Page 137 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - London

BL OOMSBUR Y AND FITZROVIA  135

range of engaging topics r Fitzroy Oxford Street and the
exploring medicine, art and Square furniture stores on
the human condition. You can Tottenham Court
also explore the reimagined W1. Map 4 F4. 1 Warren St, Road. Others set up
Reading Room, which is a Great Portland St. reasonably priced
hybrid space bridging library, restaurants. The street
exhibition and event space – Designed by Robert still boasts a great
relax in the café or enjoy an Adam in 1794, the variety of eating places.
afternoon tea in the restaurant. square’s south and east It is overshadowed
The Wellcome Library, on the sides survive in their from the north by the
upper floors, is the world’s largest original form, in 189-m (620-ft) Telecom
collection of books devoted to dignified Portland stone. Tower, built in 1964 as
the history of medicine. Blue plaques record the a vast TV, radio and
homes of many artists, telecommunications
writers and statesmen: aerial (see p34).
George Bernard Shaw Telecom Tower
and Virginia Woolf both
lived at No. 29 – although not at y Pollock’s Toy
the same time. Shaw gave Museum
money to the artist Roger Fry to
establish the Omega workshop 1 Scala St W1 (entrance on Whitfield
at No. 33 in 1913. Here young St). Map 5 A5. Tel 020 7636 3452.
artists were paid a fixed wage 1 Goodge St, Warren St, Tottenham
to produce Post-Impressionist Court Rd. Open 10am–5pm Mon–Sat.
No. 29 Fitzroy Square, formerly the furniture, pottery, carpets and Closed public hols. & =
∑ pollockstoys.com
home of literary giants paintings for sale to the public.
Benjamin Pollock was a
e The Grant t Charlotte Street renowned maker of toy theatres
in the late 19th and early 20th
Museum of centuries, and counted the
Zoology W1. Map 5 A5. 1 Goodge St. novelist Robert Louis Stevenson
As the upper classes moved west as an enthusiastic customer. The
21 University St WC1. Map 5 A4. Tel from Bloomsbury in the early museum opened in Monmouth
020 3108 2052. 1 Warren St, Goodge 19th century, a flood of artists Street in Covent Garden in 1956
St, Russell Square Open 1–5pm Mon– and European immigrants and relocated here in 1969. This
Sat. ∑ ucl.ac.uk/museums
moved in, turning the area into is a child-sized museum created
The heart of Bloomsbury’s a northern extension to Soho in two 18th- and 19th-century
university district can be found (see pp102–13). The artist John houses. The small rooms have
in Gower Street: on one side Constable lived and worked for been filled with a fascinating
of the road is the Neo-Classical many years at No. 76. The Fitzroy assortment of historic toys from
main building of University Tavern at No.16 was a popular all over the world. There are
College London, designed drinking den for writers and dolls, puppets, trains, cars,
by William Wilkins in 1827, artists, including Dylan Thomas, construction sets, a fine rocking
and opposite is the original between the wars. horse and a splendid collection
terracotta building of University Some of the area’s residents of mainly Victorian doll’s houses.
College Hospital (now used established small workshops to Parents beware – the exit leads
by the university). UCL owns service the clothing shops on you through a toyshop.
several museum collections,
including the Grant Museum of
Zoology, which was established
in 1828. It houses around 68,000
specimens – animal skeletons,
taxidermy, mounted insects and
creatures preserved in jars
(including a jar of 18 preserved
moles) – in crowded wooden
cases, making it an atmospheric,
occasionally gruesome, insight
into the world of 19th-century
science and collecting. Other
university museums include
a large Egyptian collection
in the Petrie Museum and an
art gallery. The attractive front of Pollock’s Toy Museum

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