literary walking tour bloomsbury

A Lady in London

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Lady’s Bloomsbury Walk and Map

Today I want to share A Lady in London’s free self-guided Bloomsbury walk and map with you. This part of central London is packed with everything from literary highlights to leafy squares and famous museums. Everyone from Virginia Woolf to Charles Dickens has called this London neighborhood home, and it’s a great place to explore. My walking route will help you discover the best of Bloomsbury on foot. I hope you enjoy the journey.

Bloomsbury Walk

From Russell Square to the British Museum, Bedford Square to Lamb’s Conduit Street, Bloomsbury is one of the most famous central London neighborhoods .

Set in a beautiful part of the UK capital, my Bloomsbury walk is the perfect way to get into London’s literary past, explore pretty streets, eat and drink at independent cafes and restaurants, and indulge your inner culture lover.

You can see more walks in the book London’s Hidden Walks , too. It’s for you if you enjoy discovering the UK capital’s off-the-beaten-path areas. You can get it here .

I’ve also written a whole post about London walks books , so you can take a look at it if you want more options.

Bloomsbury Walk Route

My self-guided Bloomsbury walking tour starts at Russell Square station. It’s centrally located and has great transport links, so you can arrive by tube, bus, bike, or on foot from other parts of the city.

When you exit the Underground station, take a left on Bernard Street, then another quick left on Herbrand Street. It will take you past a historic pub in atmospheric surroundings. When you reach Guildford Street, turn right to get to Russell Square.

When you get there, take a right to walk up to the intersection at the northeast corner of the square. As you go, you’ll start to get a glimpse of the Georgian townhouses and pretty green space the area is known for.

Cross the street to enter Russell Square, then walk diagonally through it to get to the southwest corner. Once there, take a right on Russell Square and a quick left on Montague Place.

Walk down Montague Place, passing by the back of the British Museum and the south side of Malet Street Gardens as you make your way to Bedford Square.

When you arrive at Bedford Square, walk around it and take in the stunning Georgian buildings and doors as you go. This is one of my favorite places to take in Bloomsbury’s heritage architecture.

Once you’ve explored the square, exit by taking a right on Bloomsbury Street and then a left on Great Russell Street. This will bring you past the front of the British Museum.

You can go inside and have a look around if you want to, or continue your Bloomsbury walk by turning right on Bury Place.

There are lots of shops on Bury Place, including the London Review Bookshop (you might remember it from my London literary walk or my itinerary for London for book lovers ).

You can pop in for a browse or have a treat at the adjacent cake shop (yum…cake and books).

From Bury Place, take a left on Bloomsbury Way and walk down to Bloomsbury Square. Dating back to 1665, this is London’s oldest square. Stroll around it and keep an eye out for the historic details on the buildings as you go.

From the square, continue your Bloomsbury walk by exiting from the northeast corner via Bloomsbury Place. When you get to the end, take a left on Southampton Row and follow it until you reach Cosmo Place.

Turn right to walk down Cosmo Place. This pedestrianized street will take you to Queen Square. The public garden in the middle is a good place to rest your feet if you need a break.

There are statues and sculptures all around, including one of a cat. There’s also an 18th-century pub on the corner of Cosmo Place that has historic connections to King George III and his wife, Queen Caroline.

Once you’ve walked around the garden, exit from the northeast corner via Queen Anne’s Walk. When you reach the end, turn right on Guildford Street and continue your Bloomsbury walk until you get to Guildford Place.

Turn right on Guildford Place and follow it as it becomes Lamb’s Conduit Street. There are lots of great restaurants, shops, and cafes here, so it’s worth spending some time exploring.

When you reach Theobald’s Road, turn left and walk east until you get to John Street. Take a left on John Street, passing historic facades and corner pubs as you make your way north and the road becomes Doughty Street.

When it does, you’ll pass the Charles Dickens Museum. You can pop in to see his former home if you want to.

If not, continue your Bloomsbury walk by following Doughty Street north as it becomes Mecklenburgh Square, then Mecklenburgh Street. When it ends at Heathcote Street, turn left and follow the street to the end.

On your right you’ll see a gate that leads into St. George’s Gardens. This secret garden is set in a former 18th-century graveyard. It’s a great place to rest your legs in peaceful surroundings.

Once rested, exit St. George’s Gardens at the northwest corner and walk west down Handel Street until you reach the Marchmont Community Garden, a pretty little urban green space.

Walk through the garden to get to Marchmont Street, where you’ll turn right to take in more of Bloomsbury’s restaurants and cafes.

When you’re done, continue your Bloomsbury walk by turning left on Tavistock Place. It will lead you to Tavistock Square Gardens.

This green space features statues of everyone from Mahatma Ghandi to Virginia Woolf. The latter was a member of the Bloomsbury Group and lived at 52 Tavistock Square between 1924 and 1939.

The square is also lined with important buildings, including the headquarters of the British Medical Association. It was designed by prominent English architect Edwin Lutyens in 1911.

When you’re done exploring, exit Tavistock Square at the southwest corner and follow the street called Gordon Square until you reach Gordon Square and Woburn Square. They’re right across from one another.

You can walk through and around them if you want to, or continue your Bloomsbury walk on Byng Place. Don’t miss the many university buildings and the row of red phone boxes by Euston Church as you go.

After Byng Place becomes Torrington Place, turn left on Gower Street and follow the colorful doors and brick buildings down to Store Street.

Turn right on Store Street, where you’ll find lots of restaurants, shops, and cafes (including one of the best coffee shops in London ).

When Store Street meets Tottenham Court Road, turn right and walk up to the Goodge Street tube station. Your self-guided Bloomsbury walking tour ends here.

Walk Details and Map

Map of the first half of the walk: https://goo.gl/maps/moAKhwXN7KVtg8dS7

Map of the second half of the walk: https://goo.gl/maps/PcyNCTcJvFAGJhGz9

Further afield: Fitzrovia , Clerkenwell , King’s Cross , Regent’s Park , Soho , Covent Garden

Bloomsbury Walking Tour

I hope reading through my Bloomsbury walk has made you excited to see this part of central London. It’s a great place to get into the heart of the city.

If you’re interested in doing more walks in the area, head over to my blog post about central London walks . You can see more self-guided London walking tours and maps on my post with all the ones I’ve created, too. Happy walking!

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8 Comments on Lady’s Bloomsbury Walk and Map

It looks so nice! I absolutely loved the bicycle :)))

Absolutely love the description of your walks….feel I am there with you….but I will certainly get out there and do myself.

Thank you so much! I’m glad you feel you’re on the walks with me. I hope you enjoy this one when you do it.

Just done this lovely walk, stopping and start along the way. Breakfast in Russell Square garden, Browsed in London Review bookstore, lunch in Landry Oteline. All really lovely. A busy wedding weekend ahead and this was a perfect quieter way to spend today, wandering around this lovely area of London. Thanks.

You’re welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed it.

I just did this walk today, as I am staying in this area for work this week. Such a nice stroll – thank you!

