Old London. Hyde Park to Bloomsbury - Edward Walford

In this volume of "Old London", we pass from aristocratic London by way of Hyde Park, Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road to London's intellectual and artistic centre around Bloomsbury and the British Museum. The latter was founded in 1754 with the acquisition of the Sir Hans Sloane Collection, together with three large libraries, The Harleian, The Collonian and The Royal Library donated by William III. Hyde Park is an ancient manor mentioned in Domesday and became a royal park as did so many others at the Reformation.;Oxford Street, another of London's great thoroughfares, was formerly Tyburn Road. At the corner of what is now Edgware Road stood the old gallows where felons from The Fleet and Newgate Prison met their fate. It became Oxford Street in 1729. Even in the 1820's some 5000-7000 vehicles passed along it daily.;Marylebone was the home of many artists and writers including Charles Dickens and many of them were buried at the parish church. Red Lion Square, is supposedly the place where Cromwell and his fellow regicides were re-buried after being taken up from Westminster.;Few areas of London have known such a variety of inhabitants: Dukes, politicians, judges, artists - including Romney and Turner - writers, sculptors and intellectuals.