Bloomsbury St George, Middlesex Genealogy

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BLOOMSBURY, or St. George-Bloomsbury, a parish, which is also a subdistrict, in the district of St. Giles, Middlesex; in Finsbury borough, about 1¼ mile WNW of St. Paul's, London. Acres, 122. Real property, with St. Giles-in-the-Fields, £299,540. Pop. in 1841, 16,981; in 1861, 17,392. Houses, 1,990. It was originally part of St. Giles-in-the-Fields parish, and was separately constituted in 1729. It includes Bloomsbury square, Russell square, Woburn square, and part of Torrington square, together with intermediate and adjacent streets. Part of it shows the architecture of the time of Queen Anne; and much consists of houses which were fashionable residences till about 1828. It contains the British museum, and the buildings or offices of several metropolitan institutions. A sitting statue of Fox, 9 feet high, by Westmacott, is in Bloomsbury. square; and a statue of the Duke of Bedford, also by Westmacott, is in Russell square. St. George's church, adjacent to New Oxford-street, was built in 1731, at a cost of £9,790; is in a mixed style of Doric and Corinthian; and has a steeple, modelled after Pliny 's account of the tomb of Mausolus, crowned by a statue of George II. The French Episcopal chapel, in Bloomsbury street, was built in 1845; and is noted for the use of the Anglican liturgy in French. The Baptist chapel, adjacent to this, was built in 1848; and has a circular window 18 feet in diameter, and towers with spires 117 feet high. The living is a rectory in the diocese of London. Value, £780.* Patron, the Lord Chancellor. Christ church. in Woburn square, is a separate benefice, with income of £500, in the patronage of the Rector. Bedford chapel and the French Episcopal chapel also are separate incumbencies. S. Jenyns and T. Hook were natives; and Richard Baxter, Sir H. Sloane, Dr. Radcliffe, Akenside, Romilly, Lawrence, Lord Mansfield, and Lord-Chancellor Loughborough were residents.

[John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72): from www.VisionofBritain.org.uk/descriptions]