View of Bloomsbury Square, with Coaching. Large reproduction
$50.00
Large print of Bloomsbury Square from an engraving 'inscribed to the Duke of Bedford, Marquis of Tavistock', by R. Pollard and F. Jukes, from the drawing by E. Dayes.
Fifteen minutes from the city, a Hackney coach is seen waiting for hire while water is brought for the horses, a farm hand with an empty cart returns to the country, a milkmaid guides her cows past elegant ladies promenading in extravagant bonnets, a vendor at the right shouts about either gingerbread or fruit in his basket, a gallant young man invites his charming companion to try them, and a stooped blackened chimney-sweep passes with his brush.
Bloomsbury was a remote but fashionable rural district of London where gentlemen might occasionally go at dawn to settle affairs of honour with swords or pistols. The tranquility of the region was more or less dictated by Francis Russell, Duke of Bedford and Marquis of Tavistock, who owned the adjoining land, and occupied Bedford House, the large 17th century mansion designed by Inigo Jones, at the north end of the Square. Bedford House was built on the site of Southampton House, the original manor house of Bloomsbury. Built in the reign of Henry VIII, Southampton House was demolished in 1800, and Bedford Place thoroughfare was constructed through its grounds to Russel Square. From one of the wonders of England, the idyllic atmosphere of fashionable Bloomsbury Square became merely respectable.
Vintage coaching print with slight age-discolouration/foxing. Image size: 295 x 455mm (11 5/8 x 17 7/8 inches). Page: 380 x 510mm (13 1/2 x 20 inches).
