Tavistock Square

Tavistock Square, looking north, BMA building on the right

Tavistock Square is a public square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden.

Public art

Gandhi statue

The centre-piece of the gardens is a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, sculpted by Fredda Brilliant and installed in 1968. The maquette is in the possession of her niece and was shown on the BBC television programme Antiques Roadshow in April 2013.^[1] The hollow pedestal was intended, and is used, for people to leave floral tributes to the peace campaigner and nonviolent resister to oppression in South Africa and British rule in India.^[1]

A cherry tree was planted in 1967 in memory of the victims of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

A generation later, in 1994, the Conscientious Objectors Commemorative Stone commemorating "men and women conscientious objectors all over the world and in every age" by Hugh Court^[2] was unveiled.

These three features have led to the square unofficially being regarded by some as a peace park or garden, and annual ceremonies are held at each of these memorials.

A bust of the writer Virginia Woolf, cast from a 1931 sculpture by Stephen Tomlin (1901-1937), was unveiled in 2004 at the south-west corner of the square. Woolf lived at 52 Tavistock Square between 1924 and 1939. From there she and her husband Leonard Woolf ran The Hogarth Press, which became a prominent and influential publisher at the forefront of modernist fiction and poetry (publishing T.S. Eliot, E.M. Forster and Katherine Mansfield among others) and translating the works of Sigmund Freud into English. Their house was destroyed by a bomb in October 1941 during the London blitz. The south side of the square where Woolf lived is now occupied by a hotel.

The square also contains a bust of the surgeon Dame Louisa Aldrich-Blake.

A view looking towards Tavistock Square

History

The square is now owned and administered by the London Borough of Camden, but was formerly part of an estate owned by the Dukes of Bedford, and takes its name from Tavistock, a market town in Devon, also part of a Bedford estate; the name is additionally the courtesy title given to the eldest sons of the Dukes of Bedford, Marquess of Tavistock. Tavistock Square was developed in the 1820s by the builder Thomas Cubitt.

Buildings

The following buildings are on Tavistock Square:

BMA House, the headquarters of the British Medical Association (BMA), the professional association of doctors in the United Kingdom. BMA House was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and is a grade II listed building.^[3]
The headquarters of the Medical Schools Council, an organisation which represents the interests and ambitions of UK medical schools as they relate to the generation of national health, wealth and knowledge through biomedical research and the profession of medicine.
Woburn house, the headquarters of Universities UK, the conference of university rectors
the Tavistock Hotel, a branch of Imperial Hotels.^[4]
Connaught Hall, a University of London hall of residence, which houses 215 students, and is a grade II listed building.
Institute for the Study of the Americas, part of the University of London's School of Advanced Study
School of Public Policy of University College London.
London office of Churches Together in England
Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan, United Kingdom office
Development Planning Unit, University College of London

On the BMA building is a blue plaque commemorating that Charles Dickens once lived in Tavistock House on the site.

London bombings

Tavistock Square was the scene of one of the four suicide bombings on 7 July 2005. The bomb was detonated by 18-year-old terrorist Hasib Hussain on a double-decker bus bearing route number 30; it had been diverted from its normal route along Euston Road because of traffic disruption by the other three bombings at tube stations. The bomb exploded immediately outside the BMA building, many of whose staff came out to give what help they could. The explosion killed 13 passengers, plus Hussain himself. Many others were injured.

On the occasion of the first anniversary in 2006, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced that the square would be the site of the permanent national memorial. A memorial garden is to be laid out in part of the existing garden and the BMA has commissioned a commemorative sundial.

Gallery

Statue of Mahatma Gandhi from the East.
Plaque at the base of the Hiroshima cherry tree amid fallen blossoms.
Conscientious Objectors Commemorative Stone, on the North side of the Square.
Conscientious Objectors Stone inscription
Memorial to Louisa Aldrich-Blake
Blue plaque on the BMA building commemorating Dickens and Tavistock House

References

1 2 "Cheltenham Town Hall 2". Antiques Roadshow. Series 35. Episode 19. 2013-04-14. BBC Television. Retrieved 2013-04-16.
↑ http://www.ppu.org.uk/memorials/peace/london/costone.html
↑ "Where to Find Us". BMA House. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
↑ "Tavistock Hotel". Travel Weekly. Retrieved June 27, 2015.

