UCL BLOOMSBURY PROJECT

History

It was an ambitious scheme planned as a large entertainment complex with a theatre, galleries, and reading rooms as well as gardens and pleasure grounds, opened in 1830 (Survey of London, vol. 24, 1952)

The Survey of London reproduces an interesting, although possibly hypothetical, illustration of its ambitious overhead monorail (opens in new window)

It would ultimately have filled a large area bordered by Argyle Street, Liverpool Street, and Derby Street but it closed after two years in 1832 and was demolished, without ever having all been built (Survey of London, vol. 24, 1952)

It did succeed in opening the Royal Panharmonion Subscription Theatre in 1831, although when the Project closed in 1832 this became the Royal Clarence Theatre (Allardyce Nicoll, A History of English Drama 1660–1900, vol. 4: Early Nineteenth Century Drama, 1930) and was subsequently known by many other names before being converted into a restaurant (Survey of London, vol. 24, 1952)

It no longer exists, although the former theatre building still remains (in a rather dilapidated condition)