Fitzroy Square: The Bloomsbury Sanctuary of Virginia Woolf and George Bernard Shaw

Why is it significant?

Step into the serene circular stone courtyard of Fitzroy Square, admiring the magnificent Portland stone facades designed in the seventeen nineties by master architect Robert Adam.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Step into the serene circular stone courtyard of Fitzroy Square, admiring the magnificent Portland stone facades designed in the seventeen nineties by master architect Robert Adam. The elegant neoclassical pediments and ionic pilasters create a stunning architectural amphitheater, completely insulating visitors from the roaring traffic of nearby Euston Road and Marylebone.

Look at the circular blue plaques mounted beside the doorways: number twenty-nine was home to Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw in the late nineteenth century, where he penned several of his most celebrated plays while living with his eccentric mother and practicing his fiery socialist oratorical skills.

In nineteen zero-seven, a young Virginia Stephen, before her marriage to Leonard Woolf, moved into that exact same house with her brother Adrian. Within these tall sunlit rooms, the revolutionary Bloomsbury Group gathered for midnight salons, shattering Victorian prudery and reimagining the future of British modernist literature, philosophy, and post-impressionist art.

Walk down Charlotte Street toward the southern fringe of Fitzrovia, savoring the peaceful cadence of these historic townhouses.