is a small district in
Central London . It is an informal designation, and is not and has never been an administrative district of any kind. The eastern section of the district is in the
London Borough Of Camden and the western section is in the
City Of Westminster . It is bounded to the north by
Euston Road , to the east by the
Tottenham Court Road , to the south by
Oxford Street and to the west by
Great Portland Street . Fitzrovia is a busy district, but its name is uncommonly obscure compared to those of most central London districts, including its neighbours such as
Soho to the south and
Bloomsbury to the east. The area was unnamed until the mid-twentieth century when, in the light of the area's burgeoning reputation as the home of
Bohemian and literary London, it adopted the name of its most renowned
Public House and literary salon, the
Fitzroy Tavern . There have been repeated failed attempts to rename the area in the
New York fashion,
Noho (north of Soho).
The northern part of the area was first developed in the
18th Century by the Hon. Charles FitzRoy, (later
Baron Southampton ), who purchased the Manor of
Tottenhall and built
Fitzroy Square to which he gave his name. The square is the most distinguished of the original architectural features of the district, having been designed in part by
Robert Adam .
Much of Fitzrovia was developed by small landowners, and this led to a predominance of small and irregular streets, in comparison with neighbouring districts like
Marylebone and Bloomsbury, which were dominated by one or two landowners, and were thus developed more schematically, with stronger grid patterns and a greater number of squares. Unlike its neighbours to the south, east and west, Fitzrovia never really had a spell as a fashionable residential district.
The most prominent feature of the area is the
BT Tower , which is one of London's tallest buildings.
In its early days, it was largely an area of well to do tradesmen and craft workshops. Nowadays property uses are diverse, but Fitzrovia can't claim to be the focus of any particular activity in London. It is however reasonably well known for its fashion industry, but this is mainly the "back-stage" side of the industry, comprising a good number of wholesalers and associated offices.
Charlotte Street was for many years the home the British
Advertising industry but is now known for its many and diverse restaurants. Today the district still houses the illustrious
Saatchi & Saatchi , McCann-Erickson and
TBWA advertising agencies.
A number of television production and post-production companies are based in the area and
Broadcasting House , home of
BBC radio, is on the west fringe of the district.
Nickelodeon and
CNN Europe also headquartered in the area.
ITN used to be based at 48
Wells Street during the
1980s and rival
Channel 4 was briefly situated on Charlotte Street. London's
Time Out magazine and City Guide is created and edited on Tottenham Court Road on the border of Fitzrovia.
A number of
Structural Engineering Consultants are based in offices on
Newman Street and the world headquarters of
Arup is on
Fitzroy Street . There are also some hospitals (
Middlesex Hospital ,
London Foot Hospital and
St Luke's Hospital ), a few mid-market hotels, a good deal of residential property and one or two minor embassies (
El Salvador ,
Mozambique and
Croatia ). Retail uses spill into parts of Fitzrovia from Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road, which are two of the principal shopping streets in central London.
Fitzrovia became London's main artistic and bohemian centre from a period dating roughly from the mid
1920s until the mid to late
1950s . Amongst those known to have lived locally and frequented public houses in the area such as the Fitzroy Tavern and the Wheatsheaf are
Augustus John ,
Quentin Crisp ,
Dylan Thomas ,
Aleister Crowley , the racing tipster
Prince Monolulu ,
Nina Hamnett , and
George Orwell . Another pub in the area, the Newman Arms, features in Orwell's novels
1984 and
Keep The Aspidistra Flying and in the
Michael Powell film
Peeping Tom .
George Bernard Shaw and
Virginia Woolf lived at different times in the same house in Fitzroy Square.
Ian McEwan lives in the square and set his novel
Saturday in the area.
Thomas Paine 's
Rights Of Man was published during his residence at 154
New Cavendish Street in reply to
Edmund Burke 's
Reflections On The Revolution In France , who lived at 18 Charlotte Street.
Chartist meetings were hosted in the area, some attended by
Karl Marx who is known to have been to venues at Charlotte Street,
Tottenham Street and
Rathbone Place . The area became a ganglion of Chartist activities after the
Reform Act 1832 and was host to a number of working men's clubs.
The
UFO Club , home to
Pink Floyd during their spell as the house band of
Psychedelic London, was held in the basement of 31 Tottenham Court Road on the eastern border of Fitzrovia. Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix also played at the Speakeasy on Margaret Street and Bob Dylan debuted in London at the
King & Queen Pub . Oxford Street's
100 Club is a major hot bed for music from the
Sixties to the present day, and has roots in
1970s Britain's burgeoning
Punk Rock movement. The rock band
Coldplay formed in Ramsay Hall, a
University College London hall of residence within the area.
Fitzrovia is also the location of
Pollock's Toy Museum , home to erstwhile popular
Toy Theatre , at 1 Scala Street.
Map of Fitzrovia and the surrounding districts - note that this widely used street atlas does not bother to designate Fitzrovia.
