#bloomsbury

#bloomsbury

Set beyond a fairly unassuming entrance - save for a red carpet lining the stone steps - Bertrand's Townhouse is a newly opened hotel (just this month, in fact) in London' s Bloomsbury neighborhood. Tucked down a street just off from the pretty Bloomsbury Square, the hotel is named for Bertrand Russell, the renowned British philosopher and writer. He was part of the Bloomsbury Set (sort of - he was considered to be more on the periphery), a network of British writers, artists, and intellectuals.

House hunters have been shocked by a 1,746-a-month London flat where the tenant can cook oven meals from bed. The 235sq ft flat is listed on Rightmove as a 'bright, spacious and newly decorated studio' in Russell Court on Woburn Place in central London in the fashionable Bloomsbury district. The mansion block listing boasts an open-plan living and dining area with a pull-down double bed, a bathroom and access to a 24-hour concierge. The listing also states the rent includes heating and hot water and that the property is near an 'array' of shops and restaurants.

"So much has been written about Bloomsbury art," wrote the British historian Fiona MacCarthy in 1999, "it is easy to forget how little we have seen of it." Nearly three decades on, this remains true for the person long thought to be the most important in the group. The forthcoming solo presentation of paintings by Roger Fry (1866-1934) at Charleston in Firle, East Sussex, aims to rectify this oversight.

You'd be hard-pushed to name a more iconic London restaurant than St John. Since opening in 1994 i n a former bacon smokehouse by Smithfield meat market, Fergus Henderson's legendary spot has reimagined British food with his pioneering nose-to-tail dining, earning a long-held Michelin star. Even the late, great Anthony Bourdain called St John the 'restaurant of my dreams'. High praise indeed.