The new Zetter Bloomsbury Hotel has officially opened in Bloomsbury raising the bar in the London Hospitality market. Atelierdb were the Lead Architect for the design and delivery of this 68 key hotel over 6 Historic Grade 2 Listed Georgian Townhouses. Arranged over 5 floors the designs provide large sumptuous suites at first floor within the historic Principal rooms as well as more intimate rooms at third floor with views over the rear garden towards the British Museum East facade.
A brand new orangery provides guests with a haven in which to relax and enjoy breakfast, dinner or just drinks with friends. An external kitchen and bar commands the garden area offering guests delicious cocktails and an extensive wine list.

Early History of the Bloomsbury Area;
The earliest written record of the Bloomsbury area was in 1086 in the Doomsday Book, which recorded it as an area of vineyards and ‘wood for 100 pigs.’ In 1201 the area was given the name Bloomsbury when William de Blemond, a Norman andowner, acquired the land. On the fringes of London, the area saw little to no development for much of its history, consisting almost entirely of pasture land.

17th Century Onwards
By the 16th century the land had been granted to Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton. His great grandson, the 4th Earl of Southampton began the development of the Bloomsbury area in the 1660s, including the building of Southampton House, which later became Bedford House when Lady Rachel married William, Lord Russell, who became the 1st Duke of Bedford.
Around the same time, Lady Rachel’s sister, Lady Elizabeth Wriothesley, married the Earl of Montagu, and so, in 1675, the Russells sold a portion of their estate to allow the couple to build a new house. This land was known as Baber’s field, a semi-rural location, and is now occupied by the British Museum. It is from this house that Montague Street derives its name.
The first iteration of Montagu House was built by Robert Hooke for the 1st Duke of Montagu in 1678 in the French style, however, it burned down ten years later in 1688. It was rebuilt to a similar design and it is this second Montagu House that was to
become the first home of the British Museum. It was a beautiful French-style house with an ornate interior, described in its day as one of the finest private houses in London. The land immediately behind Montagu House, then called Southampton fields, remained undeveloped. It was described as a place of ‘robbery, murder, and every species of depravity and wickedness of which the heart can think’ – a far cry from the affluence with which the area would later be associated.

19th Century
At the beginning of the 1800s, the area around Montague Street was undergoing rapid urban development. The former Montagu House, now the British Museum, had expanded with additional wings to accommodate its growing collections, and
a new square, Bedford Square, was being laid out to the west. Montague Street was thus formed along the museum’s eastern elevation, along the original boundary between the houses of Montagu and Bedford. By 1828 the street had a development of terraced houses leading up to the new Russell Square (Russell Square and Bedford Squares were erected around 1804), which were built primarily by James Burton. Bedford House, formerly on the north side of Bloomsbury Square, was demolished c.1800 and replaced with housing, also to the designs of James Burton, with the central garden laid out by Humphrey Repton.
The houses of Montague Street were designed to be large and comfortable, aimed at the well-off middle classes who were considered desirable Bedford estate tenants (see figure 3.9 for Booth’s map). Indeed, the surrounding area was extensively occupied by lawyers and judges, owing to the proximity to Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The barrister and author John Leycester Adolphus lived in no. 29 in the 1840s. No. 23 was the medical practice of physician and chemist John Gardner from 1860 to 1870. No. 7, which comprises a portion of the Site, was occupied by the pioneering surgeon Sir Thomas Smith until 1868 – he was working at the nearby Children’s Hospital in Great Ormond Street. It was later occupied by the physician Frederick Farre, who ran his practice here in the later 19th Century. Its proximity to the British Museum also meant that it became a popular location for those pursuing history and science. In The Musgrave Ritual, Sherlock Holme’s describes how he ‘had rooms in Montague Street, just round the corner from the British Museum, and there I waited, filling in my too abundant leisure time by studying all those branches of science which make me more efficient’.

20th Century
In the 1900s, the popularity of the area as a tourist destination instigated a transformation of the houses of Montague Street into a series of hotels. By the 1920s, nos 2-5 were operating as the Whitehall Hotel, with a reorganised plan of partitioned rooms to accommodate guests, with openings knocked through third-party walls. Similarly, by the 1930s nos 6-7 were the Belgrave Hotel, which also experienced partitioning of internal spaces.
Throughout the 20th Century the Site continued to operate as a hotel, with various phases of development which can be seen in drainage plans of the 1920s, 60s and 70s.

The Site consists of six late Georgian terraced townhouses that date back to the early 19th Century. It is bounded by Russell Square to the north, the British Museum to the west, and Bloomsbury to the south. 2-7 Montague Street sit within the Bloomsbury Conservation Area in the Borough of Camden and within the CA sub area 6: Bloomsbury Square / Russell Square / Tavistock Square.
Originally intended as residential homes, the six townhouses were converted to hotel use during the 20th century. Internally there has been considerable reorganisation of the space, with partitions introduced and removed in various phases of development during the 20th Century.

The terrace was built principally by James Burton, a significant builder on the Foundling Hospital estate, as well as the Bedford, Somers and Skinners’ estates. They are constructed of Flemish bond London stock brick, with a stone string course between second and third floors. The style is attractively consistent, comprising a three-bay structure over four floors above ground with a basement level.

The Bloomsbury Conservation Area extends approximately 160 hectares from Euston Road to High Holborn and was designated on 1st December 1968, only a year after Conservation Areas were legislated in 1967.
Initially the Conservation Area only covered a small number of Georgian Bloomsbury but amendments and expansions in 1973, 1974, 1982, 1984, 1991, 1992, 1999, and finally 2011 resulted in a large Conservation Area that has been divided into 14
sub areas. The Site is located within sub area 6: Bloomsbury Square / Russell Square / Tavistock Square.
Bloomsbury is predominantly noted for its spacial arrangement of public / residential squares. The character of the Conservation Area is defined by the squares and grid of streets enclosed by mostly three and four storey buildings. Regardless of construction date, the buildings are typically of a classical style and a consistent material pallette consisting of brick with elements of stucco and stone detailing.
Sub area 6 is largely made up of three and four storey Georgian terraces surrounding a series of formal squares such as Bloomsbury Square and Russell Square. Throughout this sub area, there is a strong consistency of architectural style with terraces
of three / four storeys with a basement level and mansard roofs. Southampton Place is a fine example of the typical character within Bloomsbury and connects Bloomsbury Square to High Holborn.

The British Museum
The British Museum is located to the west of the site, immediately behind the boundary of the rear garden of the property. The building was designated as Grade I in October 1951.
The Museum was built on the site of Montagu House which was demolished in 1840. The British Museum was built in 1823-47 by Sir Robert Smirke. The Museum is based on a large quadrangle with an open courtyard extending north. The building is ornate, built in the Greek Revival style with fine Grecian detailing. The building was expanded several times, most recently in 1914 and extensive repair work was undertaken following the bomb damage in WWII.