Bedford Square Information & Bedford Square Links at HealthHaven.com

The north side of Bedford Square

Bedford Square is a square in the Bloomsbury district of the Borough of Camden in London, England.

It was built between 1775 and 1783 as an upper middle class residential area, and has had many distinguished residents, including Lord Eldon, one of Britain's longest serving and most celebrated Lord Chancellors, who lived in the largest house in the square for many years. The square takes its name from the main title of the Russell family, the Dukes of Bedford, who were the main landlords in Bloomsbury.

Bedford Square from the BT Tower in 1966

Bedford Square is one of the best preserved set pieces of Georgian architecture in London, but most of the houses have now been converted into offices. Numbers 1-10, 11, 12–27, 28–38 and 40–54 are grade I listed buildings. The central garden remains private. Bedford College, the first place for female higher education in Britain, was formerly located (and named after) Bedford Square.

[edit] Current occupants

Bedford Square (2005)

Bedford Square holds the London office of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Nos. 1 and 2: Cameron Mackintosh (Overseas) Limited
No. 3: Winston House (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's European Study Center)
No. 6: New York University's London Academic Facility.
No. 14: [1] Redhouse Lane
No. 16: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
No. 19: Morse Plc
No. 25: InferMed Ltd
No. 29: London office of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
No. 36: Architectural Association School of Architecture.
No. 47: Yale University Press, London.
Nos. 8, 9, 49, 50 and 51: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

[edit] Former occupants

No. 6: Lord Eldon — Lord Chancellor
No. 10: Charles Gilpin - MP
No. 11: Henry Cavendish — scientist
No. 13: Harry Ricardo — engine designer — born here
No. 22: Johnston Forbes-Robertson — actor
No. 30: Jonathan Cape - renowned 20th Century publishing company.
No. 35: Thomas Hodgkin — physician, reformer and philanthropist
No. 35: Thomas Wakley — founder of The Lancet
No. 41: William Butterfield — architect
No. 41: Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins — novelist
No. 44: Margot Asquith — wife of the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith -- and before that, Ottoline Morrell
No. 48: Elizabeth Jesser Reid — anti-slavery activist and founder of Bedford College for Women
No. 49: Ram Mohan Roy — Indian scholar and reformer