The Surprising History of Bloomsbury And How It’s Rising Again

If Oxford Street is the heart of London, then Bloomsbury, with its long literary history, is the city’s brain. The revival of Bloomsbury (spearheaded by the rebirth of streets such as Sicilian Avenue, long home to iconic bookshops) is highlighting the cultural importance of the area, which plays host to London’s top intellectual landmarks such as the British Museum and Charles Dickens Museum (in the house where Oliver Twist was written, and with Dickens’ writing desk intact).

First opened in 1910, the iconic archway of Sicilian Avenue looks like a gateway to another world (a half-imagined Sicily of the early twentieth century), and the rebirth of Bloomsbury is helping to renew an iconic London area whose green spaces still play host to students today thanks to the University College London’s original Bloomsbury campus.

Sicilian Avenue and Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury's status as the intellectual centre of London was cemented by the Bloomsbury Group, consisting of intellectual heavyweights such as novelist Virginia Woolf, economist John Maynard Keynes and Room With a View author E.M. Forster The group's evenings discussing everything from art to sexual equality reflected and inspired the cultural changes in early 20th Century Britain, and the house where Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell lived at 46 Gordon Square is one of Britain’s most iconic cultural landmarks.

Sicilian Avenue - Home of Big Ideas

Today, Sicilian Avenue nestles in bustling Holborn, the heart of the city, and helps power the economic engine of London. The soon-to-reopen Sicilian Avenue aims to tempt the city's big thinkers in the heart of Bloomsbury, just by Holborn Station. Once home to bookstores, Sicilian Avenue's restoration with restaurants and cafés will see it take its place amid Bloomsbury's cultural life - a place for lunchtime conversations, big ideas and big deals.