Recorded in the Doomsday Book as an area of vineyards and ‘wood for 100 pigs’, today Bloomsbury is associated with academia, medicine and literature.

Developed by the Dukes of Bedford from the seventeenth century with the first garden squares in the capital, Bloomsbury attracted a well to do clientele before falling out of favour. The smart set moved out and the writers moved in: Keats, Dickens, Eliot, Jerome, and the Bloomsbury set to name a few. Fictional characters have also called Bloomsbury home.

On this tour we’ll hear about the curious lives of the residents, eccentric antics and contributions to the lexicon and the literary world made by Bloomsbury inhabitants over years.

Meeting Time: at 17.45 for a prompt start at 18.00

Meeting place: at Eduardo Paolozzi’s statue of Sir Isaac Newton in the forecourt of The British Library, 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 3JZ

End: approx 20.00 Montague Place, rear of British Museum

Post tour drinks: The Museum Tavern, 49 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3BA