External links

Map sources and aerial photos.

Bloomsbury

Buildings	Barbadian H.C. Brunswick Centre Church of Christ the King Connaught Hall Goodenough College Hotel Russell The Lamb Montagu House Senate House St. George's St George the Martyr Holborn St Pancras New Church UCL Main Building

Squares and parks	Bedford Square Bloomsbury Square Brunswick Square Cartwright Gardens Coram's Fields Gordon Square Mecklenburgh Square Queen Square Russell Square Tavistock Square Torrington Square Woburn Square

Roads	Cartwright Gardens Gower Street Great Russell Street Guilford Street Gray's Inn Road Lamb's Conduit Street Malet Street Museum Street Southampton Row Woburn Place

History	The Bedford Estate Bloomsbury Gang Bloomsbury Group

University College London

Academics

Faculties, schools & groupings	Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Slade School of Fine Art) Faculty of Brain Sciences Faculty of the Built Environment (The Bartlett) Faculty of Engineering Sciences School of Energy and Resources School of Management Faculty of Laws Faculty of Life Sciences School of Pharmacy Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences Faculty of Medical Sciences Medical School Faculty of Population Health Sciences Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences School of Slavonic and East European Studies Institute of Education Neuroscience

Centres & departments	Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis Centre for Digital Humanities Centre for the History of Medicine Centre for Neuroimaging The Constitution Unit Department of Information Studies Department of Science and Technology Studies Department of Space and Climate Physics EPPI-Centre London Centre for Nanotechnology London Knowledge Lab Slade Centre for Electronic Media in Fine Art Urban Laboratory

Institutes & laboratories	Ear Institute Eastman Dental Institute Institute of Archaeology Institute of Child Health Institute for Global Health Institute of Jewish Studies Institute of Neurology Institute of Ophthalmology Institute of Security and Crime Science Pedestrian Accessibility and Movement Environment Laboratory

Other	Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology Grote Chair of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic Pender Chair Papers from the Institute of Archaeology Public Archaeology Quain Professor Slade Professor of Fine Art UCL Jurisprudence Review Transcribe Bentham

University

Campus	Bloomsbury Bloomsbury Theatre Church of Christ the King Euston Road Gordon Square Gower Street Gray's Inn Road Halls of residence Holmbury St Mary Main Building Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology Queen Square Somers Town Tavistock Square Tottenham Court Road University of London Observatory Woburn Square

People	Academics List of notable people List of Nobel laureates Jeremy Bentham Michael Arthur (Provost)

Student life	UCL Boat Club The Cheese Grater Law Society University College Opera Pi Magazine Rare FM Royal Free and University College Medical School Boat Club Royal Free, University College and Middlesex Medical Students RFC UCL Union Student Central

Other	Citrus Saturday UCL Business Filming at UCL History Rivalry with King's College London Third-oldest university in England

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Medical	Francis Crick Institute Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust Great Ormond Street Hospital Moorfields Eye Hospital Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust The Royal Free Hospital Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital UCLH/UCL Biomedical Research Centre UCL Partners University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Eastman Dental Hospital Hospital for Tropical Diseases National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital UCH Macmillan Cancer Centre University College Hospital University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street Whittington Hospital

Other	Alan Turing Institute Anna Freud Centre Association of Commonwealth Universities European Network for Training Economic Research G5 Golden triangle Institute of Advanced Legal Studies League of European Research Universities Russell Group Thomas Young Centre UCL Academy University College School University of London Yale UCL Collaborative

Category
Commons

Coordinates: 51°31′30″N 0°07′45″W / 51.5250°N 0.1291°W / 51.5250; -0.1291

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