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London Literary Tours

Introducing Our Bloomsbury Tour

Two years ago – as we came out of lockdown – we launched our St James’s Jaunt . Now we’re thrilled to have a new walking tour of Bloomsbury, featuring literary heavyweights Virginia Woolf and T S Eliot, the Bloomsbury Blast . Researching and creating it has been fascinating fun, and we can’t wait to share it with you. Here’s a few highlights…

Rebels and innovators.

Why ‘Bloomsbury Blast’? It beat other ‘title contenders’ because of our appreciation for the Vorticist magazine BLAST! featured at one stop on the tour. With its crazy pink cover and in-yer-face fonts, it postured and provoked, embodying the wild, rebellious spirit of artist and writer Wyndham Lewis , egged on by poet Ezra Pound .

Lewis’s experimental writing in BLAST! had a direct influence on Pound, T S Eliot and James Joyce — and later, Samuel Beckett. When it was published in 1914, it was exciting, extreme and shocking. It’s perhaps not the way we tend to think of ‘Bloomsbury’, because of how much the rather more genteel Bloomsbury Group defines our sense of that place and time. But, of course, every modernist writer worth their salt – Virginia Woolf and E M Forster included – was pushing the boundaries of what literature could do and represent.

Time Travel

Bloomsbury at that time was actually a hotbed of political radicals, literary originals and people wanting to find new ways of living. As we’ve developed our tour, it’s been wonderful to immerse ourselves in that world, reaching back a century or so to discover pioneering writers reaching forward to us, writers who’ve had much influence upon literature and our lives today; I’ve kept thinking about these lines from T S Eliot’s “Burnt Norton”:

“Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future And time future contained in time past.”

Garden Squares

And there are things that time doesn’t change; Bloomsbury’s grand garden squares are now, as they were for those writers back then, places to stroll, to meet and to sit on a lunch break. They remain the distinguishing soul of the area and they mean a lot to people. When the sun comes out to light their trees, blossoms and blooms, a Bloomsbury square is a glorious place to be!

In those squares on our tour, we have writers watching from their windows, a chance moonlight encounter, aspiring novelists gushing about meeting their idols, an evening sherry beneath a tree, lunchtime discussions about pornography, and Virginia Woolf struck with inspiration for a new novel.

And, yes, another highlight has to be…

Virginia Woolf

We’ve always loved and admired Woolf’s work. For our St James’s Jaunt we got to know the movements of Mrs Dalloway , centring on her walk to a Bond Street florist, as well as Woolf’s experience of the London Library. This tour has given us the opportunity to trace her journey through Bloomsbury – moving from one square to another – as her life unfolds, from young Miss Stephen, shaking off her Victorian upbringing, to distinguished author enduring the Blitz.

We make a pilgrimage to four of Virginia Woolf’s addresses on the Bloomsbury Blast — including Tavistock Square, which is such an exciting Woolf location. Those years here with her husband Leonard Woolf were the heyday of the Hogarth Press, with so many big literary names of the period – E M Forster and T S Eliot included – their regular visitors. And it was here, in a basement room, where Virginia wrote To the Lighthouse , Orlando and The Waves .

Discovering New Writers

One of the joys of our St James’s Jaunt was getting to know less widely appreciated writers like Rose Macaulay and Nancy Cunard and present them to our guests. It’s been a similar experience in Bloomsbury…

Dorothy Richardson is an absolute gem. She came to live in Bloomsbury as a young single woman and worked as a dentist’s secretary. Her experiences during the years she spent here – including an affair with H G Wells – provide rich autobiographical material for her Pilgrimage novels, in which she developed an original style of writing that influenced Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield.

Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore is a colossus of world literature, the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize, and he’s as big as it gets in India and Bangladesh where his plays, novels, stories, poems and songs are a seminal part of the culture. We focus on his time in Bloomsbury and the poetry that made such a splash with writers here, in particular Irish poet W B Yeats , a long-term resident of Bloomsbury who also features on the tour.

And there’s Charlotte Mew , singular, lonely and stoic, whose extraordinary poetry we celebrate. We’ve absolutely come to appreciate why Siegfried Sassoon said she was “the only poet who can give me a lump in my throat”, and we’re sure our guests will too.

Unsung Heroes

And there’s Harold Monro , an incredible unsung hero whose Poetry Bookshop – a shop, a publishing house and so much more – exerted an influence on literature that can’t be overestimated. Monro was assisted by Alida Klementaski , and together they created a place that gave poetry a ‘centre’; it was ‘happening’ here in Bloomsbury.

Harold and Alida cut through the snootiness around poetry. They took it out of rich people’s salons and made it accessible, hosting weekly readings open to everyone. Readers who worked nearby – secretaries, nurses, clerks — went to the bookshop and rubbed shoulders with massive (or soon-to-be massive) figures like W B Yeats, Edith Sitwell, D H Lawrence and T S Eliot. These writers knew its value, and the part Monro had played in their growing reputations; they were never too grand to attend an event at the bookshop in what was a slum area of Bloomsbury. It was, as Osbert Sitwell said, ‘a great meeting place’.

Meetings and Networks

With so many domestic settings, ‘Bloomsbury’ was a lot about writers and artists getting together in people’s homes and eating, drinking and talking until the small hours. There’s the Bloomsbury Group, obviously, Yeats’s Monday ‘at-homes’, impromptu coffee-fuelled gatherings in Hilda Doolittle ’s bedsit, Harold Monro’s sherry parties, meals to launch avant-garde publications — writers getting together and encouraging each other, or bitching and arguing, but always spurring each other on.

They enabled each other’s work to get into print – by forming a publishing house, by founding or editing a periodical, or, in Eliot’s case, by being made a director of Faber & Faber . And all the while they’re reviewing each other’s work in those periodicals and in newspapers.

And they’re writing about their own lives, writing each other into their work, sometimes obliquely, sometimes directly in autobiography, sometimes changing each other’s names, sometimes satirising each other as characters in novels, sometimes in full-on attacks.

Unrequited Lovers

Love unreciprocated makes for powerful poetic fodder, and it can’t be avoided in Bloomsbury. There’s Yeats’s troubled obsession with Maud Gonne, Charlotte Mew’s sad infatuation with May Sinclair, Hilda Doolittle’s powerful fascination with D H Lawrence , and then there’s T S Eliot’s poignant love letters to Emily Hale.

Hale was Eliot’s fellow student at Harvard. He never declared his love for her there and lived to regret it. And when things went bad with his English wife Vivienne, who had serious mental health issues, he wrote to Emily.

Cindy had a special day while researching for the tour. She was at Bloomsbury’s own British Library, working on T S Eliot, and she thought, wait a minute, where in the Faber building was Eliot’s office? She found out and, when the library closed, she walked to Russell Square and saw that Eliot’s office looked out on Woburn Square. It’s changed, of course, but that’s what Tom was looking out on – those trees and lilacs — when he was alone in his office writing those secret, sacred letters to Emily in America. Very moving.

And finally… Bookshops

Bloomsbury is blessed with some wonderful bookshops – independent, second-hand, specialist – and it’s been a pleasure (though quite an expensive one) to discover them. What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon after our literary tour of Bloomsbury, than enjoy lunch in a neighbourhood café or pub, then browse in bookshop heaven?!

We hope to see you very soon for a Bloomsbury Blast !

