London place names: Fitzrovia
“Fitzrovia” is the area around the Post Office Tower… or Telecom Tower, whatever you want to call it. It’s a funny area, not quite part of Oxford Street with its bustle, not yet really North London, and still a bit off the beaten track.
It was actually developed in the eighteenth century by Charles Fitzroy, Baron Southampton, who gave his name to Fitzroy Square and Fitzroy Street. However, he didn’t own all the land, so other developers bought up small plots and built housing there – giving the area a patchwork, irregular street plan quite unlike the fine avenues and squares of Belgravia or Bloomsbury.
But it wasn’t Fitzroy himself who gave the area its name. That had to wait till the 1940s, when the area had become popular with Bohemians – artists, writers, and journalists including Dylan Thomas, Quentin Crisp ‘the Naked Civil Servant’, and Augustus John. They frequented the Fitzroy Tavern – which was named after Fitzroy – and so eventually the whole area became known as ‘Fitzrovia’.
Photo credit: Stephane Goldstein on Flickr
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