The boundaries for Bloomsbury are a bit vague. For the purposes of my Bloomsbury neighborhood review I consider the district to be bounded by Bloomsbury/Great Ormond to the South, Grays Inn to the East, Tottenham Ct Rd to the west, and Euston Rd to the north.
Development really got started in the district with the construction of Bloomsbury square and surrounding terrace housing by the 4th Earl of Southampton right after the Great Fire in the 1660s. This was one of London’s first square developments. Development slowly continued in the 18th century but it wasn’t until the early 19th century that Bloomsbury filled in as the Duke of Bedford financed many affluent Georgian style terrace housing developed by the famous James Burton responsible for building around 3 thousand Georgian style terrace housing typically surrounding Parks and Square. Much of Bloomsbury is still owned by the Bedford Estate. Because of this concentration of elegant Georgian style terrace housing Bloomsbury has one of the highest proportions of historically listed buildings and monuments per square meter of any conservation district in London.
Modern Day Bloomsbury is an interesting mix of large institutional uses and museums (i.e. University of London & the British Museum), many historic Terrace housing developments with pockets of mid-century infill and more modern infill due to the district’s gentrification. There are also a number of the classic Mews lanes (compact rowhouses lined along dead-end narrow streets behind more prominent terrace housing). A good example of this is the Gower Mews. Overall Bloomsbury is a great urban district with solid density, wonderful cultural institutions & museums, vibrant streets, world class subway access providing convenient access to all of Central London, and a great array of urban parks and plazas, which are mostly open to the public. If I’m being nit-picky I’d like to see a bit more density in Bloomsbury, but this would need to be carefully done not to destroy some of the district’s monumental and gorgeous terrace housing. Bloomsbury could also use more extensive bike lane infrastructure and better tree canopy.
Click here to view my Bloomsbury Album on Flickr
URBAN STRENGTHS:
* Euston is a very busy and car heavy east-west street. Tottenham Cut and Bloomsbury Way are other very active streets with all modes of transportation and much more human scale than Euston.
* Nice narrow/quasi pedestrian streets at Museum St & Little Russel. Nice two block biz district along Southampton Row. Good amount of mixed-use blocks on mostly residential streets but less so than neighboring Holborn.
* Great Gardens and parks in Bloomsburg and most of the are open to the public. Bloomsburg Square Garden, Russel Square, Montague Street Gardens, Tavistock Square, Gordan Square, Woburn Square, Brunswick Square Gardens, Mecklenburgh Square, St. George’s Garden, Regent Square Garden, Bramber Green, Argyle Square, Cartwright Gardens. Many of these squares are lined with gorgeous 18th and 19th century flats.
* Several well known destinations and landmarks including St. Pancras Station, King’s Cross, Euston Station, the British Library, The British Museum, the University of London (which includes many great historic landmarks of its own), the Charles Dickens Museum, the Wellcome Collection, Grant Museum of Zoology, St. Pancreas Church, St. George’s Church. Many other smaller museums and cultural sites.
* Other than Museums great array of restaurants, bars, cafes, live music venues and theaters. Solid retail amenities as well including the Brunswick Centre is an interesting modern Brutalist development including a residential building with a shopping centre at ground floor and a major plaza space.
* Better density than most central city London Districts of nearly 30K residents per square mile. Given all the space dedicated to institutional uses this is likely due to the large University of London population.
* Very vibrant district thanks to all the college students and institutional uses.
* Great subway access and 8 metro stops and 8 lines.
* Better bike lane infrastructure than most Central London districts including two bike lanes that span the district.
URBAN WEAKNESSES:
* Decent amount of biking occurs here, but any bike lanes are very short segments.
* A bit on the touristy side but not overwhelming.
* Other than the park space tree canopy is pretty limited.
* Decent density (25K per square mile) and bit better than Farrington to the east but pretty low compared to most European central cities.
* Better tree cover than most Central London district but still underwhelming compared to a City like Parks.
Evaluating our Urban Communities [with a focus on America] 