33 Fitzroy Square is a

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of Terraced house, terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type o ...

and former hospital on

Fitzroy Square Fitzroy Square is a Georgian architecture, Georgian garden square, square in London, England. It is the only one in the central London area known as Fitzrovia. The square is one of the area's main features, this once led to the surrounding di ...

in the

Fitzrovia Fitzrovia ( ) is a district of central London, England, near the West End. Its eastern part is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court, and was urbanised in ...

district of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is most famous for having been the location of

Omega Workshops The Omega Workshops Ltd. was a design enterprise founded by members of the Bloomsbury Group and established in July 1913. Shone, Richard. (1999) ''The Art of Bloomsbury: Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant''. Princeton: Princeton University ...

, but it also housed the London Foot Hospital and

School of Podiatric Medicine The London Foot Hospital was founded in 1913 as The Pedic Clinic for Gratuitous Treatment of the Feet. It was the first free clinic for treatment of feet in England, and its School of Podiatric Medicine, which started as evening classes in 1919 ...

from 1929 to 2003, before being converted back into a single house. It is now used primarily as an events venue. The house sits at the southern apex of Fitzroy Square, at the junction between

Conway Street Conway Street is a street in the London Borough of Camden that runs from the Euston Road in the north to Maple Street in the south, being divided in the middle by Fitzroy Square in the south. The northern part of the street is crossed only by Wa ...

and

Grafton Way Grafton Way is a street in the London Borough of Camden that runs from Gower Street in the east to Fitzroy Street in the west, crossing Tottenham Court Road half way along its length. Whitfield Street and Grafton Mews adjoin Grafton Way. The ...

. The house was built in 1794, designed by

Robert Adam Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (architect), William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and train ...

(as was the rest of the eastern and southern sides of the square) as part of a terrace of eight houses. It was used as a townhouse for the first century of its existence. The upper floors of the house were home to

Eva Gore-Booth Eva Selina Laura Gore-Booth (22 May 1870 – 30 June 1926) was an Irish poet, theologian, and dramatist, and a committed suffragist, social worker and labour activist. She was born at Lissadell House, County Sligo, the younger sister of Co ...

and

Esther Roper Esther Roper (4 August 1868 – 28 April 1938) was a suffragist and social justice campaigner who fought for equal employment and voting rights for working-class women. Early life and education Esther Roper was born near Chorley, Lancashire, o ...

from 1913. At the same time as Gore-Booth and Roper lived upstairs,

Roger Fry Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English painter and art critic, critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent ...

downstairs founded and hosted the

Bloomsbury Group The Bloomsbury Group was a group of associated British writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the early 20th century. Among the people involved in the group were Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster, Vanessa Bell, a ...

from 1913 to 1919. For this, it has an

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

to Fry installed on the Grafton Way side of the building. Famous artists based there in that period included

Vanessa Bell Vanessa Bell (née Stephen; 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961) was an English painter and interior designer, a member of the Bloomsbury Group and the sister of Virginia Woolf (née Stephen). Early life and education Vanessa Stephen was the eld ...

Duncan Grant Duncan James Corrowr Grant (21 January 1885 – 8 May 1978) was a Scottish painter and designer of textiles, pottery, theatre sets, and costumes. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group. His father was Bartle Grant, a "poverty-stricken" major ...

Dora Carrington Dora de Houghton Carrington (29 March 1893 – 11 March 1932), known generally as Carrington, was an English painter and decorative artist, remembered in part for her association with members of the Bloomsbury Group, especially the writer Lytt ...

, and

Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''Blast (British magazine), Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His ...

. The premises hosted a regular Thursday night club, whose members included

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

and

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

. After the Omega Workshops went into liquidation, with the financial support of the

British Chiropodical Society British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

, the site became the London Foot Hospital. It also hosted the School of Podiatric Medicine, which was supported by

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. It was not able to be renovated to install lifts, and its closure was mooted - including being debated in the House of Lords - in 1994. When UCL finally terminated its arrangement with the School in 2003, it was moved to Stratford to come under the remit of the

University of East London University of East London (UEL) is a public university located in the London Borough of Newham, London, England, based at three campuses in Stratford, London, Stratford and London Docklands, Docklands, following the opening of University Squar ...

, and the hospital closed. The property was sold for £10.75m in 2010. The terrace of 33 to 40 with its attached railings has been listed Grade I on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

since 1954.

References

External links

East London Architecture & Properties
Bloomsbury Group locations Fitzrovia Defunct hospitals in London Grade I listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden {{London-struct-stub