Posted by Mike

Guided Literary Tour of Bloomsbury

A guided walk through the heart of literary London

On this three-hour walking tour, you’ll discover the literary history of Bloomsbury, which is famous for its associations with some of Britain’s most prolific writers. As you stroll past blue plaques, famous houses, theaters and restaurants, you’ll learn all about the writers who lived in the area.

Along the way, you’ll visit some of England’s most famous writers’ favorite haunts, such as Shakespeares’ favorite pub and the restaurant that inspired both Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf. You’ll also have the chance to visit quirky bookshops, like Persephone’s Books. Led by a professional guide, you’ll get to hear remarkable facts and stories about Bloomsbury’s literary characters too.

• Chance to explore famous literary sights in Bloomsbury
• Insights into London's literary history from your guide
• Visit to the British Library, the UK's national library

What's included

• Guide services

What's Not Included

• Food and drinks
• Transportation
• Admission to attractions
• Tips (optional)

Restrictions

Comfortable footwear is recommended.

Languages spoken by guide

Additional information.

This tour can accommodate a maximum of ten participants.

Bring your ticket with you to the attraction.

Be aware that operators may cancel for unforeseen reasons.

You must be 18 years or older, or be accompanied by an adult, to book.

Operated by CityUnscripted

Frequently asked questions

How do i book a ticket.

Select a date and time.

Choose the number of tickets.

Click through to the next page and enter your personal details.

After entering your personal details, select your payment method and enter your payment details.

Once you’ve entered your payment details successfully, you'll be redirected to your ticket page where you can check the status and details of your reservations.

You'll receive a confirmation email once the reservation is confirmed with the attraction operator. This could take some time based on the supplier.

You can view your tickets in your confirmation email or the Booking and Trips section of your account.

When do I pay?

Booking.com collects payment on behalf of the attraction operator when you book your ticket.

How do digital tickets work?

Each digital ticket contains a unique code. This is usually a QR or numerical code, but could be something else and can be found on your ticket or the PDF sent to you.

If your digital ticket contains a barcode or QR code, show it to the staff at the attraction's entrance or ticket collection point for them to scan.

For those with numerical codes, show your ticket to staff for verification.

Can I cancel or modify my tickets?

You’ll need to check the policy on the specific ticket you book. Last-minute bookings might not have free cancellation available.

When will I get my free cancellation refund?

After you cancel, we'll issue a full refund immediately. Depending on your bank or payment provider, it can take 3–10 days to be refunded to your original payment method.

Tickets and prices

Stephen Liddell

Musings on a mad world

London Literary Tour (Bloomsbury)

1 Adult = £140

2 Adults = £120

3 Adults = £110

4 Adults = £100

5 – 10 Adults = £80

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Travel Thru History

Historical and cultural travel experiences

Literary London: Virginia Woolf’s Bloomsbury

by Lynn Smith

For those people who have a passion for literature, history and London, a London guided walking tour will combine all these interests. There are several such tours available, led by knowledgeable guides, most of whom have been trained by the London Tourist Board. The tours are also reasonably priced.

I met the tour guide outside Russell Square Underground and we began the two hour walk from there. It was a beautiful summer’s day which allowed us to see the green and pleasant squares at their best.

Bloomsbury is in the Borough of Camden and is bounded on the north by Euston Rd, Gray’s Inn Rd on the east, Tottenham Court Rd on the west and High Holborn on the south side.

The area has a fascinating history. The name Bloomsbury is a corruption of “Blemonde” which was the name of Baron Blemonde, William the Conqueror’s vassal who received the land from William in the 11th century.

In the 19th century, Bloomsbury lost some of its glamour – trade and industry moved in and the area was no longer considered to be fashionable. The British Museum was erected on its present site in 1823 and London University began in 1827.

The arrival of the Bloomsbury Group in the early 20th century gave the area its reputation as an intellectual, artistic and somewhat Bohemian area – a reputation which is still considered relevant today.

Virginia Woolf (born Stephen, 1882 – 1941) was the third child of Sir Leslie Stephen and his wife Julia. Virginia’s siblings were Vanessa, Thoby and Adrian. The family lived at 22 Hyde Park Gate, a large house always filled with children, friends and family.

The Stephen children grew up in a literary household – Sir Leslie was a journalist and had a well-stocked library, to which Virginia had unrestricted access.

When she was thirteen, Virginia’s beloved mother died and this traumatic event caused her first mental breakdown; this was followed by another breakdown when her father died in 1904. After Sir Leslie’s death the Stephen children decided to leave Hyde Park Gate (with its unhappy memories) and move to Gordon Square, in the heart of Bloomsbury, just north of the University of London.

Gordon Square soon became a meeting place for Thoby Stephen’s Cambridge friends. Other visitors were Lytton Strachey, Clive Bell, Duncan Grant and later, Leonard Woolf. Virginia and Vanessa both took part in the lively discussions at these meetings, which could be described as the beginnings of the Bloomsbury Group.

After Thoby’s death from typhoid in 1906 and Vanessa’s marriage to Clive Bell shortly after, Virginia and Adrian left Gordon Square and rented a house at 29 Fitzroy Square.

Fitzroy Square

Although still in the Borough of Camden, Fitzroy Square is not strictly Bloomsbury but Fitzrovia, just further south of Tottenham Court Rd. The area was originally developed to provide houses for the aristocracy and many elegant mansions were erected, designed by Robert Adam. Building began in 1792 and was eventually finished in 1835.

In 1907, when the Stephens moved into 29 Fitzroy Square, the area consisted mainly of offices, workshops and lodging-houses. These unpretentious surroundings suited the brother and sister; they carried on with the Gordon Square intellectual get-togethers and the circle soon grew. An important addition to their gatherings was Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873-1938) – that eccentric and Bohemian patron of the arts, who lived in nearby Bedford Square.

The years at Fitzroy Square were eventful ones for Virginia – her two nephews (Vanessa’s sons) were born in 1908 and 1910 and in 1909 she accepted Lytton Strachey’s proposal of marriage but, by mutual consent, the engagement was cancelled almost immediately.

When the lease of 29 Fitzroy Square came to an end in 1911, Virginia and Adrian leased a four-storey house, No 38 Brunswick Square, which they shared with Maynard Keynes and Duncan Grant. While living in Brunswick Square, Virginia became engaged to Leonard Woolf and they were married on 10 Aug. 1912. The Woolfs went to live in Sussex where Virginia had taken a five-year lease on Asheham House. It was to be another twelve years before Virginia moved back to Bloomsbury.

The intervening years 1912 -1924

During the years that Virginia was living elsewhere, she published four books and had, unfortunately, another serious mental breakdown from which she was slow to recover. The Woolfs moved to Hogarth House in Richmond and in 1917 they bought a hand-press – and so began Hogarth Press; soon they were printing pamphlets, books and slim volumes of poetry, mainly the works of the Bloomsbury Group.

The years spent at Tavistock Square were Virginia’s most productive and she became much sought after as a guest speaker at various prestigious universities.

Today, Tavistock Square is surrounded by a number of famous buildings, all of which are worth investigating. The Square was also the scene of the suicide bombings in 2005, in which 13 people were killed.

