Friends of Bloomsbury Square
Green Flag Award Winner 2010
Welcome to Bloomsbury Square, the first square in London to be named as such. It was first laid out by the Earl of Southampton, the Lord Treasurer, after the example of Covent Garden Piazza and with Lincoln’s Inn Fields, under a Royal Licence granted in the 1640s.
Originally called Southampton Square, it was renamed Bloomsbury Square after the earl’s daughter Rachel married into the Russell family (the Dukes of Bedford) in 1669. Another daughter, Elizabeth, became the Duchess Montague and lived nearby in Montagu House, the original home of the British Museum.
The square has had many famous residents but is most closely associated with the literary and artistic ‘Bloomsbury Group.’ Many members of the group lived in the area in the early decades of the 20th century, including artists Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Dora Carrington, biographer Lytton Strachey and novelist Virginia Wolf.
London in Bloom
The borough was judged on Wednesday 14 July by two London in Bloom judges. They were escorted on a planned route around our parks, open spaces, schools, streets, and community gardens including tours of Waterlow Park, Bloomsbury Square and Russell Square. The results will be known in September. In 2009, the borough acheived overall Silver with the highlight being the award of a Gold to Waterlow Park. Bloomsbury Square, Russell Square, St Georges Gardens, Maygrove Peace Park and Waterlow Park were entered for the separate park awards.
Bloomsbury Festival
The first Bloomsbury Festival originally took place in 2006 and 2007, towards the east of Bloomsbury. The programme in 2007 saw over 125 events take place across 27 venues involving 79 partners and with a visitor attendance figure that exceeded 50,000 - events included classical concerts, football tornaments, street performance, a food market, a book fair, guided walks, a music stage, film competitions, children's workshops, open houses in local museums and galleries, a tea dance and much more.
The new festival model will focus on celebrating the local area, its people, its history, the huge number of organisations in our locality, and will also look to the future.
At this stage Hidden Cities are developing their initial programming ideas with Camden Council and the Friends Groups, and as such we would be keen to hear your thoughts, which can be sent to philip_e_nelson@hotmail.com.
The proposed date for the Bloomsbury Festival is Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th October 2010.
Parks and Open Spaces update - Winter 2009/10
The latest update from Camden Parks and Open Spaces can be found as an attachment at the bottom of this page.
You can find Bloomsbury Square in the heart of London, close to the British Museum, St George’s Church Bloomsbury and Great Ormond Street Hospital and within easy reach of many central London attractions.
Nearest Station: Holborn (Piccadilly Line/Central Line)
St Georges Church Bloomsbury – www.stgeorgesbloomsbury.org.uk
The Bedford Estates- www.BedfordEstates.com
Camden Council – www.camden.gov.uk