These are the four caryatids at St Pancras New Church on the Euston Road (seemingly before being cleaned and restored). They are copies of the ones found at the Erechtheion in Athens and were built in 1822 – the church was designed to serve the increasing population of the surrounding area. They guard the entrance to the crypt (and look not unlike the Persephone of our logo). St Pancras Old Church, resting place of Mary Wollstonecraft and many others, stands to the north.

48 Bedford Square (now the antiquarian book dealer Maggs Bros.) displays a green plaque stating ‘Bedford College for Women, University of London, was founded here in 1849 by Elizabeth Jesser Reid’. When Reid (1789-1866) first set up her non-sectarian Ladies College it was the first higher education college for women in the UK. You can read more about it here (which also has information about the Working Women’s College on Queen Square and the College for Working Women in Fitzroy Street).

Another lesser known building in Bloomsbury: here is the Italian Hospital on Queen Square (now incorporated in to Great Ormond Street Hospital). Thousands of Italians arrived in Bloomsbury in the nineteenth century, settling in the area just east of Queen Square to make mosaics, clocks and watches. Their numbers were swelled by poorer immigrants in the second half of the century (ice-cream sellers and organ-grinders) and local businessman Giovanni Ortelli recognised that there was a need for a free hospital for those who couldn’t afford to go elsewhere. Built in 1898 it was funded by subscription in Italy and Britain and open to all. It stayed open as an independent hospital until 1990.

We are very pleased to be included in the new book ‘Bloomsbury in 50 Buildings‘ by Lucy McMurdo which traces the development of the area through its significant buildings. Here is the Horse Hospital (just off Russell Square) which is now a grade II listed arts venue. It was built in 1797 by James Burton (who developed large areas of Bloomsbury including Bedford Square, Russell Square, Bloomsbury Square, Tavistock Square as well as Regent Street and the Inner Circle villas at Regent’s Park). You still access the two storey building using the ramps that were necessary for the horses. And you can still see the tethering rings that were used to secure the sick horses during treatment.

The final of our five ‘unknown’ pre-Raphaelite women is Maria Zambaco (1843-1914). Reading about her is rather depressing and it is hard to think of much good to say about her. That is probably cruel, but compared with the previous four women this week she seems petulant and spoilt and difficult. Here and here are a couple of pieces about her which probably, if read carefully, would make one feel far better about Maria. But still. Here she is as Psyche painted by Burne-Jones. (She was apparently a painter and a sculptor in her own right but very little survives.)

Fanny Eaton (yesterday) was painted by her friend Joanna Wells (1831-61) in 1861. Tragically Joanna died after the death of her third child.

Fanny Eaton is another fascinating woman featured in the current Pre-Raphaelite exhibition. She was painted so often (cf. this good Art Fund piece about her) that it is hard to choose an image. But here she is in 1859-60 drawn by Walter Fryer Stocks. And the Art Fund reveals the lovely detail that Fanny lived in Coram Fields, maybe even  in Guilford Street at the end of Lamb’s Conduit Street since the family could not literally have lived in the Fields: ‘When she came of age, Fanny cohabitated with James Eaton, a horse-cab driver. They lived in London’s Coram Fields and had ten children together between 1858 and 1879. Brian Eaton, the great-great-grandson of Fanny, claims they were never married as no certificate has ever been found. Quite possibly, an interracial marriage would have been frowned upon and discouraged by James’s family. When James died in his forties in 1881, his wife was left to raise and provide for all of their surviving children.’ And she earned the family’s living by being a much sought-after artist’s model.