Foggydew's Fotothing

During the Victorian and Edwardian periods, Fitzroy Square was at the centre of Bohemian London life: the neighbourhood, known then as now as Fitzrovia, was a favourite area for artists and writers. George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolf both lived in Fitzroy Square and Roger Fry’s Omega Workshop, creating avant-garde furniture, was housed at No33.

After the First World War many of the buildings were turned over to commercial, office and institutional use and the trend continued after the Second War, when the southern flank was badly damaged in bombing. Adam’s stone façade was later restored and new office accommodation built behind it.

The trend is now firmly in the opposite direction, back towards high-quality residential use. Several houses have become single residences again, writers are moving back in and the garden – owned and maintained, as it has been since the 1820s, by a committee of residents – is an especially attractive green space. With the railings reinstated, the west façade freshly repainted and the square now largely traffic-free, Fitzroy Square is in better shape than at any time since the 19th century.