112-841: The Langham Estate is a property estate in Fitzrovia , London, and is owned by the Mount Eden Land Limited ( Guernsey ). The company controls 14 acres of real estate in central London . A third of its property portfolio was sold in 2024. The Langham Estate originates from an entity first established in 1925 to manage a holding of 40 acres of land purchased from the Howard de Walden Estate in central London. The properties, acquired for £3m and located in eastern Marylebone , then passed through various owners, including Sir John Ellerman 's Audley Trust, before being acquired in 1994 by Guernsey-based Mount Eden Land Ltd for £51m. Under Sir John Ellerman,
224-526: A University College London accommodation on Maple Street. Boy George lived in a squat in Carburton Street in 1981 prior to his success and Neil Howson of Age of Chance lived in Cleveland Street around the same time. Fitzrovia is also the location of Pollock's Toy Museum , home to erstwhile Toy Theatre , at 1 Scala Street . At the back of Pollocks and in the next block was the site in 1772 of
336-618: A "gaunt figure with a ragged red brown beard ... a formidable man." Her mother was a noted philanthropist, and her side of the family contained Julia Margaret Cameron , a celebrated photographer, and Lady Henry Somerset , a campaigner for women's rights. Virginia was named after her aunt Adeline, but because of her aunt's recent death the family decided not to use her first name. Both of the Stephens had children from previous marriages. Julia, from her marriage to barrister Herbert Duckworth , had George , Stella, and Gerald ; Leslie had Laura from
448-632: A depression similar to one which she had earlier experienced. The onset of the Second World War, the destruction of her London home during the Blitz , and the cool reception given to her biography of her late friend Roger Fry all worsened her condition until she was unable to work. When Leonard enlisted in the Home Guard , Virginia disapproved. She held fast to her pacifism and criticised her husband for wearing what she considered to be "the silly uniform of
560-686: A focus on sustainability and improving air quality. In 2011, the BID came in for criticism, with damage to trees in Charlotte Street by Christmas lighting described by the Fitzrovia News as vandalism. The BID also operates a separate "consumer" facing brand – Enjoy Fitzrovia – to promote the area as a destination for shopping, eating, and art within London's West End. In October 2014, The Fitzrovia Partnership teamed up with local resident Griff Rhys Jones to create
672-458: A home in Sussex and permanently settled there in 1940. Woolf began writing professionally in 1900. During the inter-war period, Woolf was an important part of London's literary and artistic society. In 1915, she published her first novel, The Voyage Out , through her half-brother's publishing house, Gerald Duckworth and Company . Her best-known works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To
784-521: A joint lease on it. Located at the end of a tree-lined road, the house was in a Regency-Gothic style, "flat, pale, serene, yellow-washed", remote, without electricity or water and allegedly haunted. The sisters had two housewarming parties in January 1912. Virginia recorded the events of the weekends and holidays she spent there in her Asham Diary , part of which was later published as A Writer's Diary in 1953. In terms of creative writing, The Voyage Out
896-521: A libertarian society with sexual freedom for all. Virginia appears not to have shown interest in practising the group's free love ideology, finding an outlet for her sexual desires only in writing. Around this time she began work on her first novel, Melymbrosia , which eventually became The Voyage Out (1915). In November 1911 Virginia and Adrian moved to a larger house at 38 Brunswick Square , and invited John Maynard Keynes, Duncan Grant and Leonard Woolf to become lodgers there. Virginia saw it as
1008-470: A marriage to Minny Thackeray, a daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray . Both former spouses had died suddenly, Duckworth of an abscess and Minny Stephen in childbirth. Leslie and Julia Stephen had four children together: Vanessa , Thoby , Virginia, and Adrian . Virginia lived at 22 Hyde Park Gate until her father's death in 1904. She was, as she described it, "born into a large connection, born not of rich parents, but of well-to-do parents, born into
1120-506: A new diary at the start of 1897 and filled notebooks with fragments and literary sketches. Leslie Stephen died in February 1904, which caused Virginia to suffer another period of mental instability from April to September, and led to at least one suicide attempt. Woolf later described the period of 1897–1904 as "the seven unhappy years." As was common at the time, Julia Stephen did not believe in formal education for her daughters. Virginia
1232-682: A new opportunity: "We are going to try all kinds of experiments", she told Ottoline Morrell . This arrangement for a single woman living among men was considered scandalous. Several members of the Bloomsbury Group attained notoriety in 1910 with the Dreadnought hoax , in which they posed as a royal Abyssinian entourage (with Virginia as "Prince Mendax") and received a tour of the HMS Dreadnought by Virginia's cousin Commander Fisher , who
SECTION 10
#17329271202321344-409: A previous proposal of marriage from Clive Bell. As a couple, their interest in avant-garde art would have an important influence on Woolf's further development as an author. After Vanessa's marriage, Virginia and Adrian moved into 29 Fitzroy Square , still very close to Gordon Square. The house had previously been occupied by George Bernard Shaw , and the area had been populated by artists since
1456-515: A quiet country retreat close to London, for the sake of her still-fragile mental health. In the winter of 1910 she and Adrian stayed at Lewes and started exploring the area of Sussex around the town. She soon found a property in nearby Firle , which she named "Little Talland House"; she maintained a relationship with that area for the rest of her life, tending to spend her time either in Sussex or London. In September 1911 she and Leonard Woolf found Asham House nearby, and Virginia and Vanessa took
