Queen Square, London

Coordinates: 51°31′19″N 0°7′20″W / 51.52194°N 0.12222°W / 51.52194; -0.12222
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Statue of Queen Charlotte in the square

Queen Square is a garden square in the Bloomsbury district of central London. Many of its buildings are associated with medicine, particularly neurology.

Construction

Queen Square in 1786, painted by Edward Dayes. The fields to the north reach as far as Hampstead. The church of St George the Martyr is in the left foreground. Also visible are the first few houses beyond the corner of Cosmo Place now containing the Queen's Larder.

Queen Square was originally constructed between 1716 and 1725. It was formed from the garden of the house of

Sir John Cutler, baronet (1608–1693), whose last surviving child, Lady Radnor, died in 1697 leaving no issue. It was left open to the north for the landscape formed by the hills of Hampstead and Highgate
.

Queen Square in 1812

Queen Charlotte and treatment for George III

A statue contained within the square was misidentified as depicting

Queen Charlotte
.

Queen Charlotte's husband, King

public house
on the southwest corner of the square, called "the Queen’s Larder", was, according to legend, used by Queen Charlotte to store food for the king during his treatment.

The

duke of Powis.[1]

Late 19th century

Built in the early 18th century as a fashionable area, by the mid-19th century it had attracted many French refugees and the shops of sundry booksellers and print sellers. It became a favoured centre for charitable institutions, including the Roman Catholic

Society of St Vincent de Paul.[2]

Gradually the mansions were turned into hospitals and other institutions.[1] The first institution which is still in the square was started by Johanna Chandler in 1860.[3] Elizabeth Malleson started the Working Women's College here in 1864.[4]

The College of Preceptors (also known as the

College of Teachers) occupied No. 42 Queen Square from 1855 until 1887.[5]

In 1861, just a year after the first Victorian Turkish bath opened in London, an establishment calling itself the Ladies' True Turkish Bath, opened at No.26.[6] It was the only such bath in London open for women daily. It remained open till 1865, during which time over 37,000 baths were taken.[7]

20th and 21st centuries

Many of the buildings surrounding the square are devoted to providing, researching and administering health care. Two hospitals, the

Institute of Neurology, part of University College London
(UCL), is located in the north east corner of the square. The former Institute for Public Health takes up much of the north side - the building is now used as the administrative centre for the NHNN and Institute of Neurology.

Several buildings on the west side of the square are devoted to medical research and are part of the Institute of Neurology and other departments of UCL. These include Alexandra House at number 17, which houses the

Dementia Research Centre
on the first floor and the Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases on the ground floor.

At the southern end of the square is the church mentioned above, the

Great Ormond Street, off Queen Square). No 42-3, originally an 18th-century town house, has a long history of educational use: it was occupied by the Royal Female School of Art from 1861, the London County Council Trade School for Girls from 1910, the Technical College for Women in the 1930s, and the Stanhope Institute for adult education in the 1950s. The Mary Ward Centre took over the building in 1982.[9]

A women-only Victorian-style Turkish bath, the women's section of the Imperial Hotel's Turkish baths, had its own additional entrance in Queen Square from 1930 to 1962.[10][11] The site continues to be occupied by the new Imperial Hotel.

One of the buildings, the

Sobell Department, contains a lecture theatre used by UCL for postgraduate teaching. With 220 seats, it is one of the largest lecture theatres in Queen Square. It has an important past, having welcomed famed scientists such as John Hardy[12] and John Fox.[12]
Its wear and tear, evident through malfunctioning desks inter alia, highlights this history.

Notable residents

See also

References

  1. ^ a b 'Queen Square and Great Ormond Street', Old and New London: Volume 4 (1878), pp. 553-564
  2. ^ Benham, William, ed. (1887). Dictionary of Religion. London: Cassel. p. 976.
  3. ^ Jennett Humphreys, ‘Chandler, Johanna (1820–1875)’, rev. Patrick Wallis, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 7 Dec 2014
  4. ^ Owen Stinchcombe, ‘Malleson, Elizabeth (1828–1916)’, rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 29 July 2015
  5. ^ "UCL Bloomsbury Project". www.ucl.ac.uk.
  6. ^ '[Advertisement]'. Morning Post. (17 May 1861). p.4
  7. ^ The Hammam of the Turks: the thermæ of the Romans restored in Britain. (Collected fly sheets). (London: The Hammam, [c.1867])
  8. ^ "UCL Bloomsbury Project". www.ucl.ac.uk.
  9. ^ Mary Ward Centre: Notes on the History of Queen Square
  10. ^ "Queen Square Archive - QSA/15196 - Ladies Turkish Baths in Queen Square". queensquare.org.uk.
  11. ^ Shifrin, Malcolm. (2015). Victorian Turkish baths. (Swindon: Historic England). pp.220—222
  12. ^ a b Accounts from past students
  13. ^ The Papers of Edward Alexander Newell Arber, Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge
  14. ^ "AIM25: Archives in London and the M25 area".
  15. ISBN 978-1-78326-917-4
    .
  16. ^ "UCL Bloomsbury Project".

51°31′19″N 0°7′20″W / 51.52194°N 0.12222°W / 51.52194; -0.12222

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