Bedford Place
Directions
Cross Great Russell Street with care and continue along Bedford Place towards Russell Square.
At the end of Bedford Place, cross the busy road very carefully owards the statue of Francis Russell, the fifth Duke of Bedford.
Description
You are now walking through what was once the private garden of the Duke of Bedford's mansion, laid out by the fourth duke with groves of limes and acacias, gravel walks and a greenhouse for growing melons. The end of the garden had a raised terrace walk, which covered earthwork fortifications put up by the Parliamentarians to defend London during the English Civil Wars.
The statue of Francis Russell shows the Duke with one hand resting on a plough and the other holding some ears of corn. He was well-known for his interest in the improvement of agriculture and maintained a model farm of some 4000 acres at Woburn, his country estate.
