Russell Square is a largegarden square inBloomsbury, in theLondon Borough of Camden, built predominantly by the firm ofJames Burton. It is near theUniversity of London's main buildings and theBritish Museum. Almost exactly square, to the north isWoburn Place and to the south-east isSouthampton Row.Russell Square tube station sits to the north-east.[1]
It is named after the surname of the Earls andDukes of Bedford; thefreehold remains with the latter's conservation trusts who have agreed public access and management by Camden Council. The gardens are in the mainstream, initial category (of Grade II listing) on theRegister of Historic Parks and Gardens.[2]
Following the demolition ofBedford House, Russell Square and Bedford Square were laid out in 1804.[3] The square is named after the surname of the Earls andDukes of Bedford, who developed the family's London landholdings in the 17th and 18th centuries.[3] Between 1805 and 1830,Thomas Lawrence had a studio at number 65.[4] Other past residents include the famous 19th-century architectural father-and-son partnership,Philip andPhilip Charles Hardwick, who lived at number 60 in the 1850s.[5]
On the eastern side theHotel Russell, built in 1898 to a design byCharles Fitzroy Doll, dominates (its builders were connected with the company which createdRMSTitanic),[6] alongside theImperial Hotel, which was also designed byCharles Fitzroy Doll and built from 1905 to 1911. The old Imperial building was demolished in 1967.[7]
The square contained large terraced houses aimed mainly at upper-middle-class families. A number of the original houses survive, especially on the southern and western sides. Those to the west are occupied by theUniversity of London, and there is ablue plaque on one at the north-west corner commemorating the fact thatT. S. Eliot worked there from the late 1920s when he was poetry editor ofFaber & Faber. That building is now used by theSchool of Oriental and African Studies (a college of the University of London).[8]
In 1998, theLondon Mathematical Society moved from rooms inBurlington House toDe Morgan House, at 57–58 Russell Square, in order to accommodate staff expansion.[9]
TheCabmen's Shelter Fund was established in London in 1875 to run shelters for the drivers ofhansom cabs and laterhackney carriages (andtaxicabs).[10]
In 2002, the square was re-landscaped in a style based on the original early 19th century layout byHumphry Repton (1752–1818).[11]
Since 2004, the two buildings on the southern side, at numbers 46 and 47, have been occupied by theHuron University USA in London (now the London campus for EF International Language Centres and is the Centre for Professional Students over the age of 25).[12]
On 7 July 2005,two terrorist bombings occurred near the square. One of them was on aLondon Underground train at that moment running betweenKing's Cross St Pancras tube station andRussell Square tube station, and another was on a bus onTavistock Square, near Russell Square. To commemorate the victims, many flowers were laid at a spot on Russell Square just south of the café. The location is now marked by a memorialplaque and a youngoak tree.[13]
The square was also the site ofa mass stabbing in 2016.[14]
The London Branch ofÉcole Jeannine Manuel has occupied 52–53 Russell Square since 2019.[15]
Russell Square appears in various novels. In the early chapters ofThackeray'sVanity Fair (1848), set in about 1812, Russell Square is evoked as the residence of "John Sedley, Esquire, of Russell Square, and theStock Exchange."[16]Virginia Woolf set many scenes of her novelNight and Day (1919) in Russell Square.[17]
Jenny Chawleigh, daughter of business man Jonathan Chawleigh, lives with her father in Russell Square before she marries the protagonist, Captain Adam Deveril (Viscount Lynton), in Georgette Heyer's Regency romance novel "A Civil Contract", published in 1961. They converse about the history of the Square on Lord Lynton's first visit to the house, and Mr. Chawleigh is not impressed with the statue of the Duke of Bedford.[18]
21 Russell Square is the murderer's street address in the novel (but not in themovie adaptation)The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (L'Assassin habite au 21) by the Belgian writerStanislas-André Steeman.[19] InJohn Dickson Carr's detective novelThe Hollow Man, the victim, Professor Grimaud, lives in a house on the western side of Russell Square.[20] InAlan Hollinghurst's novelThe Swimming Pool Library (1988), the protagonist William Beckwith spends time here with his lover who works in a hotel overlooking the square.[21]
In chapter 6 ("Rendezvous") ofJohn Wyndham's novelThe Day of the Triffids (1951) the main characters William (Bill) Masen and Josella Playton are photographed by Elspeth Cary in Russell Square while practicing with triffid guns.[22] InBen Aaronovitch's Peter Grant books, the first of which isThe Rivers of London (also known asMidnight Riot), The Folly – headquarters of British wizardry – is located in Russell Square.[23]
Russell Square is the location of the eponymous bookshop in theChannel 4 sitcomBlack Books.[24] In the BBC's 2010Sherlock episode entitled "A Study in Pink", Russell Square is the park in which the character of Dr Watson is re-acquainted with his previous classmate Mike Stamford. The Imperial Hotel façade that lines Russell Square serves as a backdrop for the park-bench conversation between them.[25]
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51°31′18″N0°7′34″W / 51.52167°N 0.12611°W /51.52167; -0.12611