1568-565: A range of rooms available for large and small groups and individuals. Two new neighbourhood planning groups are currently in the process of formation. The Fitzrovia West and Fitzrovia East Neighbourhood Areas have been established by Westminster City Council and London Borough of Camden respectively. In addition FitzWest, as it has become known has made further application to become a Neighbourhood Forum. Paddington , Marylebone , Kings Cross and St Pancras railway stations are all relatively close to Fitzrovia although none (including Euston)
1680-554: A short-term project which would allow residents to create temporary allotments on the site until a new development was started. However, the Icelandic bank Kaupthing , which had a controlling interest in the site, announced in March 2010 its intention to sell the site on the open market and cancelled the allotments project. In July 2010, the site passed into the ownership of Aviva Investments and Exemplar Properties. A planning application for
1792-488: A similarly sized land holding in West Fitzrovia. A number of structural engineering consultants are based in offices on Newman Street and the world headquarters of Arup is on Fitzroy Street although they own many of the surrounding buildings (which are in the process of being redeveloped into modern offices). There were once many hospitals (including Middlesex Hospital , which closed in 2006, and St Luke's Hospital for
1904-500: A stomach pump. Woolf's illness led to Duckworth delaying the publication of The Voyage Out until 26 March 1915. In the autumn of 1914 the couple moved to a house on Richmond Green , and in late March 1915 they moved to Hogarth House, also in Richmond , after which they named their publishing house in 1917. The decision to move to London's suburbs was made for the sake of Woolf's health. Many of Woolf's circle of friends were against
2016-541: A tangible difference to the management of Fitzrovia." Since August 2012, the Fitzrovia Partnership has been a formal Business Improvement District (BID). Activities have included installation of Christmas lighting in Tottenham Court Road, Charlotte Street and Fitzroy Street, an annual Christmas market, Feast at Fitzrovia summer festival, and a commitment to local job creation, support for small businesses and
2128-689: A time in Howland Street in a house on a site now occupied by offices. Modernist painter Wyndham Lewis lived on Percy Street . The house of Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester on Tottenham Street now shows a commemorative blue plaque . 97 Mortimer Street, where H. H. Munro ( Saki ) lived, now has a blue plaque commemorating his time there. Colin MacInnes author of Absolute Beginners (1959) also resided on Tottenham Street, at number 28, with his publisher Martin Green and his wife Fiona Green. X. Trapnel,
2240-408: A very communicative, literate, letter writing, visiting, articulate, late nineteenth century world." The house was described as dimly-lit, crowded with furniture and paintings. Within it, the younger Stephens made a close-knit group. Virginia showed an early affinity for writing. By the age of five she was writing letters. A fascination with books helped form a bond between her and her father. From
2352-601: A view across the Ouse towards the hills of the South Downs . Leonard Woolf describes this view as being unchanged since the days of Chaucer . The Woolfs would retain Monk's House until the end of Virginia's life; it became their permanent home after their London home was bombed, and it was where she completed Between the Acts in early 1941, which was followed by her final breakdown and suicide in
SECTION 20
#17329271202322464-501: A voluntary basis at Morley College , and would continue intermittently for the next two years. This work would later influence themes of class and education in her novel Mrs Dalloway . She made some money from reviews, including some published in church paper The Guardian and the National Review , capitalising on her father's literary reputation in order to earn commissions. Vanessa added another event to their calendar with
2576-627: A year's leave in 1911 after letters from Lytton Strachey describing Virginia's beauty enticed him back. He and Virginia attended social engagements together, and he moved into Brunswick Square as a tenant in December of that year. Leonard proposed to Virginia on 11 January 1912. Initially she expressed reluctance, but the two continued courting. Leonard decided not to return to Ceylon and resigned his post. On 29 May Virginia declared her love for Leonard, and they married on 10 August at St Pancras Town Hall . The couple spent their honeymoon first at Asham and
2688-686: Is a district of central London , England, near the West End . The eastern part of the area is in the London Borough of Camden , and the western in the City of Westminster . It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court , and was urbanised in the 18th century. Its name was coined in the late 1930s by Tom Driberg . It is characterised by its mixed-use of residential, business, retail, education and healthcare, with no single activity dominating. The once bohemian area
2800-538: Is based at Ridgmount Street and the Royal Anthropological Institute Main office is at 50 Fitzroy Street. All Souls' Church of England Primary School is at Foley Street. The building is Grade II listed . Southbank International School has two of its campuses located within the area, one on Portland Place and another on the northern end of Conway street (just off Warren Street). The Conway campus houses students from grade 11 and 12 where they study
2912-868: Is being developed for Langham Estate's Fitzrovia area. This is being done in consultation with stakeholders, the Langham Estate and other local landlords, businesses and residents. The plan focused on improving the local amenity, affordable housing provision, poor broadband data services and air pollution conditions. In August 2023, Langham Estate decided to divest itself of a third of its property holdings. These include 27 freehold assets of offices, retail, leisure, educational, medical and residential properties in northern Fitzrovia. These properties were reportedly sold for £350m in January 2024. 51°31′01″N 0°08′22″W / 51.5170782°N 0.139501°W / 51.5170782; -0.139501 Fitzrovia Fitzrovia ( / f ɪ t s ˈ r oʊ v i ə / )