Mecklenburgh Square was Virginia Woolf’s final Bloomsbury residence. Like Brunswick Square, Mecklenburgh Square was part of the grounds of the Foundling Hospital and was named after King George III’s wife, Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg.

The 2 acres of gardens are beautifully laid out, with lawns, trees and pathways. The gardens are only open to the public on two days a year. The rest of the year, the gardens are only open to resident key-holders.

No. 37 which the Woolfs leased, was once again, a large terrace house facing the square. They operated the Hogarth Press from No 37. The house was badly damaged during the bombing of London in 1940.

In 1941, Virginia, fearing another onslaught of her mental condition, committed suicide by drowning herself in the River Ouse.

A walk through Bloomsbury is certainly an experience not to be forgotten. There is so much of interest – graceful, elegant architecture, quiet, peaceful gardens and the all-pervading atmosphere of intelligentsia.

It is no wonder that the Bloomsbury Group put down roots here and kept returning to the area throughout their lives.

After my walking tour was over, I certainly felt that I’d come to know Virginia Woolf and her group on a much more personal level.

References: 1975. Lehmann, John. Virginia Woolf and her World. London: Thames and Hudson.

♦ Contact www.walklondon-uk.com or www.walks.com for information about the tours, what is on offer, where to meet, etc. ♦ Wear comfortable shoes, take an umbrella and something to drink if it is hot. ♦ Don’t forget your camera and be prepared to walk for a good couple of hours, although the pace is not fast. ♦ The guides are knowledgeable and enjoy answering questions. Now is your opportunity to get answers to those questions you’ve always wanted to ask. ♦ Make the most of the tour and enjoy it.

Photo credits: Gordon Square, London by Paul the Archivist / CC BY-SA Virginia Woolf by George Charles Beresford / Public domain Bloomsbury group blue plaque by Edwardx / CC BY-SA Gordon Square park by Stephen McKay /  Gordon Square, Bloomsbury Tavistock Square by Ewan Munro from London, UK / CC BY-SA

Browse London Historic Walking Tours Now Available

About the author: Lynn is a retired librarian who lives in Durban, South Africa. She lived in London for some time many years ago and has returned to visit several times in the past few years. Her last visits overseas were to Eastern Europe where she fell in love with Prague and Budapest. When not travelling, Lynn enjoys writing articles for the internet and does freelance editing and proof-reading. She is a keen gardener and shares her home with her six beloved cats.

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The Ultimate Self-Guided Literary Walking Tour of London

By: Author Alastair Reid Schanche

Posted on Published: 23rd April 2023  - Last updated: 9th October 2023

Categories Arts + Culture

Ready to take on a self-guided walking tour of London’s literary hotspots? These are the places you need to visit.

Welcome, bookworms, to London – a city that has been called home by some of the finest literary talents in the English language. 

Over London’s many years of history, the city has been home to greats like Dickens, Shakespeare and Orwell. It’s also been the home of fictional characters that have come to be household names. 

We spend a lot of time nerding out about London’s literary past and so we thought it would be a good idea to put together a tour of a few of our favourite spots. 

From walking in the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes to tracking down the watering holes of the likes of Tennyson and Twain, here’s a literary London walking tour that you need to embark on. 

Practical Information about the Literary London Walking Tour 

Baker Street Station/The Sherlock Holmes Museum 

Shakespeare’s Globe

Distance 

10km + short underground trip between Baker Street and Great Portland Street

Walking Time: 2 hours

Suggested time to allow for the tour: 4 – 5 hours. 

Difficulty of Tour

Medium: Flat terrain but it covers a reasonable distance. 

Admission Fees

TfL fees for underground between Baker Street and Great Portland Street, plus any museums you want to go into on route and maybe a few quid for a pint in a writerly tavern.  

Places Visited on the Tour

• Sherlock Holmes Museum 
• Fitzroy Tavern 
• Senate House 
• Bloomsbury 
• King’s X 
• Dickens Museum 
• The Old Curiosity Shop
• Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese 
• Dr. Johnson’s House 
• The Globe 

Stop One – The Sherlock Holmes Museum and Baker Street 

Address: 221b Baker St, London NW1 6XE

The first stop on our London literary tour is the Sherlock Holmes Museum . Although the detective was totally fictional, some clever bookworm has turned a house on Baker Street into a museum in his honour. 

They’ve revamped the house to look like it would in the Victorian era that Holmes would have been working in, complete with gas lamps, authentic Victorian furniture and curiosities, and a fake address. 

Yep, the museum is listed as 221b Baker Street as that’s where Sherlock lives in the stories. In real life, the building actually sits between 237 and 241 Baker Street. 

The museum has actually received criticism from the Conan-Doyle estate for behaving too much as if Holmes was a real person. This isn’t helped by the fake blue plaque above the door listing the “consulting detective” as having lived there. 

Controversy aside, Baker Street is heavily featured in the detective’s adventures and enjoys its literary cult status. They’ve even put a statue of Holmes outside the tube station. 

→→ →→ 18 minutes to our next stop, the Fitzroy Tavern. Jump on the circle line at Baker Street to Great Portland Street and walk south down Cleveland Street for 600m until you hit Tottenham Street. Make a left there and walk 100m then a right onto Charlotte Street. Keep walking till you see the Fitzroy Tavern on your left after about 250m. 

Alternatively, you can walk the whole thing from Baker Street which should take about 25 mins. 

Stop Two – The Fitzroy Tavern 

Address: 16A Charlotte St., London W1T 2LY

Our second stop is the legendary writer’s hangout, the Fitzroy Tavern. The place became famous between the 20s and 50s as a watering hole for many of London’s top writers. Nina Hamnett, Dylan Thomas and George Orwell, to name a few. 

Here the writers hobnobbed with artists and other bohemians. You can see a few portraits of The Fitzroy’s old patrons hanging on the walls. 

We wouldn’t blame you for wanting to slip in and have a pint in one of the tavern’s gloomy corners, discuss your favourite books. You should if you’ve got the time. 

If you want to hold your horses though, know that there will be another literary boozer later on in our tour. 

→→ →→ 13 minutes to Senate House. Head down Windmill Street for 150m until you reach Tottenham Court Road where you throw a left. Walk 100m to Bayley Street and take Bayley all the way to Montague Place which you follow along to Russell Square. Senate House is on your left. 

Stop Three – Senate House 

Address: Senate House University of London, Malet St, London WC1E 7HU

You should now be standing outside Senate House. It’ll be hard to miss. The impressive Art-Deco building looms over its courtyard and the other buildings to its wings. It’s the type of place that changes with the weather. On a good day, it can look somewhat pretty, but catch it in the rain and it looks ominously oppressive. 

That must have been the type of weather Orwell saw it in as he says it was the inspiration for the Ministry of Truth – the manipulative, authoritarian government whose control of public narrative is anything but truthful –  in 1984 . 

Orwell however was notoriously pessimistic about London. He despised the poverty and decay he saw in the city here. Perhaps he would have done well to see this building in a new light, though then we may not have the masterpiece that is 1984 . 

→→ →→ 7 minutes to Gordon Square. Take Thornhaugh Street on the northwest corner of Russell Square and follow it all the way to Woburn Square. Keep Straight all the way until you reach Gordon Square. 

