London Districts: Bloomsbury (Documentary)

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The residential and academic district of Bloomsbury forms part of the West End of London, governed by the London Borough of Camden, 1 mile from Charing Cross.

On Duke’s road, food bank staff attend the rear of St Pancras New Church on Sundays, catering religiously to those in need who live locally. A sad reality still prevalent in many parts of the capital.

Being a district of academia, you are never far away from a bookshop. The enticing Judd Books on Marchmont Street is larger than it appears and is constantly well-stocked with a rich selection of 50,000 new and used books covering all manner of subjects at prices accommodating all budget levels.

Bloomsbury was named after the Blemund family who held the manor as early as 1201. Starting out as Blemon-dis-beri; it transitioned over time to Blemunds-bury and then into its current form.

By the 17th century, the wealthy Russell family members (most of which were given the title ‘Duke of Bedford’) had acquired the estate. Each successive Duke in the family was seated at the country house residence of Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, and the eldest son of each, was given the courtesy title ‘Marquess of Tavistock’ derived from the River Tavy in Dartmoor, which itself just means ‘flow’ in the British Celtic language.

This rural space took on its general shape as a colourful district in the 1800’s during the affluent Regency era from famed developer James Burton.

Patrick Hodgkinson put together the chunky, concrete exterior of the residential Brunswick Centre in the late 60’s. The grade II listed structure is as Brutalist as they come, doubling itself as a shopping, dining and recreational hotspot. A stark contrast to the surrounding romantic architectural landscape.

Of all the picturesque garden squares within Bloomsbury, Russell Square is perhaps the most famous owing to the underground station that takes its name . Being surrounded by classic Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian buildings, it was described in 1830 as “a pleasant retreat from the cares of business”.

The London Beer Flood of 1814 was a bizarre but terrible industrial accident near Tottenham Court Road. A brewery had a 22 foot high wooden fermentation tank held together with massive iron rings and containing the equivalent of nearly 4000 barrels of brown ale.

Rastafarian musician and humanitarian Bob Marley had a special affinity with London and during the hard winter of 1972, moved into a flat here at 34 Ridgmount Gardens. His band The Wailers were scoring their first big breakthroughs around this time and played their first London gig at The Speakeasy Club in Margaret Street.

The Foundling Museum tells the story of the Foundling Hospital opened by Thomas Coram for unwanted children in Georgian London. The hospital is now a playground and outdoor sports area called Coram's Fields. The use of these spaces is reserved only for those with accompanying children.

You can lose hours rummaging through the many bookshops here from new editions to masses of areas with that dusty old book smell. Bloomsbury Publishing here in Bedford Square helped reinforce the international reputation of London literature, particularly in 1997 after being the only publisher to say yes to the most profitable book deal ever in the Harry Potter series.

The significance of Virginia Woolf and her peers making up the so-called Bloomsbury Set or group, lies in the extraordinary amount of talent inside it.

University College London, SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies) and Birkbeck are all within walking distance inside the district. The University of London’s Art Deco Library, Senate House was one of the first ever sky scrapers in London and its towering presence cannot be denied even from a distance.

The British Museum opened to the public in 1759 on its existing site of Montagu House, based mostly on the collections of Irish physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane.