Bedford Square

Bedford Square from the BT Tower in 1966

Bedford Square (2005)

Panorama of Bedford Square

Built between 1775 and 1783 as an upper middle class residential area, the square 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.[1] The square takes its name from the main title of the Russell family, the Dukes of Bedford, who owned much of the land in what is now Bloomsbury.[2]

The architect Thomas Leverton is known to have designed some of the houses, although he may not have been responsible for all of them.[3]

The building agreements for Bedford Square were signed by the trustees of the late Duke of Bedford and William Scott and Robert Grews, the builders, in 1776.[4] The first leases, for the entire west side (Nos. 28-39), were granted in November 1776. It seems unlikely that these dozen houses were built within 11 months so building probably started in 1775. Except for No. 46, the south side leases were granted in 1777, the east side in 1777 and 1778 (except Nos. 1 and 10), and the north side in 1781 and 1782 (except Nos. 24-27, granted in 1777). No. 11, which stands in Gower Street but has always been considered part of the square, had a separate building agreement of 1781 and was leased in June 1783.[5]

The leases were granted by the estate once the shells were built but with internal finishing still to be carried out. No. 23 was the last house to be occupied, its owner moving in during the last quarter of 1784.[6]

The delay in finishing the building of the square can be put down in part to the shortage of money during the American War of Independence. Loans were granted by the trustees of the estate to the builders in order to finance building work from November 1777.[7]

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.[8] Numbers 1-10,[3] 11,[9] 12–27,[10] 28–38[11] and 40–54 are grade I listed buildings.[12]

Bedford College, the first place for female higher education in Britain, was originally located in (and named after) Bedford Square (No. 47).

• No. 1: Sir Lyonel Lyde Bt., first occupier of the building for ten years until his death in 1791[3]
• No. 4: Paul Weidlinger – structural engineer[14]
• No. 6: Lord Eldon — Lord Chancellor[1]
• No. 8: Frederick Warne & Norman Warne — publishers, of Frederick Warne & Co., who published the Beatrix Potter books[15]
• No. 10:
  • Samuel Lyde (brother of Sir Lyonel at No. 1)[3]
  • Charles Gilpin — MP[16]
• No. 11: Henry Cavendish — scientist[17]
• No. 13: Harry Ricardo — engine designer — born here[18]
• No. 22: Johnston Forbes-Robertson — actor[19]
• No. 26: National Council for Voluntary Organisations, 1928 – 1992[20]
• No. 30: Jonathan Cape — publishing company[21]
• No. 35: Thomas Hodgkin — physician, reformer and philanthropist[22]
• No. 35: Thomas Wakley — founder of The Lancet[23]
• No. 36: Thomas Wilkinson King — pathologist[24]
• No. 41:
  • William Butterfield — architect[25]
  • Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins — novelist[26]
• No. 44:
  • Ottoline Morrell — socialite[27]
  • Margot Asquith — wife of the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith[28]
• No. 48: Elizabeth Jesser Reid — anti-slavery activist and founder of Bedford College for Women[29]
• No. 49: Francis Walker — entomologist; before that Ram Mohan Roy — Indian scholar and reformer[30]
• No. 52: — used as the contestants' house in the 2010 series of The Apprentice[31]

Other squares on the Bedford Estate in Bloomsbury included:

• Bloomsbury Square
• Gordon Square
• Russell Square
• Tavistock Square
• Torrington Square
• Woburn Square
• List of eponymous roads in London

• Bedford Square, discussed in Survey of London, Riley & Gomme, 1914

A number of houses have blue plaques recording famous residents:

• 
  Harry Ricardo
• 
  Thomas Hodgkin
• 
  Thomas Wakley
• 
  Anthony Hope Hawkins
• 
  William Butterfield
• 
  Elizabeth Jesser Reid
• 
  Ram Mohan Roy
• 
  Lord Eldon

• Plaquemap.com London blue plaque scheme — For exact location of these plaques within the square.