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From Times Online

October 2, 2006

Stroll in London's university quarter

Sara McConnell's October walk ambles through Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury, at the start of a new academic year

The new academic year starts at the beginning of October, with thousands of new students arriving in London to start their courses. This month's walk explores Bloomsbury, London's university quarter, taking in the British Museum and Reading Room, before heading north to Primrose Hill and Regent's Park and coming back to central London through the bars and cafes of Fitzrovia, traditional haunt of writers and artists.

Type of walk: circular

Time taken: 2.5 hours approx

Length of walk: 6.5 miles

Highlights

British Museum
University College London quadrangle
Park Village East
Primrose Hill
Regent's Park
Charlotte Street and Fitzrovia

Start: Tottenham Court Road tube (central and northern).

Come out of Tottenham Court Road tube station into Tottenham Court Road on the same side of the road as the Dominion Theatre. Walk up Tottenham Court Road and take the first turning on your right into Great Russell Street. This leads to the heart of Bloomsbury, home to the British Museum and some of London University's best known colleges. Great Russell Street is lined with publishing houses, second-hand book shops and antique shops so build in some time for a browse. Museum Street, leading off Great Russell Street to the right, is partly pedestrianised and lined with cafes and small restaurants good for a strengthening pre-walk coffee or snack.

Continue up Great Russell Street to the gates of the British Museum and go through the main doors to the Great Court. This dramatic modern centrepiece to the museum opened in 2000, with a curve of cool white stone encircling the famous round Reading Room and the court covered with a glass ceiling. The Reading Room is no longer used for its original purpose (the British Library is now on Euston Road) but you can admire the domed glass ceiling, and the shelves are still lined with books, many of them first editions by writers who used to work in the library. Well-known members include Leonard and Virginia Woolf and Lytton Strachey, part of the artistic and literary coterie known as the Bloomsbury Group.

Follow the curve of the reading room round to the shop and go through the doors opposite to the Africa gallery. The way out is through this gallery and down the stairs to Montague Place. Turn left and take the first right into Malet Street.

This and parallel streets are dominated by the buildings of London University, which owns many of the elegant Georgian terraces overlooking the private garden on the left, as well as more modern college blocks. On your right as you walk up the street is Senate House, the main university library, in a forbidding Stalinist building, with slits of windows in a blank white façade. Birkbeck College is next to Senate House, with the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and the Institute of Education tucked behind.

At the junction with Torrington Place turn left and right into Gower Street. This once-elegant street lined with Georgian houses suffers from being part of a busy one-way system but bear with it to reach the main quadrangle of University College London (UCL), whose porticoed main building and lawns are a quiet oasis, except in Freshers' Week when they are seething with students.

The UCL quad is enclosed, with no cut-throughs, so go back out into Gower Street and take the first right turning into Gower Place. When you emerge into Gordon Street, the walk route turns left but Gordon Square, to the right, is worth a quick diversion. Number 46 in this square of tall Georgian houses built by Thomas Cubitt was home to Virginia Woolf and was the focal point for the artists and writers of the Bloomsbury Group.

Back on the route, cross Euston Road and continue up Melton Street with Euston Station on your right. Just past a long-abandoned exit from Euston tube station (the building is still faced with London Underground's distinctive liver-coloured tiles), turn right into Drummond Street.

This shabby street of flat-fronted Victorian terraces is now lined with Indian sweet-shops, groceries and thriving India restaurants but in the 1960s this and neighbouring streets were set to be demolished. The area was saved by residents, part of a growing local resistance across London to planners' attempts to raze great tracts of historic neighbourhoods and replace them with roads and tower blocks.

Cross Hampstead Road and continue along Drummond Street, then take the first right up Stanhope Street, whose uninspiring council blocks are ironically named after Lake District beauty spots. Stanhope Street turns into Park Village East, whose lovely white painted "cottages" (really large semi-detached houses) are a sharp contrast to the council blocks. Park Village East was built by architect John Nash as part of an ambitious development of villas and terraces around Regent's Park, only some of which were ever built. Part of Park Village East was destroyed when the railway line to Euston was laid.

Turn right along Mornington Street across the railway line and take the second left into Albert Street, an elegant street of carefully preserved Georgian terraces with tall windows and wrought iron balconies. At the junction with Parkway turn left. Parkway has a choice of pubs, cafes and restaurants including Pizza Express and Fresh and Wild. At the top of Parkway, cross Delancy Street then Parkway at a series of pedestrian lights to reach Gloucester Avenue, with North Bridge House School on the corner. When Gloucester Avenue forks, continue on the left fork which becomes Regent's Park Road, with Primrose Hill opening out on the left.

Primrose Hill is now one of London's most sought-after and expensive areas, popular with actors, writers and other creative types. Its large Victorian terraces are painted blue, pink and yellow, with ebullient plasterwork and arched windows. To get a taste of the area's architecture, turn right into Princess Road immediately after crossing the Regent's Canal, left into Chalcot Road continue on to Chalcot Square, whose houses overlook a small grassy park and playground. When you have admired the dark blue, purple, pink and green houses, head left away from the square and down Chalcot Crescent, back to Regent's Park Road, then turn right.

If you want to browse round the individually-owned book and clothes shops and have a meal or a drink, Primrose Hill has a good choice of eclectic restaurants including the reasonably priced Trojka, a Russian café and restaurant a short walk down Regent's Park Road on the left.

The walk continues through the gate onto Primrose Hill just past the two red telephone boxes at the corner of Primrose Hill Road. Take the right hand path up the short hill for spectacular views across London, or alternatively, continue straight along the level path, keeping left where it forks. Leave Primrose Hill at a gate by a lodge, cross the road and take the path just to the right signposted London Zoo. This takes you across a footbridge over the Regent's Canal, also a creation of John Nash, and into Regent's Park.

Regent's Park was the centrepiece of Nash's masterplan for this part of London and it is still encircled by grand terraces, many of which are now offices. The park itself is a sweeping stretch of green space and home to London Zoo. Schools and clubs use the park for sports, and office workers gather here for a peaceful lunch.

Take the path straight ahead past the new organic café perched rather incongruously on a mound of grass and continue to the footbridge over the ornamental lake. Cross the lake and follow the path to the Inner Circle. Follow the road round to the right past the entrance to the Open Air theatre and look for a path to the left just past the Garden Café. This takes you to Queen Mary's Gardens, a blaze of colour in summer when the roses are out. Follow the path as it curves round to the right and look for a pair of black and gold wrought-iron gates to your right at the end of a path. Confusingly, there are two sets of identical gates. You should have one set behind you as you turn right towards the other.

The gates lead out to Chester Road. Continue ahead to a zebra crossing and a broad pedestrian path, Broad Walk, with a sign to Regent's Park and Great Portland Street stations. Turn right onto the path, left at the end into Outer Circle and right into Park Square East to cross Marylebone Road and reach Great Portland Street tube station to the left.

You can end the walk here. Alternatively, to complete the circle back to Tottenham Court Road, turn right down Cleveland Street, lined with cafes, bars and restaurants and an oasis of calm after busy Marylebone Road. Turn left into Howland Street, then right into Charlotte Street. This is Fitzrovia, home to generations of artists and writers who used the Fitzroy Tavern in Charlotte Street as their base. More recently, television and film companies compete with publishers and literary agents for pavement tables at Charlotte Street's dizzying choice of restaurants.

To return to Tottenham Court Road tube station, turn left into Goodge Street and right into Tottenham Court Road.