The SL Guide To Bloomsbury
WHERE TO EAT & DRINK…
One of our top spots in town, Noble Rot has everything you’d want from a restaurant: a fantastic, seasonal menu, friendly, on-the-mark service and a buzzy atmosphere. Launched by the team behind the indie wine mag of the same name, you’d expect this place to get it right. Its wine list is extensive and wide-ranging (in terms of location and price) – the choice is so expansive that it makes sense to sample a number of glasses, rather than opt for a bottle. Come autumn, the cosy bar is a spot worth returning to again and again, while the plates of cheese and charcuterie are a decent year-round option.
As of this summer, Bloomsbury is home to a new outpost of Fitzrovia's much-loved Riding House Café. Like the original, this is a lively modern brasserie with the look and feel of a members’ club. The restaurant is housed in the listed, brutalist Brunswick Centre (one of the capital’s best monuments to modernism – if it’s raining then check out what’s on at the Curzon Cinema) and serves a selection of small plates including grilled flatbread with smoked cod roe, tomato and wasabi tobiko; and earl grey cured trout with citrus kosho and sour cream. We’ve got our eye on the pudding list, which features hot doughnuts with milk jam; and rhubarb and vanilla cheesecake.
It’s not the only big-name restaurant to make the move. After ten years on Warren Street, excellent Middle Eastern restaurant Honey & Co. has relocated to Lamb’s Conduit Street. From 5pm the team serves up all the classics – falafel, hummus, aubergine shawarma, chicken shish and the kitchen’s next-level cheesecake.
Another newcomer that’s making waves is Café Deco. Unfussy yet chic, this restaurant, bar and wine shop is all about low-key dining, along the lines of fellow current hotspot Café Cecilia. Headed up by the ultra-cool Anna Tobias and the same team as 40 Maltby Street, the café is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Saturday and serves up dishes including confit new season garlic and goat’s curd on toast; and roast tomato and saffron quiche with salad.
Over at the grand-looking Kimpton Fitzroy (more on that later), there’s a selection of places to eat and drink. Michelin-starred brothers Chris and Jeff Galvin opened Galvin Bar & Grill at the end of last year. Housed in an impressive dining room – which was once home to celeb hotspot Neptune – diners can head straight into dinner or stop off for an aperitif in Fitz’s, the hotel’s glamorous cocktail bar (the space is awash with dark-wood panelling, opulent fabrics and fringed velvet furnishings and is well worth a standalone visit). Dishes include glazed lobster omelette; and grain-fed chicken cooked with smoked garlic, girolles and hasselback potatoes. Puddings come in the shape of the Galvin’s well-loved apple tarte tatin with clotted cream ice-cream, along with a bread-and-butter pudding made to the late Gary Rhodes’ recipe.
If you’re looking for somewhere to enjoy al fresco drink in the sun, Dalloway Terrace is the place. Thanks to its indoor/outdoor concept with a retractable roof and walls, guests can enjoy the heated terrace year-round. The restaurant is also newly decorated each season and right now, guests can enjoy a menu featuring cocktails from The Botanist Gin. Directly opposite is The Coral Room. Painted in striking floor-to-ceiling glossy coral, it’s a good option for afternoon tea or a martini or two before heading out for dinner.
Lamb’s Conduit Street is one of London’s most interesting streets. As well as The Lamb pub, you’ll find La Fromagerie. Beginning life as a cheese stall run by owner Patricia, today it comprises three shops, a wholesale business and an award-winning book. Our favourite of the trio – and the one best for a date night – is located here. Dark and atmospheric, guests can choose from an array of cheeseboards, spanning French, Italian and British cheese. We’d opt for a slab of the truffled brie alongside a bottle of red.
Ask a local for their favourite spot in the area, and they’ll probably say no-frills, family friendly trattoria Ciao Bella. Also on Lamb’s Conduit Street, the restaurant opened in 1983. Serving classic Italian dishes ever since, this is one of London’s best spots for the full chequered-tablecloth-and-limoncello-shots-at-the-end-of-the-night experience. For unmissable pizzas, try Pizza Sophia, a cosy Italian restaurant offering a selection of creative toppings alongside salads and small plates: the Carbonara pizza with fior di latte, egg, pancetta, parmesan and black pepper comes highly recommended, as does the Palermo with fior di latte, tomato sauce, goat’s cheese, caramelised onion and extra virgin olive oil. For something a little more high end, book a table at Luce E Limoni. Styled with glass lamps and vintage-style chairs, this elegant space serves modern Sicilian dishes inspired by owner Fabrizio Zafarana’s homeland.
Down the road you’ll find WC Bloomsbury, a bar located in a Grade II-listed Victorian loo. The site is listed on Historic England’s at-risk register and has been diligently restored. Original wooden stalls have been transformed into booths, some authentic porcelain pieces have been upholstered for additional seating and its original tiles and granite and marble floors have been preserved. If you’ve been to its Clapham site, you’ll know to expect great bottles of wine, cocktails and bar snacks.
