Bloomsbury has literary pedigree, elegant squares and falling property sales

New to London last month, Kimberley moved into a one-bedroom flat in a modernised Georgian building in Bloomsbury, an area of tree-lined squares dominated by colleges and institutions such as the British Museum. She’d just completed an MBA at INSEAD in France to work for a management consultancy on the Strand.

“I was very attracted by its intellectual history — its associations with Virginia Woolf and Charles Dickens and other former residents,” says the Zimbabwe-born 28-year-old. “But it’s also very central — so much of London is walkable from my home.”

This area on the edge of the West End — between Fitzrovia, Covent Garden, Holborn, King’s Cross and Clerkenwell — is relatively affordable compared with its neighbours, and the pandemic has reduced rental demand for flats, which predominate in the area.

The number of property sales has fallen sharply. In the 12 months to February, there were 39 per cent fewer sales in Bloomsbury compared with the previous year, according to LonRes, which tracks the property market in the capital’s exclusive, central areas. In 2020, the average price paid for a flat in Bloomsbury was £896,773, down just 2 per cent on 2019 — but no houses sold at all that year. 

The average annual rental price per sq ft has fallen too, down 14.7 per cent in the 12 months to February to £40.78. In prime central London — which includes Mayfair, Belgravia, Kensington and Chelsea, but not Bloomsbury — the average price fell 7.7 per cent over the same period to £48.09, according to LonRes.

However, as lockdown ends, Marcus Dixon, head of research at LonRes, expects demand to grow for small flats near offices as people look for pieds-à-terre close to work. “This could benefit locations offering good access into both the City and West End,” he says.

Conceived as an upper-middle-class suburb when Russell and Bedford squares were laid out in 1804, Blooms­bury was overlooked as Mayfair, St James and the villages of west London became more fashionable.

The so-called Bloomsbury group of artists and writers began a reputation for subversion here in the early 20th century. Academics favoured its elegant squares, close to University College London, the British Library and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Today, doctors, academics and lawyers remain the most likely tenants for flats in converted Georgian town houses, says Leon Bell of Dexter’s lettings department. Those with residents’ gardens are popular, such as Mecklenburgh Square, where Woolf, Dorothy Sayers and Graham Greene once lived. DH Lawrence, who lodged in the square, called it the “dark, bristling heart of London”. 

A one-bedroom flat there costs £450-£500 a week to rent or about £675,000 to buy, according to Adrian Philpott of Winkworth. “A similar property on a classic Marylebone square would cost £900,000,” he says. 

Mecklenburgh Square’s literary pedigree appealed to Adele, a 33-year-old barrister who did not want to give her surname. She bought a one-bedroom flat there four years ago.

“The beautiful garden has been a lifesaver during lockdowns, but I am looking forward to things opening up again: the book group at Persephone Books [a publisher and shop specialising in unknown female writers] and the family-run Italian, Ciao Bella, on Lamb’s Conduit Street.”

Many international students who had favoured portered buildings, such as Bedford Court Mansions or those on Tavistock Square, have disappeared, says Bell. “So landlords have had to reduce rates or upgrade flats to appeal to domestic professionals.”

Rental demand in Bloomsbury had already been hit by Brexit, says Philpott, and this has had a knock-on effect on sale values. “The buy-to-let market constricted and now £1,200 per sq ft is optimistic for Bloomsbury,” he says. In neighbouring Fitzrovia, the average price paid in the past year was £1,463, according to LonRes, in prime central London, it is was £1,662. 

Original houses that have not been converted into offices or flats are scarce. Paul Finch of Beauchamp Estates has a couple looking for a 5,000-7,000 sq ft home with a budget of £5m-£7m. “There are thin pickings but at £1,200-£1,300 per sq ft such a town house is more affordable than [in] Marylebone at £1,700-£1,800 per sq ft.”

There is a mix of original and newer postwar homes on cobbled Brownlow Mews, where Danish banker Børge Madsen and his Norwegian wife Brit bought a three-bedroom house 30 years ago.

“We picked Bloomsbury for its proximity to Covent Garden, but the street was rundown and mainly businesses,” he says. Now he is in his sixties, Madsen is looking to downsize, and their house is for sale for £1.85m. “But we haven’t fallen out of love with the area.”

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