This busy neighbourhood sits between Euston Road and Russell Square and contains both UCL and SOAS. Centred around the beautiful greenery of Gordon Square, the university architecture is an array of Georgian townhouses, interwar mansion and neoclassical blocks, as well as post-war and more modern buildings, such as the Bartlett School of Architecture. Often full of students at all times of the day, the area obviously caters mostly to them, but with Tottenham Court Road and Euston Road nearby, there is no shortage of footfall for local businesses. There are also numerous attractions for those who don’t study here, including Russell Square and the Bloomsbury Theatre, the latter of which, once the rebuilding project has finished, will again host some of the most famous faces in comedy. Euston Square, Euston, Warren Street, and Russel Square stations make the area incredibly well-connected, and sitting just a short distance from Camden, Fitzrovia, and Soho, this is a fantastic location for students and tourists alike.

The area’s university history is a fascinating one. University College London (UCL) was founded in 1826 as London University. As a secular alternative to Oxford and Cambridge, the institution encountered strong opposition from the Church of England, and it was not until 1836 that it was legally recognised. The university’s Main Building was constructed in 1827, designed by William Wilkins, who was also responsible for the National Gallery. UCL also claims to be the first higher education institution to accept students of any race, class or religion, as well as the first to allow women. The nearby School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) was founded in 1916 in order to advance British scholarship in Africa and Asia and to rival those in Berlin, Petrograd and Paris. It was incredibly important to the Allied forces in the Second World War due to the school’s Japanese language training, aiding the War Office and Bletchley Park.

The celebrated Irish poet, W.B. Yeats (1865-1939), lived locally at 5 Woburn Walk, just around the corner from fellow author, Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), who lived at 46 Gordon Square in the early 1900s. The local universities were also home to some of the world’s most important individuals, such as Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), and Aung San Suu Kyi (b. 1945), who studied at UCL and SOAS respectively.

The hustle and bustle of the local area at all times of the day can be a turn off for many who would otherwise wish to use the local amenities. Furthermore, the local students have been known to cause noise issues in the evening. However, the nightlife spaces that have followed the students tend to keep these problems contained and to a minimum.

The Bloomsbury Theatre, which was opened in 1968, was reopened in 2019 following major building work, as part of UCL’s £1.2bn upgrades.