This sprawling stretch of Holborn, central London, is home to a number of world-leading investments and finance companies and educational institutions such as the University of Arts London. Interwoven between these establishments are a variety of pubs and restaurants whether it be the century-old Cittie of Yorke or the hyper-modern ping pong restaurant ‘Bounce’. The architecture is a pleasing mixture of Edwardian, Victorian, Post-War and Modern, of which the centrepiece is one of London’s most distinguished office buildings: the Holborn Bars, a large ornate terracotta Victorian building wherein the head offices of Historic England and English Heritage now reside. Despite the central location, this neighbourhood does not contain any noteworthy tourist attractions, a fact no doubt enjoyed by the high volume of workers that commute here daily.

Due to its central location, this neighbourhood shares a similar history of destruction to the rest of the city, firstly from the Great Fire in 1666, and then during the Second World War and the Blitz. Thankfully the beautiful Gothic-stylings of Holborn Bars survived. Designed by architects Alfred and Paul Waterhouse in 1885, the building was then further modified in the 1930s by E.M. Joseph, who introduced Art Deco features. The original building contained a library, restaurant, chapel, rooftop promenade and a women’s entrance, and was entirely lit by electricity.

This neighbourhood was once home to Barry Sheene, a former British World Champion Grand Prix motorcycle racer, who remained as Britain’s last champion in 1977 until Danny Kent took the title in 2015. Sheene enjoyed a racing career lasting from 1968 to 1984, before retiring and relocating to Australia, where he worked as a motorsport commentator and property developer.

The area was also home to Anne Radcliffe, an English author born in 1764. Most famous for her novels ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’ and ‘The Italian’, Radcliffe became one of the highest paid professional writers of the century and is credited with the popularisation of the Gothic fiction style.

According to an ancient practice, anyone training to be a barrister in Britain must join one of the Inns of Court (located on the outer edge of this neighbourhood area) and dine there 24 times in order to be officially qualified. Those interested in legal history and trivia should head south to Lincoln’s Inn Fields and the Royal Courts of Justice which are just a couple of minutes walk away.

The nearby Holborn tube station will be getting a capacity upgrade in the coming years, as passengers are sometimes held for as long as 20 minutes at the station gates during rush hour. While no specific scheme has been confirmed so far, there are a number of new private developments underway in this postcode. Thavies Inn House will sit between New Fetter Lane and St Andrew Street on the southern side of Holborn Circus, providing ground floor retail space with offices above. This echoes recently completed developments such as 150 Holborn which provides a similar mix of uses.