3024-417: Is currently based on Newman Street, with additional offices at 1 Stephen Street. Dennis Publishing is based close by, on Cleveland Street, and London's Time Out magazine and City Guide is created and edited on Tottenham Court Road on the eastern border of Fitzrovia. Many other media companies are based within the area, including Informa , Arqiva and Digital UK . Reflecting Fitzrovia's connections with
3136-546: Is produced four times a year by volunteers drawn from the residential community. An advice and information service and community projects, including the annual Fitzrovia Festival, are also delivered from the Neighbourhood Centre. The Fitzrovia News and Fitzrovia Festival are both supported by the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association. The new Fitzrovia Community Centre is located at 2 Foley Street in
3248-521: Is the first mention of hash in that era's music. Donovan was the first of his ilk to be busted for it, by no coincidence he points out. The song is a Fitzrovia source for its mention of the Goodge Street platform, perhaps the dollhouses, the song's then-new jazzy feel, and overall lyrics, that foreshadowed life in urban London. In its early days, Fitzrovia was largely an area of well-to-do tradesmen and craft workshops, with Edwardian mansion blocks built by
3360-459: 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
3472-495: Is within the boundary of the area. Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf ( / w ʊ l f / ; née Stephen ; 25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English writer. She is considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors. She pioneered the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born into an affluent household in South Kensington , London. She
Langham Estate - Misplaced Pages Continue
3584-493: The Cambridge Apostles , an elite university debating society that a number of them had been members of. These rules emphasised candour and openness. Among the 125 memoirs presented, Virginia contributed three that were published posthumously in 1976, in the autobiographical anthology Moments of Being . These were 22 Hyde Park Gate (1921), Old Bloomsbury (1922) and Am I a Snob? (1936). On 14 December 1922 Woolf met
3696-570: The Cambridge Apostles , included Saxon Sydney-Turner , Lytton Strachey , Clive Bell and Desmond MacCarthy . Their social gatherings, referred to as "Thursday evenings", were a vision of recreating Trinity College. This circle formed the nucleus of the intellectual circle of writers and artists known as the Bloomsbury Group . Later, it would include John Maynard Keynes , Duncan Grant , E. M. Forster , Roger Fry , Leonard Woolf, and David Garnett . Virginia began teaching evening classes on
3808-466: The Domesday Book of 1086, Totenhale in 1184 and Totenhale Court by 1487. Tottenham Court formed the south-western part of the parish and later borough of St Pancras . The Fitzroy Tavern was named after Charles FitzRoy (later Baron Southampton) , who purchased the Manor of Tottenham Court and built Fitzroy Square , to which he gave his name; nearby Fitzroy Street also bears his name. The square
3920-490: The IB Diploma Programme . Fashion Retail Academy is at Gresse Street. Although often described as upmarket and home to some celebrities, like much of inner London, Fitzrovia residents have a wide disparity of wealth and the area contains a mix of affluent property owners as well as many private, council and housing association tenants. The neighbourhood is classified as above-averagely deprived, and parts of it have
4032-622: The Quakers to allow theatre employees to be close to work. Modern property uses are diverse, but Fitzrovia is still well known for its fashion industry, now mainly comprising wholesalers and HQs of the likes of Arcadia Group . New media outfits have replaced the photographic studios of the 1970s–90s, often housed in warehouses built to store the changing clothes of their original industry — fashion. Dewar Studios, leading fashion and modelling photographers based in Great Titchfield Street continue
4144-463: The Quantock Hills before travelling to the south of France and on to Spain and Italy. On their return they moved to Clifford's Inn , and began to divide their time between London and Asham. Virginia Woolf had completed a penultimate draft of her first novel The Voyage Out before her wedding, but undertook large-scale alterations to the manuscript between December 1912 and March 1913. The work
4256-1070: The Scala Theatre , Tottenham Street – then known as the Cognoscenti Theatre – but it had many names over history: the King's Concert Rooms, the New Theatre, the Regency Theatre, the West London Theatre, the Queen's Theatre, the Fitzroy Theatre, the Prince of Wales and the Royal Theatre until its demolition in 1903 when the Scala Theatre was built on the site for Frank Verity and modelled on La Scala in Milan. It
4368-638: The Trinity May Ball in 1900. These men formed a reading group they named the Midnight Society, which the Stephen sisters would later be invited to. After their father's death, Vanessa and Adrian decided to sell 22 Hyde Park Gate in South Kensington and move to Bloomsbury . This was a much cheaper area—they had not inherited much and were unsure about their finances. The Duckworth brothers did not join
4480-522: The suffrage movement . Virginia also attended a number of lectures at the King's College Ladies' Department. Although Virginia could not attend Cambridge, she was to be profoundly influenced by her brother Thoby's experiences there. When Thoby went to Trinity in 1899, he befriended a circle of young men, including Clive Bell , Lytton Strachey , Leonard Woolf (whom Virginia would later marry), and Saxon Sydney-Turner , to whom he would introduce his sisters at
4592-457: The women's rights movement. After her father's death in 1904, the Stephen family moved from Kensington to the more bohemian Bloomsbury , where, in conjunction with the brothers' intellectual friends, they formed the artistic and literary Bloomsbury Group . In 1912, she married Leonard Woolf , and in 1917, the couple founded the Hogarth Press , which published much of her work. They rented
Langham Estate - Misplaced Pages Continue
4704-522: The "Friday Club", dedicated to the discussion of the fine arts. This introduced some new people into their circle, including Vanessa's friends from the Royal Academy of Arts and Slade School of Fine Art (where she had been studying), such as Henry Lamb and Gwen Darwin , and also the eighteen-year-old Katherine Laird ("Ka") Cox , who was about to attend Newnham College, Cambridge . Cox would become Virginia's intimate friend. These new members brought
