Images: Bloomsbury
A collection of images taken from the book 'Bloomsbury a Square Mile' by Edward Arnold. Each image shows a major tourist attraction or former writers, artists and thinkers of Bloomsbury, London.
Virginia Woolf, the Bloomsbury Group, Bloomsbury London
Virginia Woolf, (1882–1941), writer, essayist and co-founder of the Hogarth Press in 1917. Virginia Woolf is best known for her novels but also for her pioneering essays on literary history, art theory, women’s writing and politics. Woolf is regarded as one of the most important modernist twentieth-century authors.
The University College London (UCL), Wilkins Building
Bloomsbury A Square Mile collection. As you approach the neo-Grecian style University College London from Gower Street, one could be forgiven for thinking that you are entering an art gallery or museum. The chattering rows of students sitting on the steps, tucking into their snacks amongst the huge columns of the Wilkins Main Building reminds one that this is a place of learning. This happy and vibrant place is one of the world’s leading universities.
Marchmont Street Tokens, the Foundling Museum, Bloomsbury London
Bloomsbury A Square Mile collection. Outside The Brunswick centre in Marchmont Street, one may notice something quite baffling embedded into the pavements. Marchmont Street has an often missed art installation created by artist John Aldus. Installed in 2010, metal objects known as tokens draw one towards the entrance of The Foundling Hospital Museum. This sad trail represents objects that were left by mothers when leaving their child in the care of The Foundling Hospital.
Tavistock Square Gardens, Bloomsbury London
Bloomsbury A Square Mile collection. Tavistock Square Gardens is a calm oasis. Here, one can take stock before exploring Bloomsbury and Central London. The centrepiece of Tavistock Square Gardens is a sculpture of Mahatma Gandhi by Fredda Brilliant, a Polish sculptor and actress. The statue was installed in 1968.
Senate House - University of London, Bloomsbury London
Bloomsbury A Square Mile collection. This monumental and iconic art deco tower built between 1933 and 1937, boldly looks over Bloomsbury. It is the administrative centre of the University of London and the world-famous Senate House Library. George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four was inspired by Senate House: Apparently, Orwell disliked the building but it provided him with the inspiration for ‘The Ministry of Truth’ in his 1948 dystopian novel.
Roger Fry Still Life with Omega Flowers, 1919. Bloomsbury London.
Bloomsbury A Square Mile collection. Roger Fry (1866–1934), art critic and Post-Impressionist painter, founder of the Omega Workshops and regarded as the champion of the movement, he termed Post-Impressionism. He was known for his rich, straightforward and naturalistic paintings.
Russell Square, Bloomsbury London
Bloomsbury A Square Mile collection. Surrounded by the continuous flow of traffic, Russell Square is one of London’s biggest squares; however, the gardens are surprisingly relaxing and offer a shady retreat in summer. Here one can watch the world go by as students and tourists cross the park to get to their destinations, or be amused by squirrels foraging for food. Within the gardens is a pleasant Anglo-Italian café with terraces and a rather calming water fountain.
Bedford Square and Gardens, Bloomsbury London
Bloomsbury A Square Mile collection. Bedford Square and Gardens: To say Bedford Square is unspoilt is an understatement, it is exactly how one might imagine a London Georgian square to be.
Church of Christ the King, Bloomsbury London
Bloomsbury A Square Mile collection. The Church of Christ the King was built between 1851 and 1854 for the Catholic Apostolic Church by British architect and architectural writer John Raphael Rodrigues Brandon (1817–77). The impressive Gothic Revival masterpiece and ‘mini Westminster Abbey’ immediately grabs one’s attention.
The British Museum, Bloomsbury London
Bloomsbury A Square Mile collection. The approach to the south entrance and forecourt from Great Russell Street is spectacular. The huge iron railing with two relatively small open gates, reveals the museum’s Greek revival architecture that beckons one into one of the world’s finest museums.
Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) Line engraving by C. Fox, 1838, Bloomsbury London
Bloomsbury a Square Mile collection. There is a common misconception that the philosopher and founder of utilitarianism and social reformer Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) founded the self-styled London University in Gower Street in 1828. What he did do was to give his unconditional and financial support towards the founding of London’s first university making him the auto-icon of today’s University College London.
Jeremy Bentham’s dressed skeleton and wax head can usually be found in a glass-fronted cabinet in UCL’s South Cloisters. His mummified head is kept in the college safe.
Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Adapted from original.
Jeremy Bentham’s dressed skeleton and wax head can usually be found in a glass-fronted cabinet in UCL’s South Cloisters. His mummified head is kept in the college safe.
Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Adapted from original.
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946), economist, journalist, and financier
Bloomsbury A Square Mile collection. Keynes was best known for Keynesian economics: the causes of prolonged unemployment. His last major work, that proved to be one of the most influential economics books ever written: The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), gave theoretical support to the idea that full employment, sponsored by government would help solve economic recession.
Attribution: Walter Benington (1872-1936), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, Adapted from original.
Attribution: Walter Benington (1872-1936), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, Adapted from original.