“I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in,” wrote Bloomsbury Group novelist Virginia Woolf. Londoners are a very inquisitive bunch, new research from Sicilian Avenue has shown - with 27% thriving on discovering the unexpected, while a further 25% look for intriguing finds off the beaten path.
Virginia Woolf catapulted the leafy central London suburb of Bloomsbury into national fame as part of the Bloomsbury Group, a loose-knit group of writers and intellectuals who also included novelist E.M. Forster and economist John Maynard Keynes. Today, Bloomsbury, with its iconic pedestrianised diagonal Sicilian Avenue fresh from a multi-million-pound refurbishment, offers an oasis of calm in central London - so here’s how to find Bloomsbury London hidden gems. For Londoners, comfort is important for a quarter (24%) as is calmness (21%). Here are a few things to do in Bloomsbury which provide the unexpected, calmness, and comfort all in one.
1. Sicilian Avenue: London's Newly Refreshed Edwardian Diagonal
Designed by visionary architect RJ Worley and first opened in 1910, this iconic diagonal street has been pedestrian since it first appeared (one of London’s oldest pedestrian streets), and offers a glimpse of a forgotten London with its eclectic design nods to Sicily and Ancient Rome. The street is now reopening after a multi-year refurbishment, and will offer retail units, office space and residential building blocks all together in one vibrant space to become the social heart of Bloomsbury.
2. The Charles Dickens Museum: Where Literary Masterpieces Were Born
The Charles Dickens Museum is situated at 48 Doughty Street in Bloomsbury, where Dickens lived from 1837 to 1839, and where he wrote The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist. Purchased by the Dickens Fellowship in 1923, and now hosts a large collection of furnishings, portraits and decorations owned by Dickens - presented as a middle-class Victorian home in which one of the greatest novelists in history produced his masterpiece.
3. The Foundling Museum: A Touching Legacy of Art and Care
The Foundling Museum is a unique and touching museum dedicated to all those who have been in care, and based on the location of the Foundling Hospital, the UK's first children's charity, which cared for London's most vulnerable children. Hogarth and other artists donated works, and Handel led fundraising concerts, leading to the creation of the UK's first public art gallery.
4. The Historic Cabmen’s Shelter in Russell Square
This unusual bright green shelter was originally built as a shelter for London's cab drivers (back when horse-drawn hansom cabs ruled the street, not the black cabs of today). Founded in 1875, the shelter offered refuge for cab drivers who were not allowed to leave their horse unattended: the Grade II protected building still serves food for cabbies, but others are allowed to buy treats such as bacon sandwiches and coffees.
5. St George’s Bloomsbury: Nicholas Hawksmoor’s Grand Classical Facade
Designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and consecrated in 1730, the classical facade of St George's is one of the grandest in London - even if the church itself is rather crammed in between nearby buildings! The church is open to visitors.
Gordon Square & Bloomsbury Group Heritage