4816-707: The Black Horse, the Burglar's Rest, the Marquess of Granby, The Wheatsheaf... in Fitzrovia." Maclaren-Ross replied: "I know the Fitzroy" to which Tambimuttu said: "Ah, that was in the Thirties, now they go to other places. Wait and see." Tambimuttu then took him on a pub crawl. The name was largely forgotten as the avant-garde set moved out in the late-1940's, but was revived in the 1970s, with
4928-467: The Bloomsbury Group into contact with another, slightly younger, group of Cambridge intellectuals who Virginia would refer to as the "Neo-Pagans". The Friday Club continued until 1912 or 1913. In the autumn of 1906 the siblings travelled to Greece and Turkey with Violet Dickinson. During the trip Vanessa fell ill with appendicitis . Both Violet and Thoby contracted typhoid fever ; Thoby died on 20 November. Two days after Thoby's death, Vanessa accepted
5040-558: The City of Westminster, just across from the Camden borough boundary. The Centre arose from a town planning (section 106) agreement between University College London Hospital (UCLH) and the London Borough of Camden. This agreement provided funding to provide the new community centre. The building has undergone a major refurbishment and designed to be a modern and welcoming multi-purpose building, with
5152-518: The Clergy , now re-opened after refurbishment). A handful of embassies ( El Salvador , Mozambique , Turkmenistan and Croatia ) nestle amongst the many and varied public houses. Retail use spills into parts of Fitzrovia from Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road, which are two of the principal shopping streets in central London. The Fitzrovia Partnership was formed in 2009 as "a business-led initiative bringing together local businesses to add value and make
5264-550: The Dylan Thomas in Fitzrovia festival, a week of poetry, art and comedy across the area, celebrating the life and times of Dylan Thomas in the area. The University of Westminster has buildings on New Cavendish Street, Wells Street and Great Portland Street. University College London has buildings on Torrington Place, Huntley Street and New Cavendish Street. There are University of London halls of residences on Charlotte Street and Fitzroy Street. The Institute for Fiscal Studies
5376-478: The Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association was formed and raised money to create a neighbourhood centre in a Grade II listed disused glass shop on the corner of Tottenham Street and Goodge Place. The Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Centre was opened in 1975. The Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Centre continues to be a place of community action and a venue for voluntary groups to meet, and is the office of the Fitzrovia News which
5488-506: The Grafton family's country estate is Euston Hall, in Euston, Suffolk , and this is the origin of the name for Euston Station and Euston Road. Two of London's oldest surviving residential walkways can be found in Fitzrovia. Colville Place and the pre-Victorian Middleton Buildings (built 1759 ) are in the old London style of a way. When the parishes of St Pancras and Marylebone became boroughs in 1900,
5600-463: The Home Guard". After the Second World War began, Woolf's diary indicates that she was obsessed with death, which figured more and more as her mood darkened. On 28 March 1941, Woolf drowned herself by walking into the fast-flowing River Ouse near her home, after placing a large stone in her pocket. Her body was not found until 18 April. Her husband buried her cremated remains beneath an elm tree in
5712-463: The Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928). She is also known for her essays, such as A Room of One's Own (1929). Woolf became one of the central subjects of the 1970s movement of feminist criticism . Her works, translated into more than 50 languages, have attracted attention and widespread commentary for inspiring feminism. A large body of writing is dedicated to her life and work. She has been
SECTION 50
#17329271202325824-471: The Lighthouse and The Waves . Both at Hyde Park Gate and Talland House, the family socialised with much of the country's literary and artistic circles. Frequent guests included literary figures such as Henry James and George Meredith , as well as James Russell Lowell . The family did not return after 1894; a hotel was constructed in front of the house which blocked the sea view, and Julia Stephen died in May
5936-623: The Revolution in France , 1790), who lived at 18 Charlotte Street. Artists Richard Wilson and John Constable lived at 76 Charlotte Street at various times. During the 19th century, painters Walter Sickert , Ford Madox Brown , Thomas Musgrave Joy and Whistler lived in Fitzroy Square. George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolf also resided at different times on the square, at number 29. French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine lived for
6048-493: The Stephens in their new home; Gerald did not wish to, and George got married during the preparations, leaving to live with his new wife. Virginia lived in the house for brief periods in the autumn – she was sent away to Cambridge and Yorkshire for her health – and settled there permanently in December 1904. From March 1905 the Stephens began to entertain their brother Thoby's intellectual friends at Gordon Square. The circle, who were largely members of
6160-672: The Woolfs returned to Bloomsbury, taking out a ten-year lease at 52 Tavistock Square , from where they ran the Hogarth Press from the basement, where Virginia also had her writing room. 1925 saw the publication of Mrs Dalloway in May followed by her collapse while at Charleston in August. In 1927, her next novel, To the Lighthouse , was published, and the following year she lectured on Women & Fiction at Cambridge University and published Orlando in October. Her two Cambridge lectures then became
6272-464: The age of 10, with her sister Vanessa, she began an illustrated family newspaper, the Hyde Park Gate News , chronicling life and events within the Stephen family, and modelled on the popular magazine Tit-Bits . Virginia would run the Hyde Park Gate News until 1895, a few weeks before her mother's death. In 1897 Virginia began her first diary, which she kept for the next twelve years. In
