Wednesday, June 3, 2009

A Ride to the Russell Squares!!

Where is Russell Square?
Russell Square is proudly situated in Bloomsbury, which is an area developed as the fashionable residence by the renowned Russell Family. Bloomsbury is surrounded by Tottenham Court Road, Euston Road, Gray's Inn Road, New Oxford Street, Bloomsbury Way and Theobalds Road. This unofficially makes the boundary for the area. Areas surrounding Bloomsbury are Holborn, St Pancras and Clerkenwell. Russell Square is a huge garden located in the Bloomsbury area. Russell Square tube station is situated close by from the garden.

History
The Russell Square was named after its developers from the 17th and the 18th century, Earls & the dukes of Bedford. Large terraced houses were built aimed at the upper middle class on the boundary of the square. Many houses still survive and some of them are now owned by University Of London. Famous residents of the place include the renowned Father-son architects, Philip & Philip Charles Hardwick, Poet T.S. Eliot, Thomas Lawrence’s studio.

Attractions

  • British Museum
Located at the great Russell Street and was found more than 250 years ago, it is the world’s oldest museum representing how the humans evolved. Hans Sloane started the museum with his own collection, which was expanding massively. British artifacts show a lot of variety starting from pre-historic times to the present day. It has artifacts ranging for more than 2 million years and has more than 7 million objects. The museum presents some of the exclusive collection of oriental art, from India, china and some of the Islamic sources. British Museum has more than 90 galleries, and to accommodate these many galleries, it is built on a span of 2.5 miles.
British museum’s entry is free, although for some special exhibitions, the entry is charged and reserved. The museum is open everyday from 1000-1730 hrs, although timings for some galleries may differ.


Dickens House Museum
It is named after the great Victorian novelist, Charles Dickens, and is the only surviving home of the Dickens, and is situated at 48 Doughty street. The four storied museum presents paintings, manuscripts, furniture and many other things related to Charles Dickens. The museum is a perfect place to understand the environment in which the great author used to write and live.
The museum is open from Monday to Saturday from 1000 to 1700 hrs and on Sundays from 1100-17oo hrs. The entry charges range from £3 to £5.

  • Cinemas close to the Russell Square are The Horse Hospital & Renoir Cinemas.
  • Eating Joints: Russell Square gives you enormous choices with the food. It has several restaurants providing a wide variety of cuisines ranging from Italian, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, European and English.
  • Universities and Colleges
Large terrace houses which were built on the boundaries of the Russell Square are now the home for a lot of London universities and colleges, like Birkbeck College, the London school of oriental and African studies, London school of hygiene and tropical Medicine.

  • Spree: A shopaholics’ heaven, where you can easily find Showrooms of luxury brands for men, women, and children. There are some nice shops for lingerie, hosiery & shoes located in this area. Fashion shops like French connection, United Colors of Benetton, L k Benetton, Joy and Coast also have their outlets here.
Russell Square Tube Station:
Working for over the past 100 years, is a small but widely used station, designed by Leslie Green. The station is located on the Bernard Street and comes under Zone 1. It does not own any escalator but has 3 lifts and has around 177 steps. Russell square station was hit by the London Bombings of 7 July 2005, when a bomb exploded in a train between King’s cross and Russell Square, and sadly 26 people died in this incident. Another distressing incident happened in 1973 when some series of murders took place at the station.


Cabmen's Shelter
Cabmen’s shelter was built in the year 1875 to provide shelter to the cabs and their carriages. Russell Square cabmen's shelter is amongst the 13 shelters, which still exist.

  • Russell Square Hotels in London
    London Euston Premier Inn, Ibis London Euston, Arriva Hotel and Elmwood Hotel are some of the most popular and luxurious Russell Square hotels in London.

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