Stop Four – Bloomsbury 

Address: 46 Gordon Sq, London WC1H 0PD

Our next stop is Bloomsbury, once a bustling hub of London’s literary past. Our directions will take you to the charming Gordon Square, once the home of the world’s most legendary writers: Virginia Woolf. 

Woolf was part of a group of intellectuals who took their very group’s name from this London neighbourhood. The Bloomsbury Group produced some top literary and intellectual talents like E. M. Forster and Lytton Strachey, and economist J.M. Keynes. 

Virginia Woolf lived elsewhere in Bloomsbury too – you can see blue plaques with her name on them at the Tavistock Hotel – but her time at 46 Gordon Square was one of her most transformative. 

Her father – a radical free thinker – encouraged Woolf to read, something not common for women at that time. Woolf herself describes this period in her life as one of departure from the ‘gloom’ and into the ‘bloom’ of her becoming the woman we know her to be. 

→→ →→ 14 minutes to King’s Cross Station. Walk along Gordon Square to Endsleigh Place and turn right. Follow it about 150m to Upper Woburn Place and take a left. Follow this road to Euston Road and take a right. Walk along Euston Road 700m until you hit King’s Cross on your left. 

You’ll be walking past the British Library – a book lover’s mecca. Nip in if you’re in no rush and take in the giant central piece of aged tomes and even the Magna Carta. 

Stop Five – King’s Cross Station 

Address: King’s Cross Station, Euston Rd., London N1 9AL

We bet you can already guess why you’re here. Yep, this is the very station where Harry Potter sets off to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 

He does so at platform 9 ¾ which is now a major tourist attraction in the station. They’ve even put half a luggage trolley into the brickwork that you can hold onto and snap pictures as if you’re pushing your things through the magic portal to the Hogwarts Express. 

You will of course have to queue for the privilege. 

→→ →→ 15 minutes to our next stop. Follow Gray’s Inn Road south for 1.1km until you turn left on Guilford Street. Take the next left onto Doughty Street and follow it about 75m until you reach the Dickens Museum. 

Read More: The Ultimate Self-Guided Harry Potter Walking Tour of London

Stop Six – The Dickens Museum 

Address: 48-49 Doughty St, London WC1N 2LX

Doughty Street is home to another of this neighbourhood’s literary legends: Charles Dickens. He is one of England’s greatest writers and shaped the imagination of generations, even long after his death. 

His stories of Victorian London are still haunting and visceral today. Walking down this street in the present day it’s really not hard to picture the place as he would have seen it in the Victorian times. 

This location is one of Dickens’ London houses and has now been turned into a museum that’s well worth popping into. 

You can see many rooms kept as they would have been when he lived there, the desk where he wrote and the stand where he did his famous reading. You can even see his commode and a sick note from his doctor. 

You’ll also be standing in the very study where he wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. 

→→ →→ 16 minutes to our next stop. Follow Doughty Street and Roger Street to Theobalds Road (80m), take a left and walk 130m along until you turn left onto Bedford Row. Follow Bedford Row making a couple small right-lefts through the alleys until you reach High Holborn. Then cut across Lincoln’s Inn Fields to the southwest corner and onto Portsmouth Street. 

Stop Seven – The Old Curiosity Shop

Address: 2es, 13-14 Portsmouth St, London WC2A 2ES

Dickens gets a second hit on our walking tour at the Old Curiosity Shop – a bizarre squat-looking building that is almost out of place next to all the modern stuff around it. 

The high-end shoe shop is said to have inspired Charles Dickens’ novel of the same name about teenage orphan Neil Trent and his grandfather and their life in “one of those receptacles for old and curious things which seem to crouch in odd corners of this town and to hide their musty treasures from the public eye in jealousy and distrust.”

The building actually dates back to the 16th century making it pretty old even by Dickens’ standards. Though it’s impossible to confirm, it’s likely that the big guy actually went here at some point. He only lived a short walk away after all.. 

→→ →→ 10 minutes to our next stop on Fleet Street. Follow Portsmouth Street for 40m onto Portugal Street and follow that about 50m to Carey Street. Take Carey Street 800m and throw a right onto Bell Yard. Walk 500m to Fleet Street and turn left. Walk along Fleet Street about the same distance to the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub. 

Stop Eight – The Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

Address: 145 Fleet St, London EC4A 2BP

Time for a pint. You’ve earned it. Sit down among the gloomy corners of this very old pub and soak in the mood. You’re sitting in a boozer that has served many famous authors in its time. 

Mark Twain is known to have frequented the place, as did G.K. Chesterton, Christopher Hitchens, Yeats, Tennyson, Conan-Doyle and, yes, him again: Dickens.

The literary list goes on. The Cheshire Cheese even features in Agatha Christie’s work when Poirot dines with a prospective client in The Million Dollar Bond Robbery. Samuel Pepys also mentions the pub in his writing, and judging by the proximity of our next spot it’s likely that Dr. Johnson also sank a few pints here in his day. 

Once you’re watered, and possibly fed – they do some pretty good food here – it’s time to step back out onto Fleet Street, a road synonymous with the printing and publishing industry in London. 

Most of the papers have since moved away but you can bet the Cheshire Cheese has been frequented by many of the writers that worked here too. 

→→ →→ 2 mins to our next stop. Come out of the pub and turn right onto Hind Court. Follow the alley all the way along, past the dogleg and swing a right onto Gough Square. 

Stop Nine – Dr. Johnson’s House

Address: 17 Gough Square, London EC4A 3DE

After that short walk, you should be standing outside the house of the legendary Dr. Johnson. As writers go he had a lot of accolades. Dr. Samuel Johnson saw success as a poet, a playwright, moralist and essayist. 

He’s most known, though, for writing a very influential dictionary. A Dictionary of the English Language was completed in 1755 and until the release of the Oxford English Dictionary 173 years later was the most influential dictionary in the English language. 

The house you’re standing in front of is the very place he wrote this dictionary and is now a museum. The style of the place has been maintained and very well kept and home to manuscripts in Johnson’s hand, oil paintings and prints of his contemporaries as well as some very fine furniture. 

→→ →→ 19 minutes to the Globe. Head back to the pub and turn left on Fleet Street. Follow it all the way along to the bottom of Ludgate Hill, turn right at the crossroads and head for Blackfriars. Take the bridge to the other side of the river and turn left. Take the riverside walking path along the Thames until you reach the Globe. 

Stop Ten – The Globe Theatre 

Address: 21 New Globe Walk, London SE1 9DT

If you’ve made it this far, well done. You’re at the final spot on our literary London walking tour. This is, of course, the Globe Theatre – home to the plays of probably the greatest writer to employ the English language, and one who shaped it into the form we use today. 

The Globe you’re looking at isn’t actually the same place that Shakespeare put on his many plays, it’s a very faithful reconstruction that was actually completed in the 90s, and only 230m from the site of the original playhouse. 

You can even watch Shakespeare’s plays performed here and the present-day production team does a great job with them. 

A lot’s changed over the years. Females are allowed to act, you can’t throw rotten fruit at the performers. You can still get tickets for the standing section like the common folk did back in Bard’s day – a great cheap option for some very historic theatre. 