6384-421: The area, and its redevelopment as Fitzroy Place was completed in 2016. The site of the hospital had initially been acquired by the property developer Candy and Candy which demolished the existing buildings to make way for a housing and retail development. The Candy brothers' scheme, which was unpopular with local people, failed during the 2008 credit crunch . Stanhope plc took over the project and proposed
6496-475: The area. Chartist meetings were hosted in the area, some attended by Karl Marx , who is known to have been to venues at Charlotte Street , Tottenham Street and Rathbone Place . The area became a focus of Chartist activities after the Reform Act 1832 and was host to a number of working men's clubs including The Communist Club at 49 Tottenham Street. The UFO Club , home to Pink Floyd during their spell as
6608-673: The avant-garde the area has a concentration of commercial art galleries and dealers. Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum , an international firm of architects, interior designers, landscape architects, urban planners and advanced strategists are based in the Qube on Whitfield Street, along with Make Architects . Derwent London also have a showroom in Whitfield Street. Derwent London own about one million square feet of property in Fitzrovia: about one fifth of their total portfolio The Langham Estate have
6720-485: The basis for her major essay A Room of One's Own in 1929. Virginia wrote only one drama, Freshwater , based on her great-aunt Julia Margaret Cameron , and produced at her sister's studio on Fitzroy Street in 1935. 1936 saw the publication of The Years , which had its origin in a lecture Woolf gave to the National Society for Women's Service in 1931, an edited version of which would later be published as "Professions for Women". Another collapse of her health followed
6832-494: The company announced plans to transform part of Fitzrovia into a new retail destination with cafes and restaurants. Derwent London created the Fitzrovia Partnership, a then-business partnership with Arup , Make Architects and City of London Corporation, with the support of the London Borough of Camden. In July 2010 Derwent London showcased plans for the redevelopment of the Saatchi & Saatchi building in Charlotte Street. Plans produced by Make Architects proposed increasing
SECTION 60
#17329271202326944-419: The decision was taken to make minor modifications to the ancient boundaries, whose pre-urban origin meant it cut awkwardly across the built environment in some places. The western half of Charlotte Place the western part of part of Charlotte Street and the eastern half of Rathbone Street were transferred to Marylebone, despite these streets long history within St Pancras and their being more closely integrated with
7056-411: The density of the site by 50 per cent and adding shops, cafes and a small open space. Today, over 128,000 people work within 0.5 miles of Fitzrovia, according to the Fitzrovia Partnership's 2014 Economic Report . Objection was raised by the local community over plans announced in July 2010 to demolish and redevelop the site of an 18th-century building in Cleveland Street, originally a poorhouse for
7168-496: The dissolute novelist (based on the real Julian MacLaren-Ross ) in Anthony Powell 's Books Do Furnish a Room (1971), spends much of his time holding forth in Fitzrovia pubs. In Saul Bellow 's The Dean's December (1982), the eponym , Corde dines at the Étoile, Charlotte Street, on his trips to London, and thinks he "could live happily ever after on Charlotte Street"; Ian McEwan quotes this in Saturday (2005). McEwan lived in Fitzroy Square, and his novel takes place in
7280-586: The entity's original properties are still held—but now in the form of freehold as their long leases have been sold off. Samuel Tak Lee of Hong Kong is said to be its owner. Mr Lee reportedly sought control of Shaftesbury PLC's neighbouring 15-acre estate until his interests in it were sold in June 2020. The Fitzrovia real estate market has been undergoing a renewal. The area has witnessed significant increase in rents and rates along with markedly higher occupant turnovers. Property values have increased in part due to changes in planning constraints, along with
7392-404: The film Peeping Tom (1960) were shot in and around Newman Passage and Rathbone Street. Parts of Sapphire (1959) were filmed around Charlotte Street. Parts of Phantom Thread (2017) were filmed on Fitzroy Square and Grafton Mews. British singer-songwriter Donovan 's second album Fairytale features the evocative song Sunny Goodge Street about scoring hashish in the neighborhood. This
7504-488: The following year. In the 1939 essay "A Sketch of the Past" Woolf first wrote about experiencing sexual abuse by Gerald Duckworth at a young age. There is speculation that this contributed to her mental health issues later in life. There are also suggestions of sexual impropriety from George Duckworth during the period that he was caring for the Stephen sisters. Julia Stephen fell ill with influenza in February 1895, and never properly recovered, dying on 5 May, when Virginia
7616-405: The head of the household, and bring Vanessa and Virginia out into society . This was not a rite of passage that resonated with either girl; Virginia's view was that "Society in those days was a very competent, perfectly complacent, ruthless machine. A girl had no chance against its fangs. No other desires—say to paint, or to write—could be taken seriously." Her priority was her writing; she began
7728-516: The holdings covered almost all Great Portland Street , and much of streets alongside it (including Hallam , Bolsover , Margaret and Great Titchfield Streets). Numerous holdings on Great Portland Street were divested over the years. The Langham Estate operates in an area noted for its media connections, restaurants, design showrooms and art galleries. The Langham Estate was described in 2017 as being one of London's 16 Great Estates with its footprint of 13.8 acres of central London property. Many of
