The back story
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The back story
Bloomsbury and King’s Cross: the back story
Georgian squares, the British Museum and the Bloomsbury Group, and the transformation of King’s Cross from railway lands to a new quarter.
Neighbourhood guide · museums and squares
Bloomsbury & King’s Cross: Our Favourites
The British Museum, the British Library, Dickens’s house and the Foundling Museum, Georgian squares and historic pubs, and the new King’s Cross around Coal Drops Yard.
What's onThis week in London
What to see and do
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Two million years of human history
The British Museum
One of the world’s great museums of human history and culture, in Bloomsbury, home to the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures and the Egyptian mummies.
Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DGExplore View on map
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Treasures of the written word
The British Library
The national library of the UK on Euston Road, with the Treasures gallery of manuscripts and changing exhibitions.
96 Euston Road, NW1 2DBExplore View on map
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Dickens’s London home
Charles Dickens Museum
The Georgian terraced house on Doughty Street where Charles Dickens lived and wrote Oliver Twist, now a museum of his life.
48 Doughty Street, WC1N 2LXExplore View on map
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The story of the Foundling Hospital
The Foundling Museum
A museum on Brunswick Square telling the story of the Foundling Hospital, London’s first home for abandoned children, and its links with Hogarth and Handel.
40 Brunswick Square, WC1N 1AZExplore View on map
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Medicine, life and art
Wellcome Collection
A museum and library on Euston Road exploring health and human experience through science, history and art.
183 Euston Road, NW1 2BEExplore View on map
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Ride the Mail Rail
The Postal Museum
A museum of the Royal Mail’s history in Clerkenwell, where you can ride the little underground Mail Rail train.
15-20 Phoenix Place, WC1X 0DAExplore View on map
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Victorian coal stores reborn
Coal Drops Yard
A shopping and dining quarter in two restored Victorian coal-drop buildings at King’s Cross, linked by Heatherwick Studio’s dramatic “kissing” roofs.
Stable Street, N1CExplore View on map
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Independent cinema in the Brunswick
Curzon Bloomsbury
An independent cinema in the Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury, with several screens including one devoted to documentaries.
The Brunswick, WC1N 1AWExplore View on map
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An architect’s house of wonders
Sir John Soane’s Museum
The extraordinary house of the architect Sir John Soane on Lincoln’s Inn Fields, kept as he left it, full of antiquities, paintings and architectural fragments.
13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2A 3BPExplore View on map
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Canals and the ice trade
London Canal Museum
A small museum of London’s canals in a former ice warehouse by Battlebridge Basin near King’s Cross.
12-13 New Wharf Road, N1 9RTExplore View on map
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London’s dance house
Sadler’s Wells
A theatre devoted to dance in Clerkenwell, presenting companies and choreographers from around the world.
Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4TNExplore View on map
Where to eat
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Wine on Lamb’s Conduit Street
Noble Rot
A wine bar and restaurant on Lamb’s Conduit Street, from the team behind the Noble Rot wine magazine, with a remarkable list and seasonal cooking.
51 Lamb’s Conduit Street, WC1N 3NBExplore View on map
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Fitzrovia coffee
Kaffeine
A speciality coffee bar on Great Titchfield Street in Fitzrovia, inspired by the café culture of Australia and New Zealand.
66 Great Titchfield Street, W1W 7QJExplore View on map
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Leather Lane coffee
Prufrock Coffee
A speciality coffee shop on Leather Lane near Hatton Garden, with coffee, breakfast and lunch.
23-25 Leather Lane, EC1N 7TEExplore View on map
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Nose to tail
St. JOHN Smithfield
Fergus Henderson’s famous restaurant near Smithfield Market, cooking “nose to tail” British food in a white-walled former smokehouse.
26 St John Street, EC1M 4AYExplore View on map
Bars and nightlife
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A hidden pub off Hatton Garden
Ye Olde Mitre
A tiny historic pub hidden down an alley off Ely Place near Hatton Garden, famous for being hard to find.
1 Ely Court, Ely Place, EC1N 6SJExplore View on map
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Snob screens on Lamb’s Conduit Street
The Lamb
A Victorian pub on Lamb’s Conduit Street in Bloomsbury, with a horseshoe bar and rare surviving etched-glass snob screens.
94 Lamb’s Conduit Street, WC1N 3LZExplore View on map
Where to stay
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An Edwardian courtyard
Rosewood London
A luxury hotel in the grand Edwardian former headquarters of the Pearl Assurance company on High Holborn, entered through a carriage courtyard.
252 High Holborn, WC1V 7ENExplore View on map
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A Victorian palace on Russell Square
Kimpton Fitzroy London
A grand Victorian terracotta hotel on Russell Square, opened in 1900 as the Hotel Russell, with a famous marble staircase.
1-8 Russell Square, WC1B 5BEExplore View on map
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A Clerkenwell townhouse hotel
The Zetter Clerkenwell
A boutique hotel on St John’s Square in Clerkenwell, with eccentric, characterful rooms and a cocktail lounge.
49-50 St John’s Square, EC1V 4JJExplore View on map
Share your Bloomsbury & King’s Cross tips
Been there? Share your experience and tips with other visitors.
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