Gordon Square is in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, London, England (postal district WC1). It was developed by Thomas Cubitt in the 1820s, as one of a pair with Tavistock Square, which is a block away and has the same dimensions. As with most London squares the central garden was originally for the private use of the residents of the surrounding houses, but it now belongs to the University of London and is open to the public. The university owns many of the buildings in the square and in early 2005 it submitted an application for a refurbishment of the square, including the reinstatement of railings similar to the originals. The west side of the square is dominated by the listed church of Christ the King and next to it the home of Dr Williams's Library.
The economist John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) lived at 46 Gordon Square, marked by a Blue Plaque. The same house was used by the Bloomsbury Group before Keynes moved in when Vanessa Bell lived here. The writer and biographer Lytton Strachey lived at No. 51. Houses 43 to 46 are now occupied by the School of Arts, Birkbeck College.
The Institute of Archaeology, a department of University College London, is on the north side of the square. The Campaign for Science and Engineering resides in Gordon House, at the square's north-west corner. Gordon Street leads from the north-west corner with the Bloomsbury Theatre close by.
In August 2000, the east side of the square was used to film part of the bus chase sequence for the movie The Mummy Returns. In the film, the section filmed in Gordon Square depicts the bus swerving to avoid an oncoming car, crashing into another car and veering round the corner into neighbouring Ensleigh Place. The shoot took place late at night and involved the covering of double-yellow lines, addition of a red pillar box and replacement of lamp posts, cars, street signs and bollards with period equivalents to fit the era of the film. The streets were also doused with water from a fire tender to make it appear that it had just rained.
Nos. 16–26, on the western side of the Square, were not completed until 1855 and they represent some of the last buildings created by Thomas Cubitt. They now mostly house UCL academic departments. For example, No. 22 houses the Department of Science and Technology Studies.
Other squares on the Bedford Estate in Bloomsbury included:
- Bedford Square
- Bloomsbury Square
- Russell Square
- Tavistock Square
- Torrington Square
- Woburn Square
Famous quotes containing the words gordon and/or square:
“But who, alas! can love, and then be wise?
Not that remorse did not oppose temptation;
A little still she strove, and much repented,
And whispering ‘I will ne’er consent’Mconsented.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“O for a man who is a man, and, as my neighbor says, has a bone in his back which you cannot pass your hand through! Our statistics are at fault: the population has been returned too large. How many men are there to a square thousand miles in this country? Hardly one.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)