7840-449: The house band of psychedelic London, was held in the basement of 31 Tottenham Court Road. Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix also played at the Speakeasy on Margaret Street and Bob Dylan made his London debut at the King & Queen pub on Foley Street. Oxford Street's 100 Club is a major hot-bed for music from the 1960s to the present day, and has roots in 1970s Britain's burgeoning Punk rock movement. The band Coldplay formed in Ramsay Hall,
7952-507: The impact of the Cross Rail and Oxford Street projects, which were projected to increase commercial activity in the area. The company markets some of its properties under the banners of Noho and/or FitzNovia to describe an area just north of Oxford Street and just west of Regent Street . The company website states the company holds a "1.3 million sq feet (29 acre) mixed portfolio of office, showroom, retail, restaurant, bar, residential and storage" properties. A neighbourhood plan
8064-478: The literary people of mark...clever young writers and barristers, chiefly of the radical persuasion...we used to meet on Wednesday and Sunday evenings, to smoke and drink and discuss the universe and the reform movement". From 1897 Virginia received private tuition in Latin and Ancient Greek. One of her tutors was Clara Pater , and another was Janet Case , with whom she formed a lasting friendship and who involved her in
8176-516: The name Fitzrovia, perhaps as a take on Belgravia. By the time Julian Maclaren-Ross met Tambimuttu and Dylan Thomas in the early 1940s this literary group had moved away from the Fitzroy Tavern, which had become a victim of its own success, and were hanging out in the lesser-known Wheatsheaf and others in Rathbone Place and Gresse Street . Maclaren-Ross recalls Tambimuttu saying: "Now we go to
8288-521: The nearby River Ouse on 28 March. 1920 saw a postwar reconstitution of the Bloomsbury Group, under the title of the Memoir Club , which as the name suggests focussed on self-writing, in the manner of Proust 's A La Recherche , and inspired some of the more influential books of the 20th century. The Group, which had been scattered by the war, was reconvened by Mary ('Molly') MacCarthy who called them "Bloomsberries", and operated under rules derived from
8400-547: The new Middlesex Hospital project was submitted in August 2011 and it is understood that Exemplar would commence the redevelopment works in January 2012. The new Middlesex Hospital development was completed in 2014. Separately, Derwent London plc acquired 800,000 square feet (74,000 m ) of property in the area to add to its existing Fitzrovia portfolio after a merger with London Merchant Securities. The company then held about 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m ) of property over more than 30 sites in Fitzrovia. In November 2009
8512-438: The north, Oxford Street to the south and Great Portland Street to the west. Some interpretations take Tottenham Court Road as the eastern boundary, but others prefer a wider interpretation, extending to the more easterly Gower Street . By these definitions, the area overlaps the long established and once formally defined districts of Marylebone in the City of Westminster (Western Fitzrovia overlaps almost completely with
8624-472: The novel's completion The Years . The Woolf's final residence in London was at 37 Mecklenburgh Square (1939–1940), destroyed during the Blitz in September 1940; a month later their previous home on Tavistock Square was also destroyed. After that, they made Sussex their permanent home. After completing the manuscript of her last novel (posthumously published), Between the Acts (1941), Woolf fell into
8736-445: The officially designated East Marylebone Conservation Area within the modern borough of Westminster ), with the core area forming the south-west part of St Pancras in the London Borough of Camden. If the eastern boundary is taken to extend beyond Tottenham Court Road (i.e., to Gower Street) and to also extend south of Torrington Place, then the area also overlaps the historic boundaries of Bloomsbury (including St Giles with which it
8848-569: The parish of St Paul's, Covent Garden , and later the Cleveland Street Workhouse . Fitzrovia was a notable artistic and bohemian centre from roughly from the mid-1920s to the present day. Amongst those known to have lived locally and frequented public houses in the area such as the Fitzroy Tavern and the Wheatsheaf are Augustus John , Quentin Crisp , Dylan Thomas , Aleister Crowley ,
8960-735: The period of the First World War in Asham, but were obliged by the owner to leave in 1919. "In despair" they purchased the Round House in Lewes, a converted windmill, for £300. No sooner had they bought the Round House, than Monk's House in nearby Rodmell came up for auction, a weatherboarded house with oak-beamed rooms, said to date from the 15th or 16th century. The Woolfs sold the Round House and purchased Monk's House for £700. Monk's House also lacked running water, but came with an acre of garden, and had
9072-560: The photographer Richard Ansett have shown at the chapel. The chapel is also used for weddings and fashion shows. Books about Fitzrovia include: London's Old Latin Quarter , by E. Beresford Chancellor, published by Jonathan Cape, 1930; Fitzrovia , by Nick Bailey, published by Historical Publications, 1981, ISBN 0-9503656-2-9 ; and Characters of Fitzrovia by Mike Pentelow and Marsha Rowe , published by Chatto & Windus (2001) and Pimlico (2002), ISBN 0-7126-8015-2 . Parts of
9184-406: The prevalence of use having waxed and waned since that time. The core area of Fitzrovia has its roots in the ancient manor (estate) of Tottenham Court – first recorded as Þottanheale, from a charter from around AD 1000 (though the initial 'Þ', pronounced 'th', may have been a mistake by the scribe, all subsequent records using an initial 'T'). The manor was subsequently described as Totehele in
9296-600: The previous century. Duncan Grant lived there, and Roger Fry would move there in 1913. Virginia resented the wealth that Vanessa's marriage had given her; Virginia and Adrian lived more humbly by comparison. The siblings resumed the Thursday Club at their new home, while Gordon Square became the venue for a play-reading society. During this period, the group began to increasingly explore progressive ideas, with open discussions of members' homosexual inclinations, and nude dancing from Vanessa, who in 1910 went so far as to propose
