Fitzrovia is an area of central London, near London`s West End. It is a formally designated area lying partly in the London Borough of Camden (in the east) and partly in the City of Westminster (in the west). It is bounded to the north by Euston Road, to the east by Gower Street, to the south by Oxford Street and to the west by Great Portland Street [1](or alternatively Portland Place).
Fitzrovia is named after the Fitzroy Tavern, a public house situated on the corner of Charlotte Street and Windmill Street within the district. The name was adopted during the inter-war years initially by and later in recognition of the artistic and bohemian community habitually found at the public house.[3] The public house was named after Charles FitzRoy (later Baron Southampton), who first developed the northern part of the area in the 18th century. FitzRoy purchased the Manor of Tottenhall and built Fitzroy Square, to which he gave his name; nearby Fitzroy Street also bears his name. The square is the most distinguished of the original architectural features of the district, having been designed in part by Robert Adam. The south-western area was first developed by the Duke of Newcastle who established Oxford Market, now the area around Market Place. By the beginning of the 19th century this part of London was heavily built upon, severing one of the main routes through it, Marylebone Passage, into the tiny remnant that remains today on Wells Street, opposite what would have been the Tiger public house — now a rubber clothing emporium.
Much of Fitzrovia was developed by minor landowners, and this led to a predominance of small and irregular streets – in comparison with neighbouring districts like Marylebone and Bloomsbury, which were dominated by one or two landowners, and were thus developed more schematically, with stronger grid patterns and a greater number of squares.
Two of London`s oldest surviving residential walkways can be found in Fitzrovia. Colville Place and the pre-Victorian Middleton Buildings (built circa 1825) are in the old London style of a way.
The most prominent feature of the area is the BT Tower, Cleveland Street, which is one of London`s tallest buildings and was open to the public until an IRA bomb exploded in the revolving restaurant in 1971. Another notable modern building is the Y.M.C.A. Indian Student Hospital on Fitzroy Square one of the few surviving buildings by Ralph Tubbs. The site of the Middlesex Hospital which occupies a large part of Fitzrovia was acquired by the property developer Candy and Candy and the hospital has now been demolished to make way for a new housing and retail development.
