Filled with academic, cultural and medical institutions as well as elegant Georgian terraces and leafy open spaces, Bloomsbury is one of central London's most appealing districts. Only a stone's throw away from the Eurostar terminal and nestled in between London's West End and the Square Mile, it is full of fascinating history and buildings. Its development began over 300 years ago and transformed land once owned by the Duke of Bedford from open fields into a planned grid of residential housing and garden squares. With the housing came churches, public houses, shops, and later, medical and educational institutions too.
In `Bloomsbury in 50 Buildings', author Lucy McMurdo explores the area's exceptional rich and colourful history through some of its greatest architectural treasures. She also shows what gives Bloomsbury its unique character as she guides the reader through its wonderful squares, Georgian terraces, Edwardian baroque and art deco buildings as well as its more contemporary examples of Brutalist and Modernist architecture.
In the early twentieth century, Bloomsbury became synonymous with a circle of artists, writers and intellectuals (including Virginia Woolf and Lytton Strachey) the Bloomsbury Group, defining the artistic, bohemian nature of the area. English Heritage blue plaques adorn the walls of their homes and those of many other famous residents who lived or worked in the vicinity. The district is known globally for the outstanding British Museum, the pioneering Great Ormond Street Hospital and is the very heart of the University of London. Full of hotels, shops, restaurants, cafes and bars, it is an area of great charm and contains many fascinating buildings.