9408-566: The pub's customers. The name was recorded in print for the first time by Tom Driberg MP in the William Hickey gossip column of the Daily Express in 1940. The writer and dandy Julian MacLaren-Ross recalled in his Memoirs of the Forties that Meary James Thurairajah Tambimuttu aka "Tambi", editor of Poetry London , had used the name Fitzrovia. Tambi had apparently claimed to have coined
9520-606: The racing tipster Prince Monolulu , Nina Hamnett and George Orwell . The Newman Arms on Rathbone Street , features in Orwell's novels Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), as well as the Michael Powell film Peeping Tom (1960). Thomas Paine 's Rights of Man (1791) was published during his residence at 154 New Cavendish Street, in reply to Edmund Burke (author of Reflections on
9632-543: The site of the Scala Cinema and later still of Channel 4 Television. The branch of Bertorelli's Italian Restaurant on Charlotte Street was prominently featured in the film Sliding Doors . Guy Ritchie more recently made RocknRolla using Charlotte Mews. The Fitzrovia Chapel , in Pearson Square, is a Grade II* listed building which hosts exhibitions throughout the year. Stephen Friedman Gallery, Erskine, Hall and Coe and
9744-405: The sources of my joy". While at Asham, in 1916 Leonard and Virginia found a farmhouse to let about four miles away, which they thought would be ideal for her sister. Eventually, Vanessa came down to inspect it, and took possession in October of that year, as a summer home for her family. The Charleston Farmhouse was to become the summer gathering place for the Bloomsbury Group. Leonard Woolf
9856-526: The spring of 1882, Leslie rented a large white house in St Ives, Cornwall . The family would spend three months each summer there for the first 13 years of Virginia's life. Although the house had limited amenities, its main attraction was the view overlooking Porthminster Bay towards the Godrevy Lighthouse . The happy summers spent at Talland House would later influence Woolf's novels Jacob's Room , To
9968-477: The square and the tavern are in the east of the area). Until the end of the 19th century the area was an estate of the Dukes of Grafton , descended from Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton , a son of Charles II and Barbara Villiers who bore the royal bastard surname FitzRoy, Norman-French for "son of the king". ) The name Fitzrovia came into use in the late 1930s among an artistic, bohemian circle that were among
10080-492: The subject of plays, novels, and films. Woolf is commemorated by statues, societies dedicated to her work, and a building at the University of London . Virginia Woolf was born Adeline Virginia Stephen on 25 January 1882 at 22 Hyde Park Gate in South Kensington , London, to Julia (née Jackson) and Sir Leslie Stephen . Her father was a writer, historian, essayist, biographer, and mountaineer, described by Helena Swanwick as
10192-710: The tiny remnant that remains today on Wells Street, opposite what would have been the Tiger public house — now a rubber clothing emporium. In addition to Fitzroy Square and nearby Fitzroy Street, there are numerous locations named for the FitzRoy family and Devonshire / Portland family, both significant local landowners. Charles FitzRoy was the grandson of Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton , hence Grafton Way and Grafton Mews. William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland and his wife Margaret Harley lend their names to Portland Place , Great Portland Street and Harley Street . Margaret Harley
10304-475: The traditional link to studios. Charlotte Street was for many years the home of the British advertising industry and is now known for its many and diverse restaurants. Today the district still houses several major advertising agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi and TBWA as well as CHI & Partners, Fallon , Dare Digital and Target Media Group. However, the modular ex-BT building occupied by McCann-Erickson
10416-656: The urban grain of the St Pancras streets to the east. 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 YMCA Indian Student Hostel on Fitzroy Square, one of the few surviving buildings by Ralph Tubbs . The Middlesex Hospital, which closed in 2005 covered an extensive part of
10528-407: The war, and Woolf herself opposed it from a standpoint of pacifism and anti-censorship. Leonard was exempted from the introduction of conscription in 1916 on medical grounds. The Woolfs employed two servants at the recommendation of Roger Fry in 1916; Lottie Hope worked for a number of other Bloomsbury Group members, and Nellie Boxall would stay with them until 1934. The Woolfs spent parts of
10640-420: The wisdom of allowing a girl of fifteen the free run of a large and quite unexpurgated library. But my father allowed it. There were certain facts – very briefly, very shyly he referred to them. Yet "Read what you like", he said, and all his books...were to be had without asking. Another source was the conversation of their father's friends, to whom she was exposed. Leslie Stephen described his circle as "most of
10752-400: The worst living environment in the country according to a government report that ranked sub-wards by quality of housing, air quality and the number of road traffic accidents. The area lost much of its housing stock to other land uses during the 1960s, leading to the creation of resident's groups seeking to preserve the residential character of the district. The Charlotte Street Association
10864-515: The writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West , wife of Harold Nicolson . This period was to prove fruitful for both authors, Woolf producing three novels, To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928), and The Waves (1931) as well as a number of essays, including " Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown " (1924) and " A Letter to a Young Poet " (1932). The two women remained friends until Woolf's death in 1941. Virginia Woolf also remained close to her surviving siblings, Adrian and Vanessa. Between 1924 and 1940
10976-425: Was a residential community that wanted its voice heard. The adoption of the name by the campaign groups, covering self-defined areas, meant the name Fitzrovia became applied to a fairly well defined area, one larger than that to which it was once loosely applied. The Newspaper continued to use the names Towerland , Fitzrovia and East Marylebone (for the area in the City of Westminster) in parallel. The following year,
