The view south from Guilford Street into Queen Square c. 1810 by Rudolph Ackermann. How things have changed in 200 years! And yet there is still this pedestrian cut through route and the streetscape is still recognisable  – just.

Number 51 Lamb’s Conduit Street in 1963. This became the wine bar Vat’s and is now Noble Rot. It’s funny that the nicest spot in Bloomsbury is sitting in one of these windows with a glass of wine and some bread and butter, watching the world go by in Lamb’s Conduit Street.

An 1818 map by Mr Cary, showing that most of Bloomsbury’s street pattern was already laid out.

There is an excellent new book (which naturally we sell in the shop) called An Address in Bloomsbury. It is by Alec Forshaw and is  about 49 Great Ormond Street – but far more than this, it is a  fascinating history of the whole small area  – the area enclosed by Theobalds Road to the south, Queen Square to the west, Millman Street to the east and Guilford Street to the north. This painting, from the ‘Blossoming Bloomsbury 1776-1800’ chapter is The Outskirts of London: A View towards Queen Square by Thomas Jones 1775-6. ‘Russell Square would be in the foreground today, with the Russell Hotel blocking views to Queen Square.’

And Suzanne Cooper did some superb wood engravings (we shall be selling them in the shop as cards). They were also done in the 1930s when she was in her very early twenties. In 1940 when she was 24 she married Michael Franklin and had three children, gave up painting and engraving and only occasionally did a little work in chalk and pastel.

‘Fourteen of Suzanne Cooper’s oil paintings remain in the possession of her family. One is in the Auckland Art Gallery. Another was bought at Bonhams Auction House in 2004. At least a dozen others were sold in the 1930s. If anyone knows their present whereabouts, please do contact the family at the Suzanne Cooper website.’ This is Brixham Harbour.

Suzanne Cooper’s passport photo 1933. There was an article here about her by Lucy Hughes-Hallett last Sunday which begins with this touching anecdote: ‘In 2014, I was in New Zealand to speak at a literary festival. With a couple of hours to spare, I went into the Auckland Art Gallery, admired the splendid Maori canoes, and then wandered upstairs to the collection of European art. I was standing in a room full of 18th-century portraits, when I saw – visible three rooms away through an enfilade of archways – a painting that I knew at once, even at that distance, must be by my mother-in-law, Suzanne Cooper. Her style is unmistakable. It was like bumping into a dear friend, unexpectedly, thousands of miles from home.’ And most Persephone readers will feel they are bumping into a dear friend when they see the 17 year-old in this photograph. There is something timeless, familiar and fascinating about her face.(Coincidentally we too visited Auckland Art Gallery in 2014 but were a little bit ranty about it: ‘This was rebuilt at huge expense a couple of years ago, quite cleverly attached to the Victorian building erected by Sir George Grey (very similar to Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, maybe even the same architect).The new building is okay but far too elaborate and, as ever, you have the ridiculous situation of millions  being spent on displaying paintings when the artists of course lived in penury; now they are safely dead their work can be lavishly displayed. Interesting that quite a lot of women painters – and three lovely paintings by Frances Hodgkins.’)