Gordon Square

Gordon Square is a quiet public garden in Bloomsbury, London, laid out in the 1820s by Thomas Cubitt. It forms one half of a matched pair with Tavistock Square a single block away. The central lawn was once private for residents but now belongs to the University of London and is open to everyone. The square takes its name from Lady Georgiana Gordon, wife of the 6th Duke of Bedford. In 2007 the university finished a full refurbishment, restoring original railings and paving. The square is surrounded by university buildings and institutions. Christ the King church stands on the west side, with Dr Williams’s Library beside it. The Institute of Archaeology occupies the north side, while the Warburg Institute sits at the south-west corner. Gordon House at the north-west corner houses the Campaign for Science and Engineering and UCL Urban Laboratory. Several listed terraces built by Cubitt in the 1850s now hold UCL departments such as Science and Technology Studies. Notable former residents include John Maynard Keynes at number 46, marked by a blue plaque. Earlier, Virginia Woolf lived there with her siblings and the Bloomsbury Group gathered in the house. Lytton Strachey lived at number 51. Today the School of Arts at Birkbeck occupies numbers 43 to 46. Passfield Hall, a student residence for the London School of Economics, faces the north side of the square.