Read More: 14 Interesting Facts About the Globe Theatre We’ll Bet You Never Knew

Literary London Walking Tour Practical Tips and Map

• Make sure you’re wearing comfortable shoes, you’re going to be putting in the distance tracing London’s literary talent across most of central London. 
• Check the weather. We’re sure you know as well as anyone that the weather in England can be as fickle as any. It might be smart to pack a raincoat. 
• You may not want to hit all the museum spots on your tour. It might be smart to pick one or two you want to see and come back for the rest another day. 
• You’re in central London, so you’re not going to be short of places to grab refreshments. No need to worry there. 

Literary London Walking Tour: Map

More of Literary London

• Brilliant Books About London: Best Fiction and Non-Fiction Books About the Big Smoke
• 24 Second-Hand Bookshops in London That are a Book-Lover’s Dream
• Brilliant Independent Bookshops in London for Your Next Read
• 11 Contemporary London-Based Authors You Need to Know About
• Take a Jaunt Around London’s Blue Plaques

Attractions

• Writers Walk

About this Walk

Wander through the Bloomsbury area of London, made famous by Virginia Woolf and Charles Dickens, on this writers walk and see tourist attractions such as the British Museum, the Lamb pub, Great Ormond Street Hospital and other places associated with famous British writers.

Allow 2 hours.

Best time to do it is any time during daylight hours, preferably in dry weather as there isn’t a lot of shelter on this walk. Written in 2003 and updated in 2014.

General Route

Start at Tottenham Court Road station – Bedford Square – Senate House – Gordon Square – Tavistock Square – Russell Square – Brunswick Square – Great Ormond Street Hospital – Corams Fields – Lamb’s Conduit Street – Theobalds Road – Bloomsbury Square – Museum Street – British Museum – end at Tottenham Court Road station

click to view map in full screen

Senate House

Tavistock Square

British Museum

Coram’s Fields

Buy this walk in a handy booklet

The walk starts and ends at Tottenham Court Road station. From Tottenham Court Road station, take exit 2, cross the lights opposite the Dominion Theatre and turn left. Then turn right down Bayley Street, which brings you into Bedford Square

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and Bedford Square

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of “artistic rebels”, was founded in 1848 at no. 7 Gower street, just around the corner from Bedford Square. Its central figure was the painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti and its other members included 19th century English painters, poets, and critics who, as a group, reacted against Victorian materialism.

Essentially Christian in outlook, the brotherhood deplored the imitative historical and genre painting of their day. Together they sought to revitalise art through a simpler, more positive vision. In portrait painting, for example, the group rejected the somber colors and formal structure preferred by the Royal Academy.

Did You Know?

Bedford Square is the only complete Georgian square left in Bloomsbury. Circular in shape, it was built between 1775 – 1780 and though originally residential, it is now occupied by a number of publishing houses including Jonathan Cape, Hodder and Stoughton and Michael Joseph.

continue directly ahead (the road becomes Bedford Square), stopping at the corner of Gower Street and Montague Place

Charles Darwin, Millicent Garrett Fawcett and Gower Street

Charles Darwin lived in Gower St between 1838 and 1842, where he wrote part of The Origin of Species.

Another famous resident was Millicent Garrett Fawcett, who lived at number 2 Gower Street. This famous suffragette led the constitutional wing of the suffragist movement from the late 1800’s until victory in 1928 (when women were finally given the vote).

Gower Street is also home to University College London and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

turn left along Gower street then turn right at Keppel street

George Orwell and University of London Senate House

This building was the inspiration for George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth in his famous novel, 1984.

At the time he wrote the book (in 1949), the building was the tallest in London (it is 210 feet high). Built in 1932, during world war two the building was used as the Ministry of Information.

In John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids (1951), some survivors adopt the Senate House as their headquarters. The building houses the University of London library.

George Orwell, the man who penned the term “big brother is watching you” in his famous novel, 1984, considered himself to be a representative of the English moral conscience.

As such, he wrote the social classics The Road to Wigan Pier and Down and Out in Paris and London (dealing with poverty) – both of which caused much uproar among the publishing community, who called for them not to be printed.

turn left along Malet Street and walk to the end. At the end turn right (along Byng Place), then stop at the corner of Gordon Square.

Virginia Woolf, The Bloomsbury Group and Gordon Square

A famous member of the Bloomsbury Group, Virginia Woolf lived at 46 Gordon Square prior to her marriage to Leonard Woolf. Virginia was troubled by repeated mental problems and had to be put under guard several times.

She wrote about her struggle against insanity in “Moments of Being”. Having tried to commit suicide a number of times, she eventually succeeded by drowning herself in the river Ouse.

The Bloomsbury Group was a group of authors and painters who met in London during the 1920s to share ideas. Members included Virginia Woolf, her sister Vanessa Bell, Lytton Strachey, John Maynard Keynes, Clive Bell, Vita Sackville-West and Leonard Woolf (Virginia’s husband).

Dorothy Parker wrote that the Group “comprised pairs who had affairs in squares”. Their relationships were complicated, promiscuous, and frequently homosexual or bisexual.

They wrote about themselves and their friends at length, first in their diaries and correspondence, and later in their memoirs.

continue ahead to Tavistock Square, then turn left into it.

Mahatma Gandhi and Tavistock Square

In the middle of the square (which is actually a Peace Garden) stands a statue of Mahatma Gandhi.

Born in 1869, Gandhi was a strong peace campaigner and advocate of non-violent methods to resolve conflict. He spent time in London in the 1890’s.

Albert Einstein said of Gandhi, “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth”.

Tavistock Square, including the old Tavistock House, started to be built in 1803, but only the west side of the original square remains.

Famous residents of the square have included Charles Dickens and Virginia Woolf, who with her husband started the Hogarth Press here.

walk to the statue in the centre of the square, then turn right and continue until you reach the main road (Upper Woburn Place). Turn left,cross the road and turn right, down Woburn Walk.

WB Yeats and the Golden Dawn

William Butler (WB) Yeats was a famous Irish poet born in Dublin in 1865, who lived in Woburn Walk between 1895 and 1919.

A member of the Golden Dawn, Yeats also became involved with the Celtic Revival, a movement against the cultural influences of English rule in Ireland during the Victorian period, which sought to promote the spirit of Ireland’s native heritage. His writing drew extensively from sources in Irish mythology and folklore.

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a magical order that was founded in 1888 in London by Dr. William Wynn Wescott and S.L. MacGregor Mathers. The core of the Golden Dawn was based on an old manuscript that was discovered by Dr. Wescott in the British Museum.

Golden Dawn is based on the synthesis of three mystical religions: The Egyptian Religion, Judaic Mysticism in the form of Kabalah, and Christian Mysticism in the form of Rosecrucianism. When all three of these systems are taken together they tell a story of human evolution that cannot be conveyed by any other means.

return to Upper Woburn Place, turn left and continue along the road, which becomes Tavistock Square again. Stop in front of BMA House.

Charles Dickens

Dickens was born in 1812 and his family moved to London in 1824.

He lived in many places around Bloomsbury (and also in other parts of London), including in part of the old Tavistock House, between 1851 and 1860. It was here that he wrote Bleak House, Little Dorritt, Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities and part of Great Expectations.

