Bloomsbury
BLOOMSBURY gets its name from its medieval landowners,
the Blemunds, though nothing was built here until the 1660s.
Through marriage, the Russell family (the earls and later dukes of
Bedford) acquired much of the area, and established the many
formal, bourgeois squares which are the main distinguishing feature
of Bloomsbury today. The Russells named the grid-plan streets after
their various titles and estates, and kept the pubs and shops to a
minimum to maintain the tone of the neighbourhood.
In the twentieth century, Bloomsbury acquired a reputation as
the city's most learned quarter, dominated by the dual institutions
of the British Museum and London University , and
home to many of London's chief book publishers, but perhaps best
known for its literary inhabitants. Today, the British Museum is
clearly the star attraction, but temple and the law courts there
are other sights, such as the Dickens House Museum , that
are high on many people's itineraries.
In its northern fringes, the character of the area changes
dramatically, becoming steadily more seedy as you near the two big
main-line train stations of Euston and King's Cross ,
where cheap B&Bs and run-down council estates provide fertile
territory for prostitutes and drug dealers, and an unlikely
location for the new British Library .
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