11088-455: Was completed there, and much of Night and Day . The house itself inspired the short story "A Haunted House", published in A Haunted House and Other Short Stories . Asham provided Woolf with much-needed relief from the pace of London life, and was where she found a happiness that she expressed in her diary on 5 May 1919: "Oh, but how happy we've been at Asheham! It was a most melodious time. Everything went so freely; – but I can't analyse all
11200-603: Was daughter of Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer , for whom Oxford Street (the southern boundary of Fitzrovia) and Mortimer Street are named. The Marquessate of Titchfield is a subsidiary title to the Dukedom of Portland, hence Great Titchfield Street. William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (Prime Minister) married Dorothy Cavendish, daughter of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire (also Prime Minister), and they lend their names to New Cavendish Street, Cavendish Square and Devonshire Street. The name of
11312-469: Was demolished in 2006 after the firm moved to an art deco home in nearby Bloomsbury . A number of television production and post-production companies are based in the area, MTV Networks Europe , Nickelodeon , rogue and CNN Europe being headquartered here. ITN used to be based at 48 Wells Street during the 1980s, with its Factual Department still housed on Mortimer Street, and Channel 4 was, until 1994, situated on Charlotte Street, and talkbackTHAMES
11424-440: Was educated in a piecemeal fashion by her parents: Julia taught her Latin, French, and history, while Leslie taught her mathematics. She also received piano lessons. She also had unrestricted access to her father's vast library, exposing her to much of the literary canon. This resulted in a greater depth of reading than any of her Cambridge contemporaries. Later, Virginia recalled: Even today there may be parents who would doubt
11536-524: Was formed in 1970, and the Whitfield Study Group began issuing The Tower (later renamed Fitzrovia News) newspaper from 1973. At this time the Newspaper was distributed in an area between Euston Road and Oxford Street, Great Portland Street and Tottenham Court Road. The newspaper called the area Towerland , after the then new BT Tower. The name Fitzrovia was revived when the first Fitzrovia Festival
11648-400: Was held in 1973. The festival had the theme "The people live here!". The organisers sought a name for the festival and an elderly resident named Eric Singer suggested using the name Fitzrovia, a name he remembered hearing in the 1940s, but which had fallen out of use. The purpose of the festival, still held on a regular basis, was to demonstrate that among the offices, restaurants and cafes there
11760-563: Was home to music hall, ballet and pantomime. Before its demolition in 1969, to make way for the office block and hotel that exists now, it was used inside for the filming in 1964 of the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night , the Mr Universe World competitions, and Sotheby's Auction in 1968 of the Diaghilev costumes and curtains. It was also briefly in the 1970s, in the basement of the office block,
11872-475: Was home to writers such as Virginia Woolf , George Bernard Shaw and Arthur Rimbaud . In 2016, The Sunday Times named it the best place to live in London. For a list of street name etymologies in Fitzrovia see: Street names of Fitzrovia . Fitzrovia has never been an administrative unit, so has never had formal boundaries applied, but the somewhat grid-like pattern of local streets has lent itself to informal quadrangular definitions, with Euston Road to
11984-455: Was long joined as a combined parish). In 2014 Camden Council and Westminster City Council designated east and west areas as planning policy areas. Together these relate fairly closely to the wider interpretations, described above. Fitzrovia is named after either Fitzroy Square or the Fitzroy Tavern , a public house situated on the corner of Charlotte Street and Windmill Street (both
12096-598: Was not aware of the joke. Horace de Vere Cole , who had been one of the masterminds of the hoax along with Adrian, later leaked the story to the press and informed the Foreign Office, leading to general outrage from the establishment. During the latter Bloomsbury years Virginia travelled frequently with friends and family, to Dorset and Cornwall as well as further afield to Paris, Italy and Bayreuth. These trips were intended to avoid her suffering exhaustion from extended periods in London. The question arose of Virginia needing
12208-496: Was one of Thoby Stephen's friends at Trinity College, Cambridge, and had encountered the Stephen sisters in Thoby's rooms while visiting for May Week between 1899 and 1904. He recalled that in "white dresses and large hats, with parasols in their hands, their beauty literally took one's breath away". In 1904 Leonard Woolf left Britain for a civil service position in Ceylon , but returned for
12320-524: Was only 13. This precipitated what Virginia later identified as her first "breakdown"—for months afterwards she was nervous and agitated, and she wrote very little for the subsequent two years. Stella Duckworth took on a parental role. She married in April 1897, but moved to a house very close to the Stephens to continue to support the family. However, she fell ill on honeymoon and died on 19 July 1897. Subsequently George Duckworth took it upon himself to act as
12432-460: Was subsequently accepted by her half-brother Gerald Duckworth's publishing house, and she found the process of reading and correcting the proofs extremely emotionally difficult. This led to one of several breakdowns over the subsequent two years; Woolf attempted suicide on 9 September 1913 with an overdose of Veronal , being saved with the help of Maynard Keynes' surgeon brother Geoffrey Keynes who drove Leonard to St Bartholomew's Hospital to fetch
12544-533: Was the seventh child of Julia Prinsep Jackson and Leslie Stephen in a blended family of eight that included the modernist painter Vanessa Bell . She was home-schooled in English classics and Victorian literature from a young age. From 1897 to 1901, she attended the Ladies' Department of King's College London . There, she studied classics and history, coming into contact with early reformers of women's higher education and
#231768