If authentic Asian food’s your thing, there are two particularly good options here. Master Wei is run by Guirong Wei, co-owner of Islington hotspot Xi’an Impression. Serving Shaanxi dishes, her signature biangbiang noodles are available in beef and veggie varieties and are made fresh every day. Abeno, meanwhile, is a family run Japanese restaurant specialising in savoury pancakes. The interactive restaurant is all about Kansai-style okonomi-yaki, where guests cook their own dishes on hotplates at the table.
WHERE TO SHOP...
Everyone knows Bloomsbury is London’s literary hub. Not only is it home to the world-renowned publishing house Bloomsbury, it’s also the place that gave the Bloomsbury Set – the bohemian group of British artists and writers, which included author Virginia Woolf and painter Vanessa Bell – their name. The best place to honour that tradition these days is Skoobs Books. Offering one of London’s broadest selections of second-hand books, the shop is piled high from floor to ceiling – and on trestle tables outside the shopfront – so it’s one of those spaces you could easily spend hours in. In fact, the shop is so well stocked, its books are often used for film and set dressing and it it's impossible to leave empty handed.
Back on Lamb’s Conduit Street, you’ll find it’s home to some of the best UK-based menswear labels around: think Folk, Universal Works, Oliver Spencer and Grenson, plus lifestyle brands Aesop and Volte Face, the latter of which is a design-led giftshop round the corner on Great Ormond Street selling stationery, books, homeware and jewellery.
If wine’s your thing, or you’re in search of a top-tier present, there are a handful of excellent wine shops in the area too. Open since the 80s, Albion Wine Shippers is a traditional wine shop full of the rustic charm you’d expect – picture wooden wine boxes, dusty old bottles and a friendly team of experts. If you’re after something a little cooler, Shrine to the Vine is a wine shop and delivery service owned by Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew, the duo behind Noble Rot and Keeling Andrew & Co. Shrine to the Vine is a few metres along from Noble Rot and sells everything from under-the-radar natural cuvées to mature classics from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Barolo and beyond.
WHERE TO STAY…
Occupying a prime piece of property on the edge of Russell Square, the Kimpton Fitzroy is right in the centre of Bloomsbury, just steps away from the tube. Many of the hotel’s 334 bedrooms have views over the square, offering guests a real sense of place from the moment they wake up. The hotel is a central spot for tourists, but it’s secluded enough for seasoned Londoners who fancy a weekend escape. From the carefully restored terracotta exterior to the stained glass and marble entranceway and staircase, the hotel offers historical nods to extravagance everywhere you turn.
The Bloomsbury is a stylish hotel in a historic and beautifully restored Lutyens 1930s neo-Georgian building, which houses the previously mentioned Coral Room and Dalloway Terrace. The Bloomsbury Club Bar, where cocktails celebrate the colourful lives of the Bloomsbury Set, is also worth a visit and its collection of elegant guestrooms and suites make the most of the building’s period architectural details.
The Academy is one to book for a luxe stay. Made up of five Georgian townhouses, it’s the result of a recent multi-million-pound refurbishment. The 50 bedrooms and suites mix traditional features with modern touches to create what the team calls a “contemporary take on townhouse living”.
WHERE TO GET A CULTURE HIT…
The British Museum is a public institution dedicated to human history, art and culture. Its permanent collection totals some 8m works and is among the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Among its most famous artefacts are the controversial Elgin’s Marbles, its selection of ancient Egyptian mummies and original sketches by Leonardo da Vinci. The British Museum is free to enter (although certain exhibitions do have an entrance fee), making it a great choice for family days out.
Not far away you’ll find The Postal Museum, one of London’s hidden gems. It’s worth it just to take a ride on the Mail Rail, a train that runs through the now-deserted postal railway tunnels beneath London’s streets – tunnels so secret they were used to hide the Rosetta Stone during WWI.
Other museums in and around the Bloomsbury area include The Foundling Museum, Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, plus University College London’s Grant Museum of Zoology. A centre for animal research since 1828, this unrivalled collection is a valuable resource to scientists working to protect the natural world. Anyone who loves the Natural History Museum will love this smaller collection of animal artefacts – just don’t be put off by the jars of preserved critters…
Finally, anyone on the hunt for a pre-museum caffeine fix is in luck: there are several great coffee shops in Bloomsbury. Knockbox Coffee on Lamb’s Conduit Street is a must-visit, while Store Street Espresso is just round the corner from the British Museum. Wondering what do between a gallery visit and excellent meal out? On sunny days, take a stroll through Brunswick Square Gardens, Russell Square or St George’s Gardens. And for those with children to entertain, Coram’s Fields has one of the best playgrounds in central London.
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