Tavistock Square
Tavistock Square is a public square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden.
Public art
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, a stone commemorating "men and women conscientious objectors all over the world and in every age" was unveiled. The 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.
The square also contains busts of the novelist Virginia Woolf (whose original family home was nearby) and the surgeon Dame Louisa Aldrich-Blake.
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.
- Woburn house, the headquarters of Universities UK, the conference of university rectors
- the Tavistock Hotel, a branch of Imperial Hotels.
- 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
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Statue of Mahatma Gandhi from the East.
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Plaque at the base of the Hiroshima cherry tree amid fallen blossoms.
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Conscientious Objectors Commemorative Stone, on the North side of the Square.
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Conscientious Objectors Stone inscription
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Memorial to Louisa Aldrich-Blake
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Blue plaque on the BMA building commemorating Dickens and Tavistock House
See also
Other squares on the Bedford Estate in Bloomsbury included:
Nearby Endsleigh Gardens, Endsleigh Street and Taviton Street take their names from the Bedford estate in Devon.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Cheltenham Town Hall 2". Antiques Roadshow. Series 35. Episode 19. 2013-04-14. BBC Television. Retrieved 2013-04-16.
External links
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