London’s Sicilian Avenue stands out uniquely among Bloomsbury streets, but what is its link to Sicily?
London’s Sicilian Avenue stands out uniquely among Bloomsbury streets, but what is its link to Sicily? The sign is the polar opposite of the typical unobtrusive London road sign - the gilded letters ‘Sicilian Avenue’ stand out on a gateway resembling a grand triumphal arch, in an entrance supported by fluted, classically inspired columns. For any passers-by, it immediately provokes curiosity about what might lie beyond.
The grand ambition of the gateway is a statement of intent for one of London’s most historical and unique pedestrianised streets: and this quirky, Edwardian baroque corner of London is set to be reborn in the coming months as a high quality pedestrian dining and lifestyle destination.
Set in the heart of London’s intellectual capital Bloomsbury, home to authors such as Virginia Woolf, the vision behind Sicilian Avenue when it was built in 1910 was a unique one. R.J. Worley, a visionary architect who designed the London Pavilion and the mansion block Albert Court next to the Royal Albert Hall, both now Grade II listed, aimed to conjure up a vision not just of Sicily, but one also redolent of ancient Rome.
Dressed in Italian marble and white terracotta, the classical flourishes offered a Mediterranean vision of antiquity, and a stark contrast to the more humdrum surrounding streets. Did it bear a great resemblance to the architecture of Sicily itself? Probably not, but it captured the Edwardian dream of Sicily perfectly.
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Sicilian Avenue was also a vision of the future of London in another important way, with its airy, pedestrianised street among the first purpose-built pedestrian streets in the capital, arriving just as the industrial production of the motor car transformed London’s streets. It is why it’s so appropriate that its grand, classical vision of a Sicily that perhaps never was, is set to take its place once again among London’s most glamorous, as the capital moves towards a more pedestrianised future.
Appropriately for a street so close to where the literary ‘Bloomsbury Group’ lived and worked, the street has been a haven for booksellers and other retailers in the past. When its current refurbishment is complete, it will reopen with a curated mix of high quality restaurants, cafes and lifestyle retailers.
The original Edwardian dream of an airy space free from the then-emerging motor car will live on, as will Sicilian Avenue’s unique classical and Mediterranean atmosphere. Its mix of restaurants, cafes and bars will provide a chance yet again to be transported to another world - a relaxed space away from Holborn’s bustle, and perhaps a portal to the imagined Sicily that the street and its sign have always evoked.