His childhood experiences of poverty and feelings of abandonment heavily influenced his later views on social reform and the world he wrote about in his novels.

The British Medical Association was founded in 1832. BMA House in Tavistock Square was initially built for the Theosophical Society but they could not afford to complete it, so it was sold to the BMA. It opened in 1925.

continue along Tavistock Square, which becomes Woburn Place, until you reach the corner with Russell Square.

Oscar Wilde and Russell Square

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He moved to London in 1878 determined to achieve stardom.

He had been taught by his mother to view life as a performance, and he made a spectacle of everything, sometimes hailing a cab just to cross the street. His wardrobe was designed not by tailors, but by theatre costumiers who Wilde felt would more easily understand the dramatic effects he was trying to achieve.

Wilde spent his last evening in London at 31 Russell Square, before leaving England for good.

Russell Square, established in the eighteenth century, also has links with other writers. T S Eliot worked there when he was an editor at Faber & Faber publishers.

continue ahead, passing Guilford Street on the left and Russell Square on the right, until you reach a laneway on the left, called Cosmo Place. Turn down Cosmo Place, through Queen Square, to Great Ormond Street. Walk along Great Ormond Street, stopping in front of the children’s hospital on the left.

J M Barrie and Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital

Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) was the first children’s hospital in the English speaking world, being founded in 1852. Charles Dickens wrote about the hospital and gave fundraising readings for it.

J M Barrie left GOSH the copyright of Peter Pan in 1937, and by a special amendment to the Copyright Act, the hospital continues to receive royalties indefinitely.

In the 1850’s, out of 50,000 people who died annually, 21,000 were children. However, hospital records of the time showed that of the 2,300 patients in London hospitals, only 26 were children.

Children were effectively excluded from London hospitals until around the time GOSH opened, when it admitted children between the ages of 2 and 12.

continue along Great Ormond Street to the end (the junction with Lamb’s Conduit Street.) Turn left and go to the end of Lamb’s Conduit Street. Directly in front of you, across the road, is Corams Fields.

The Foundling Hospital and Corams Fields

Corams Fields is on the site of the old Foundling Hospital, founded in 1742, which was a place where unwanted children such as street children and orphans could be left.

Though the hospital no longer exists, there is a playground in the fields to which unaccompanied adults may be refused permission to enter. Dickens writes about Corams Fields in Little Dorritt.

Boys were always separated from girls in the Foundling hospital, except on Christmas Day. There were even separate mortuaries.

The hospital soon became very popular and so a ballot had to be operated to select the children that could be treated. A black ball meant no treatment, a white ball meant treatment subject to a medical examination.

return along Lambs Conduit Street and stop outside a pub on the left called The Lamb

The Lamb Pub

Built in the 18th century, the pub was named after the man who constructed the conduit underneath the road it is on. The conduit was used to carry water.

The Victorian interior of the pub was restored in 1961 and contains much original woodwork and glass. It was once the meeting place of the Bloomsbury Group.

Up until 1855, London’s sewers were used for draining surface water only, discharging it directly into the Thames – the same source used by water companies for drinking water. Household waste went into cesspits which leaked into adjacent wells, eventually also ending up in the Thames.

This contributed to successive cholera outbreaks across London, culminating in the Great Stink of 1858, when the stench from the Thames became so overpowering that Parliament decided to expand the system and discharge the sewerage farther downstream.

continue along Lamb’s Conduit Street to the junction with Theobalds Road. Turn right and go along Theobalds Road, crossing the junction with Southampton Row, then turn right into Bloomsbury Square.

Gertrude Stein and Bloomsbury Square

Bloomsbury Square was one of the earliest London squares, and was developed in the seventeenth century.

Gertrude Stein stayed at No. 20 with her brother, Leo, during the winter of 1902.

The writer Isaac D’Israeli lived at No. 6 from 1817 to 1829 and his son, the future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli lived with him for a short time.

Much of the area of Bloomsbury was developed in the seventeenth century by the Dukes of Bedford. Other squares on the Bedford Estate include Bedford Square, Gordon Square, Russell Square, Tavistock Square and Woburn Square.

walk across or around the square to the corner diagonally opposite. Turn left at the junction with Great Russell Street, passing the British Museum. Turn left again down Museum Street and stop.

Aleister Crowley, and the  British Museum

41 Museum Street was the home of Mandrake Press, which published many of Aleister Crowley’s books in the 1920’s.

Poet, author, magician, yogi, philosopher and drug user, Crowley’s output was prolific. Born in 1875, to many he represented Western magic. His legacy still attracts many new converts, and he commands considerable loyalty even from beyond the grave.

At 49 Museum Street is Atlantis Bookshop, one of London’s oldest and best esoteric bookshops and a popular haunt of Crowley’s.

The British Museum was founded in 1753, though the current building dates from the 1820’s. It was originally open for only 3 hours a day and visitors had to apply in writing for tickets. It was not until 1879 that general access was permitted.

In the courtyard stands the round Reading Room, which was once open only to those with reader’s tickets, but is now open to everyone. The dome of the Reading Room is the same size as that of St Peter’s in Rome. Famous visitors to the Reading Room have included Lenin and Marx.

continue to the end of Museum street, then turn left (New Oxford street), stopping outside the church on the left.

Emily Wilding Davison and St George Bloomsbury Church

In 1913, the funeral of Emily Wilding Davison, a suffragette, was held in this church.

Emily was killed when she threw herself in front of the king’s horse at Epsom racecourse during the Derby to protest the right for women to vote.

Her funeral was attended by thousands of women, all wearing black and purple, green and white (the colours of the suffragette movement).

The suffragettes were quite violent in their protests.

Among their more violent demonstrations, they burned down churches (as the Church of England was against the vote for women), vandalised Oxford Street and chained themselves to Buckingham Palace (as the Royal Family were also seen to be against their cause).

They also hired out boats, sailed up the Thames and shouted abuse through loud hailers at Parliament as it sat.

you have now completed this walk. Turn around and walk along New Oxford Street, following the signs to Tottenham Court Road station

Privacy Overview

Quirky Bloomsbury

Most Bloomsbury walking tours focus on the literary links, intellectual institutions and famous residents. On this fun walking tour we’re on the hunt for the surprising, beautiful and quirky history that’s hiding in plain sight.

Get off the beaten track in one of London’s most beautiful and inspiring neighbourhoods and encounter abandoned railways, London’s narrowest alley and epic street art.

Wander the quiet, atmospheric streets of Bloomsbury and take in unusual sculptures, sneaky plaques and unexpected details that help you unravel the area’s unique charm.

The meeting point is outside Holborn Station, the corner of High Holborn and Southampton Row. The address is 120 High Holborn, London WC1V 6RD and its the corner diagonally opposite Sainsbury’s

The walk lasts around 90 minutes and ends near Russell Square Tube Station.

Book the Bloomsbury Walking Tour

All Look Up London tours focus on the hidden stories, trying to spot the details above your eye line that are often missed by passersby. There’s a lot of information in an architectural detail, a crest or a sculpture that tells you about the history of the area! See all the walks here .

