Tavistock Square, looking North. BMA building on the right.

Tavistock Square is a public square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden with a fine garden.

Public art

The centre-piece of the gardens is a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, which was installed in 1968.

There is also a memorial to conscientious objectors (unveiled in 1995), busts of Virginia Woolf and Dame Louisa Aldrich-Blake as well as a cherry tree planted in 1967 in memory of the victims of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.

History

The square is part of an estate owned by the Dukes of Bedford, and takes its name from the courtesy title given to the eldest sons of the Dukes of Bedford, Marquess of Tavistock. It 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. [1]
• headquarters of the United World Colleges and Universities UK, the conference of university rectors
• the Tavistock Hotel.
• Connaught Hall, a University of London hall of residence, which houses 215 students, and 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

On the BMA building is a blue plaque commemorating that Charles Dickens once lived in a house on the site.

London bombings

Looking towards Tavistock Square soon after the 7 July 2005 London bombings.

On 7 July 2005 as part of the 7/7 London Bombings, a bomb exploded on a double-decker bus in the north-east corner of the square, outside the BMA building. This resulted in 13 fatalities.

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

Statue of Mahatma Gandhi from the East.	Gandhi statue from South.	Gandhi statue from North.	Plaque at the base of the Hiroshima cherry tree amid fallen blossoms.
Conscientious Objector memorial, on the North side of the Square.	Conscientious Objector memorial inscription	Memorial to Louisa Aldrich-Blake

See also

Other squares on the Bedford Estate in Bloomsbury included:

• Bedford Square
• Russell Square
• Bloomsbury Square
• Gordon Square
• Torrington Square
• Woburn Square

External links

• Map sources and aerial photos.

Coordinates: 51.52471° N 0.13039° W