This ultra-central London neighbourhood comprises garden squares, Victorian hotels, and cultural institutions. Bloomsbury is famous for its literary and intellectual heritage (it was the home of Virginia Woolf, and it is here that Karl Marx developed communism), and is today home to many bookshops and the British Library, while also being close to the West End theatres. Thousands of students now live in residence halls in Bloomsbury, which encompasses many institutions of higher learning, including Birkbeck and RADA.
Bloomsbury is the hangout of the intelligentsia. With so many students, artists, and medical professionals flocking to Bloomsbury's institutions, there are several established communities in the area. There are many beloved cafes and pubs that serve as meeting places for these groups.
Bloomsbury is a relatively safe area of central London, but although it is surprisingly quiet, it is not far from the tourist and late-destinations of Covent Garden, Soho, and Oxford Street and the attendant crime. The crime rate is much higher than that of the London as a whole, but less than half that of the City of London.
Parking in Bloomsbury can be difficult and expensive. Very few Bloomsbury own cars - there are about 0.2 cars per household, as opposed to 0.8 for London overall.
Bloomsbury can be surprisingly quiet in the evenings and at the weekends, but within walking distance is the nightlife hotspot that is Soho.
Developed as a residential neighbourhood and with green space in the form of beautiful garden squares, Bloomsbury has a surprisingly quiet and villagey feel for such a central location. There is not a very wide choice of schools, although the ones that are around generally perform well, and property prices - mostly flats are available - are very high.
Bloomsbury is a residential neighbourhood and with lots of green space and generously-sized homes - it would be a fairly good place to have a dog.
With Russell Square (Piccadilly Line), Goodge Street (Northern Line), Holborn (Central and Piccadilly Lines), Wand Euston Square (Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan Lines) and central London's major attractions within walking distance, Bloomsbury is as well-connected as it gets.