Bloomsbury is an area of central London in the south of the London Borough of Camden, developed by the Russell family in the 17th and 18th centuries into a fashionable residential area. It is notable for its array of garden squares,[1] literary connections (exemplified by the Bloomsbury Group), and numerous hospitals and academic institutions.
While Bloomsbury was not the first area of London to have acquired a formal square, Southampton Square (now named Bloomsbury Square), which was laid out by Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton in 1660, was the first square to actually be named thus.[2]
Bloomsbury is home to the British Museum, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the British Medical Association, the University of London`s Senate House Library and its colleges (University College London, Birkbeck, Institute of Education, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, School of Pharmacy, School of Oriental and African Studies and the Royal Veterinary College).
Notable hospitals include Great Ormond Street Hospital, the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College Hospital and the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital.
Bloomsbury was formerly home to the British Library, housed within the British Museum; the Library moved in 1997 to larger premises nearby, next to St Pancras railway station in Somers Town.
