Fitzrovia sits between Oxford Street to the north, Regent Street to the west, Tottenham Court Road to the east, and Oxford Street to the south - which makes it one of the most central neighbourhoods in London that most visitors never find. It is named after the Fitzroy Tavern on Charlotte Street, where the painters and writers of the 1930s and 1940s drank. Dylan Thomas, George Orwell, Augustus John, and Nina Hamnett were regulars. The bohemian reputation was earned honestly.
Today the neighbourhood's main thoroughfare is Charlotte Street, which runs north from Oxford Street through the middle of Fitzrovia. The street has one of the best concentrations of independent restaurants in London - Spanish, Greek, Japanese, Scandinavian - without the tourist traffic that inflates prices in Soho and Covent Garden. The Fitzroy Tavern still stands. So does the BT Tower, its rotating restaurant long closed but the building itself a Grade I listed 1960s landmark that orients you when you're lost anywhere in the area.
The neighbourhood also contains Fitzroy Square - a Georgian square designed by Robert Adam, where Virginia Woolf lived and where George Bernard Shaw once had his rooms. One of the most beautiful squares in London, and one of the least visited.
Curated by our editorial team. Not paid. Not sponsored. Just places we think are worth your time.
A northward run from the Goodge Street Tube through the heart of Fitzrovia. Restaurant-lined from end to end: Roka for Japanese robata, Dabbous for technical contemporary cooking, Honey & Co for Middle Eastern sharing plates. The street does not have the queue culture of Soho because it does not have Soho's reputation - which is exactly why the quality-to-crowd ratio is so good.
Robert Adam's 1794 square, Grade I listed in its entirety. Virginia Woolf lived at number 29. George Bernard Shaw at number 29 before her (the house is now blue-plaqued for both). The garden in the centre is private but the exterior circuit of the terrace, in Portland stone, is one of the finest Georgian streetscapes in London.
The pub that gave the neighbourhood its name. A 1897 building on Charlotte Street that was the epicentre of London's Bohemian scene in the 1930s and 1940s. The Writers and Artists Bar in the basement still has a collection of newspaper cuttings, photographs, and signatures from the regulars of that era.
The 177-metre telecommunications tower on Howland Street has been a London landmark since 1965 and is Grade I listed for its significance to the history of modernist British architecture. The rotating restaurant at the top closed in 1980 and has never reopened; the tower itself is not publicly accessible but is an essential navigational landmark.
On Warren Street - a tiny Middle Eastern restaurant run by Israeli chefs Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich. The food is personal, seasonal, and has a warmth that larger restaurants struggle to manufacture. The Friday night set menu is one of the best-value dinners in London.
A small, eccentric museum spread over five floors of a Georgian townhouse on Scala Street, devoted to the history of toys from around the world - Victorian paper theatres, pre-war tin toys, shadow puppets, and Pollock's original toy theatres that give the museum its name.
Weekday lunchtimes for the best restaurant value. Thursday evenings for the full Charlotte Street atmosphere. Weekend afternoons for Fitzroy Square and the quieter side streets when the office buildings are empty.
Goodge Street (Northern line) is the most central station, dropping you directly onto Goodge Street and a five-minute walk to Charlotte Street. Warren Street (Northern, Victoria lines) for the western edge. Tottenham Court Road (Central, Elizabeth, Northern lines) for the eastern edge.
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Central London's great transport crossroads — and immediately beyond the station, Tate Britain, Westminster Cathedral, and St James's Park within a ten-minute walk in any direction.
North London's most liveable neighbourhood — smart but not smug, with the best stretch of independent restaurants in the city.
South London's great comeback story — industrial past, design-led future, and the Thames right on the doorstep.
East London's creative engine room - where street art, indie coffee, and late nights collide.