Bloomsbury and King's Cross area guide

Summary:

Bloomsbury, in the south of the London Borough of Camden, is very close to central London. This part of the WC1 area was developed by the Russell family in the 17th and 18th centuries into a fashionable residential area. It contains many gardened squares, hospitals (including Great Ormond Street) and various academic institutions. Over the next few years, Kings Cross will be evolving into central London's new neighbourhood, blessed with good transport links to Europe and three of the city's five airports. In the meantime, there will be noise, disruption and dirt. The estimated year for completion of the major building project is 2022 and by which time the metamorphosis of Kings Cross may have been finalised. The St. Pancras development, including a high speed Eurostar link to Paris, has already given the area a boost. Bloomsbury, in contrast, has been a residential district for three centuries and has an established and much quieter atmosphere.

Properties:

Bloomsbury's grid pattern shows the planned development of the district, but academia has taken over vast tracts of territory. Many of Bloomsbury's gorgeous Georgian and early Victorian houses have been offices for years, but the occasional gem comes on the market. Houses for sale are very rare and are usually snatched-up by those in the know before ever hitting the open market. There are many inter-war mansion blocks to be found, their numbers swelled in recent times by office-to-home conversions, some of which are council-owned. Bloomsbury also has accommodation over commercial premises, many of them garages, a hangover from the many mews once so popular here. Shops serving the university buildings also have many flats above them. Kings Cross has some surprising corners of handsome Victorian property. Kings Cross is at the cheaper end of the scale and the scene of long-term potential.

Buyers:

Mostly young, single professionals, who want to be near the heart of the city. Also couples without children, academics and businesspeople find homes here to buy or rent, from the student-poor to refined luxury.

Sales Information:

The table below details the most recent sales information for this area, broken down by postcode, property type and average sale value.

Postcode	Detached	Semi-Det	Terraced	Flat / Mais	Total / Average
N1	3 sales £1,259,666	12 sales £1,151,662	57 sales £909,599	192 sales £382,121	264 sales £540,960
WC1B	- -	- -	- -	4 sales £935,750	4 sales £935,750
WC1H	- -	- -	- -	15 sales £306,900	15 sales £306,900
WC1N	- -	- -	- -	13 sales £524,423	13 sales £524,423
WC1X	- -	- -	- -	9 sales £497,361	9 sales £497,361

Source acknowledgement: Information produced by Land Registry. © Crown copyright material reproduced with the permission of Land Registry. This material was last updated on 11th Aug 2010. It covers the period from Apr 2010 to Jun 2010. Restricted Use. Users of this product must not copy, distribute, sell or publish any of the Crown copyright material without the formal permission of Land Registry. If you think any of the above information is incorrect please click here to notify the Land Registry.