Woburn Walk is a pedestrian street in

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, that was designed by architect

Thomas Cubitt Thomas Cubitt (25 February 1788 – 20 December 1855) was a British master builder, notable for his employment in developing many of the historic streets and squares of London, especially in Belgravia, Pimlico and Bloomsbury. His great-great-g ...

in 1822, and it is one of the first examples of a pedestrian shopping street in the Regency era. Its name comes from

Woburn Abbey Woburn Abbey (), occupying the east of the village of Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the family seat of the Duke of Bedford. Although it is still a family home to the current duke, it is open on specified days to visitors, ...

, the main country seat of the

Dukes of Bedford Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 and 1433 respectively, in favour of Henry IV of England, ...

, who developed much of

. The street is well-preserved, including the black painted bow-fronted shops windows. Several of the buildings are

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

(No. 1-9 and 9a, Woburn Walk). The walk shares the same building design with the adjacent Duke's Road, which however was built open to traffic. As of today a number of shops, restaurants and a cafeteria are located on both sides of the walk.

Notable residents

From 1895 to 1919, the Irish poet, dramatist and

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winner

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

lived at what is today 5 Woburn Walk. From 1905 to 1906, the novelist Dorothy Richardson lived in Woburn Walk, in the building number 6, opposite where Yeats stayed. A blue plaque has been erected there in May 2015.

References

Streets in the London Borough of Camden Bloomsbury {{London-geo-stub

Notable residents

See also

References