man of the land’ due to his position on the Board of Agriculture.