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• Literary London Bloomsbury Walking Tour

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• Tour duration: 2h
• Languages: English
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• Suitable for families, young and seniors
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British Museum and Bloomsbury Walking Tour

Explore the world's greatest museum and take a trip through world civilization on our private tour of the British Museum

Starts from 465 €

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Tour Overview

Discover the jaw-dropping collections of the world’s greatest museum in the company of an expert guide on our visit to the British Museum and Bloomsbury. From ancient Greek marvels like the Parthenon marbles and the Nereid Monument to amazingly preserved Egyptian mummies, Aztec icons and masterpieces of European art like the Lewis chessmen, the British Museum offers a whirlwind journey through world civilization like nowhere else. You could easily spend days lost in the vast galleries, so let us guide you through the maze on this itinerary carefully curated to ensure you get the most out of your time in the Museum. Afterwards we’ll be taking a stroll through leafy Bloomsbury, whose fabulously manicured streets and squares form the heart of literary London - one-time home of Charles Dickens, Virginia Wolfe and others. Follow in their footsteps to discover why this is one of London’s must-see neighbourhoods!

• Expert guide
• Curated British Museum visit
• Bloomsbury stroll

• The Parthenon Marbles
• Egyptian Mummies
• The Rosetta Stone

• The Lewis Chessmen
• The Nereid Monument
• Mexican Serpent Mosaic

Tour Description

Visit the british museum in the company of an expert.

With its vast collections of art and artefacts from all around the world extending over 70 separate galleries and comprising over 71,000 objects, the British Museum is simultaneously an inspiring and intimidating place to visit. The world’s first public national museum, it’s easy to lose your way in the maze of rooms and displays, and that’s why we believe a guided tour is the best way to appreciate the marvels of the museum. On our tour of the British Museum you’ll be able to trust our expert guide to navigate a fascinating course through the collections, making sure that you see all the highlights on a single visit. And of course, we’ll be happy to customise the itinerary to suit you, so if there’s a specific artefact that you’d like to see or civilization that you want to learn more about, just ask your guide!

Gaze on the Parthenon Marbles and other masterpieces of Greek culture

Of all the highlights we’ll see on our British Museum tour, the magisterial Parthenon marbles are unrivalled for their impact on Western canons of art. Built in the 5th century BC and dedicated to the goddess Athena, the vast Parthenon has looked down on the city of Athens for the last 2,500 years from its lofty perch on the city’s Acropolis. The once gleaming-white marble temple was originally magnificently decorated by sculptures depicting religious and mythological scenes. Many of them were carried off by British adventurer Lord Elgin in the opening years of the 19th century, and though their continued presence in the British Museum is controversial, a visit to the Parthenon marbles is a must when in London. 

On our tour of the British Museum your guide will explain the significance of these wonderful sculptures, whose authentic expressiveness and realism make them highpoints of classical art. From centaurs and humans doing battle to goddesses tripping through the aether wearing robes fluttering in an invisible breeze, perhaps no other artworks in the world offer such a rich insight into the extraordinary culture of ancient Greece.

Other Greek masterpieces we’ll encounter on our itinerary include the Nereid monument, an enormous tomb in the form of a Greek temple from Turkey lavishly decorated with sculptures and reconstructed in all its former glory in the British Museum galleries. We’ll come face to face too with statues from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, as well as the wonderful Crouching Aphrodite and a startlingly lifelike bronze head of the emperor Augustus.

Meet Egyptian Mummies, powerful Pharaohs and decipher the Rosetta Stone

The most popular galleries in the British Museum (especially for younger visitors!) are those housing artefacts from Ancient Egypt. Every facet of life in the great ancient empire on the Nile is represented here, and on our tour we’ll be bringing the world of the Pharaohs vividly back to life. The British Museum’s collection of Egyptian mummies and elaborately decorated coffins has to be seen to be believed; gaze on the stunning coffin of Hornedjitef and countless other objects related to the complex death-rituals of the ancient Egyptians.

Egyptians were extremely preoccupied with the afterlife, and ensuring that the defunct made their way safely to the world of the immortals. With our guide you’ll learn all about the rites and rituals that the ancient high priests thought made this journey possible, including the embalming and mummification of corpses - internal organs were removed and placed in jars, while the body was packed with salt and tightly wrapped in bandages to avert its decay. Thanks to these practices the likenesses of these ancient Egyptians (and in some cases even their beloved pet cats) who lived thousands of years ago still appear to us as startlingly alive. 

There’s more to the Egyptian galleries than mummies, however. On our British Museum tour we’ll encounter massive statues of all-powerful pharaohs like Ramesses II and Amenhotep III, as well as one of the most mysterious cultural artefacts in the world: the Rosetta Stone. This priceless slab of granodiorite is inscribed with a decree promulgated by King Ptolemy V in 3 different languages - Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic Egyptian and Greek. As we examine this extraordinary object on our tour, we’ll learn all about how its discovery led scholars to finally successfully decipher the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphics in the 19th century. 

Discover Mexican Serpents, Saxon Knights and Medieval Chessmen

Many of the less visited galleries in the British Museum are also home to extraordinary objects from around the world that offer windows into distant cultures. With our guide you’ll be heading off the beaten track to visit these collections: admire amazing central American artefacts like a double-headed serpent mosaic from Mexico, a limestone relief portraying a blood-letting ritual from 8th-century Mayan culture and magnificent representations of Aztec gods. 

Closer to home, on our tour you’ll get the chance to rummage through the Sutton Hoo hoard, the greatest collection of Anglo-Saxon treasures in the world including a dark-age helmet and a dichroic glass cup that changes colour as light passes through it - the only such example in existence. The stunning Lewis Chessmen, meanwhile, comprise a jaw-dropping medieval chess set intricately carved from whales’ teeth and walrus ivory that takes us back in time to a world of shield-bearing knights, mitred bishops, mighty kings and charming queens. 

Take a stroll through literary London in Bloomsbury

After our visit to the British museum, to conclude our itinerary we’ll embark on a walking tour of Bloomsbury. This neighbourhood is one of the most picturesque in London, a series of perfectly manicured squares surrounded by wrought-iron railings and cobbled tree-lined streets. For centuries this has been the literary and intellectual heart of the city, home to universities, museums and artistic institutions, and many great writers have chosen to call Bloomsbury home over the years. Follow in the footsteps of luminaries like Virginia Wolfe, feminist author and key member of the Bloomsbury Group, Charles Dickens, W.B. Yeats, E.M. Forster and many more as we admire the stunning Regency-era architecture and Georgian buildings characteristic of the area.  

Optional: Visit the Sir John Soane Museum or the Charles Dickens Museum

If you’d like to extend your tour through Bloomsbury, we can also include a visit to either the incredible John Soane museum, a personal collection of artefacts in the eccentric house of  one of England’s greatest architects, or the nearby Charles Dickens museum - the house in which the great 19th-century author wrote Oliver Twist and now a living testament to Dickensian London. Let us know whether you would like to include a visit to one of these museums on your tour when making your booking!

Tour Reviews

5.0 (1 reviews)

Both tours with Clarissa Skinner to the Tower of London and British Museum went off without a hitch. Clarissa was fabulous and we enjoyed the experience. We will be back in Rome next year and will contact you about that visit as well. Thanks

James - Oct 26, 2022

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