Regent Square: Bloomsbury’s Hidden Gem of History & Horrors
Regent Square, a relatively unknown gem in north-east Bloomsbury near King’s Cross, boasts a history as rich as it is macabre. Laid out in the late 1820s, it was named after the Prince Regent and was among the last Bloomsbury squares to be developed. Unlike its more affluent counterparts, Regent Square was classified as “Fairly comfortable or Middle Class” with surrounding pockets of poverty. Its early landscape featured two prominent churches, St Peter’s and the Caledonian Kirk, both of which eventually met untimely ends.
The square’s past is stained with tragedy. In 1893, a double murder-suicide occurred when Leo Percy killed his ex-girlfriend and her new partner before taking his own life. More famously, in 1917, the “Fiendish Crime in London” saw Louis Voisin murder Emelienne Gerard, dismembering her body and dumping parts in the square, leading to his execution. A greater tragedy struck on February 9, 1945, when a V-2 rocket hit a church hall, killing 34 people and injuring 121, one of London’s deadliest V-2 attacks. This strike destroyed the Caledonian Kirk and severely damaged St Peter’s.
Despite its bleak history, Regent Square is peppered with fascinating oddities. A lonesome, “impotent” bollard on the lawn is part of a 1999 art installation by Judith Dean, one of six “pointless bollards” in the area. Exotic sculptural birds by Johanna van Benthem hang in the central plane tree, now competing with real parakeets. A faded “ghost sign” for Bates & Co. chemist advertises “Cures wounds & sores.” The south-eastern corner houses a historic burial ground, now a peaceful public garden, where one can find the grave of Oliver Cromwell’s granddaughter or the statue of Euterpe, muse of music, adorned with lights. Nearby, a plaque on Wakefield Street commemorates Stella and Fanny, cross-dressers whose 1870 arrest and acquittal marked a landmark in British LGBT history. Regent Square, with its blend of sorrow and surprising curiosities, truly deserves wider recognition.
(Source: https://londonist.com/london/history/the-forgotten-square-of-bloomsbury)
