Queen Square

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Queen Square is a comparatively small garden square in Bloomsbury, London, located approximately 200 metres (220 yards) east of Russell Square. The square was originally named Queen Anne's Square because a statue contained within it was misidentified as depicting Queen Anne. This statue is now believed to a portrayal of Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III.

Statue of Queen Anne/Queen Charlotte and Square

Many of the buildings surrounding the square are devoted to providing, researching and administering health care. Two hospitals, the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN), often wrongly termed 'Queen Square Hospital', and the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, make up the east side of the square. 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 17 Queen Square which houses the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit. The Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience and Functional Imaging Laboratory (FIL) are located at 12 Queen Square.

George III was treated in a house on Queen Square when it was thought that he had gone mad. There is a public house on its southwest corner called the Queen’s Larder as, according to legend, the building was used by Queen Charlotte to store food for the King during his treatment. At the southern end of the square is the church of St George the Martyr, the Mary Ward Centre and the former Italian Hospital, now part of Great Ormond Street Hospital (whose main buildings are in the immediate vicinity).