| Bloomsbury Restaurant: The Brunswick
Centre is a vast, brutalist housing estate slap in the centre
of London opposite the Russell Square tube station. Arranged
in a series of stepped apartment complexes the entire block has
fallen into the sort of cataclysmic disrepair that is endemic
amongst British inner-city housing projects: a cluster of 'windswept'
concourses; boarded up shops... and, of course, the obligatory
'community' artists walk-in centre...lying empty. One of the
few reasons to visit this once-visionary cradle of concrete-cancer
on the verges of Fizrovia is the fine Renoir cinema but the Bloomsbury
Restaurant opposite has some redeeming internal features that
warrant a look. Though the fake brick wallpaper is repellent,
the booth seating is cheerfully redolent of some lost motorway
caff circa 1968. It's also open seven days a week with a wide
choice of cheap grills. |
