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Bloomsbury Project

Bloomsbury Institutions

Cultural

Royal London Bazaar

Also known as Horse Bazaar/North London Horse and Carriage Repository/North London Horse Depository/Institute of the Industrious Classes/Institution of the Society to Remove the Cause of Poverty and Ignorance and Equitable Labour Exchange

History

It was intended as a place of resort and a centre for the stabling and auctioning of horses

A lease was taken from Christmas 1826 on the site by William Bromley of Euston Square (David Hayes, ‘ “Without Parallel in the Known World”: The Chequered Past of 277 Gray’s Inn Road’, Camden History Review, vol. 25, 2001)

Elmes described it as “a noble structure of quadrangular form with a spacious arena in the centre” and stalls for about 200 horses (James Elmes, Metropolitan Improvements, 1827)

In fact it may never have got going as a horse bazaar, though it was often referred to by that name in the press, and it was presumably the horse bazaar where promising artist Theodore Lane died after a fall through a skylight in 1828 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

In 1829 Bromley relaunched it as the Royal London Bazaar, intended to exhibit novelties, of which the first was a “panoramic picture in needlework of 1200 square feet” (David Hayes, ‘ “Without Parallel in the Known World”: The Chequered Past of 277 Gray’s Inn Road’, Camden History Review, vol. 25, 2001)

In December the social reformer Robert Owen addressed more than 1400 people at a public meeting in the building; The Times reported on this meeting of his “Association for Removing the Causes of Ignorance and Poverty by Education and Employment” in depth, publishing verbatim the 19 resolutions passed at the meeting (The Times, 20 December 1831)

As a result, the Bazaar became known as the Institution of his Society: the “Institute of the Industrious Classes”, or the “Institution of the Society to Remove the Cause of Poverty and Ignorance and Equitable Labour Exchange”

Owen later used the venue for lectures, meetings, social gatherings, and a labour exchange for poor working people to sell or exchange their produce at a fair price

He was joined in May 1832 by the charismatic preacher Edward Irving on the expulsion of the latter from the Scotch National Church in nearby Regent Square; but by the end of 1832 Owen had been given notice to quit and Irving had also left (David Hayes, ‘ “Without Parallel in the Known World”: The Chequered Past of 277 Gray’s Inn Road’, Camden History Review, vol. 25, 2001)

William Bromley revived the building as the Royal London Bazaar, including a successful period of operation as the first permanent London base for Madame Tussaud’s waxworks exhibition from 1834–1835; however, Bromley auctioned off the building during this period, and the exhibition had to move (David Hayes, ‘ “Without Parallel in the Known World”: The Chequered Past of 277 Gray’s Inn Road’, Camden History Review, vol. 25, 2001)

By the 1850s the building was used as a goods repository, and in 1872 it became a bottling store for Whitbread’s brewery (David Hayes, ‘ “Without Parallel in the Known World”: The Chequered Past of 277 Gray’s Inn Road’, Camden History Review, vol. 25, 2001)

What was reforming about it?

It was part of a number of ill-fated attempts in the 1820s to turn the far north-east corner of Bloomsbury, bounded by Euston Road and Gray’s Inn Road at Battle Bridge (later renamed King’s Cross), into a place of resort and entertainment

None of the ventures, including the ambitious plan for a Panarmion with theatre, music, an aerial railway, and pleasure gardens, succeeded, perhaps because the area was bounded on the east by poor housing and on the opposite side of Euston Road were the London Fever Hospital and the Smallpox Hospital until they were relocated when the site was required for the building of King’s Cross mainline railway station in 1850

It was also briefly a base for reforming activities in the 1830s, particularly those of social reformer Robert Owen, encouraged at first by the building’s proprietor, William Bromley, and (very briefly indeed) those of religious controversialist Edward Irving

Where in Bloomsbury

It was built in 1827 at the top of Gray’s Inn Road, with a ‘Royal entrance’ on Liverpool Street (now Birkenhead Street) to the west

It was offered for sale in 1905 by its owners, Whitbread’s, but there were no takers (Aleck Abrahams, ‘No. 277 Gray’s Inn Road,’ The Antiquary , vol. XLIV, 1908)

Most of the building was subsequently demolished and the area redeveloped, but the Gray’s Inn Road entrance remains and is Grade II listed

Website of current institution

It no longer exists

Books about it

Aleck Abrahams, ‘No. 277 Gray’s Inn Road,’ The Antiquary , vol. XLIV (1908)

David Hayes, ‘ “Without Parallel in the Known World”: The Chequered Past of 277 Gray’s Inn Road’, Camden History Review, vol. 25, 2001

Archives

None found

This page last modified 13 April, 2011 by Deborah Colville

 

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