History, Philosophy, and Dance Blog

Following the death of their father, the move from the leafy quiet of Kensington to the city bustle of Bloomsbury marked a coming-of-age for the Stephen siblings–Virginia, Vanessa, Thoby, and Adrian–particularly for the two sisters. Their former family home at 22 Hyde Park Gate reflected a typical Victorian interior: heavy velvets, dark wood, and a décor that mirror ed the life they were raised within, one shaped by the expectations of a society governed by etiquette and social hierarchy. Born into the upper-middle class, their lives were largely dictated by inherited wealth and the constraints of gender politics.

The siblings' relocation to the lighter, brighter flatshare of 46 Gordon Square proved radical for its time and foreshadowed the unconventional lives they would go on to lead. Through Thoby’s Cambridge connection, members of the obscure intellectual group known as the ‘Apostles’ became frequent visitors. Conversations often extended into the early hours–unchoreographed, spontaneous, and informal. These gatherings laid the foundation for what would become the ‘Bloomsbury Group’ (also known as the ‘Bloomsbury Set’). Virginia reflected in her essay Old Bloomsbury that ‘the charm of those Thursday evenings was that they were astonishingly abstract’ (pp. 168).

This liberated environment meant no topic was considered taboo or impertinent. The Bloomsbury Group explored ideas of emotional, intellectual, and sexual freedom. Romantic or social expectations were not the focus; instead, abstraction and philosophical discourse bloomed. Virginia’s impression of her brother’s Cambridge companions–‘so dingy, so lacking in physical splendor’ (pp.169)–was not meant to be derogatory. Rather, their ‘shabbiness’ was in her ‘eyes a proof of their superiority’ (pp. 170). Societal boundaries around gender-fluid relations quickly dissolved. ‘Indeed the future of Bloomsbury was to prove that many variations can be played on the theme of sex…’ (pp. 174-175). As an observer, Virginia witnessed the blurred relations between her male peers, which helped nurture her own sexual exploration. Surviving correspondence with her companion Violet Dickinson reveals a growing yearning, leading many to believe Virginia harboured intimate feelings for her. The open relationship she later shared with her husband Leonard, and her queer intimacy with Vita Sackville-West, were rooted in her time at 46 Gordon Square and the early Bloomsbury days.

Virginia asserted in A Room of One’s Own that a woman needs money and a room of her own to write. Though penned long after the Stephen siblings had left 46 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury remained the romping ground for the Bloomsberries, as they cheekily called themselves. The two rooms Virginia called her own within a communal household allowed her independence and creative freedom to flourish. The mismatched furnishings and bohemian interior of 46 Gordon Square reflected the fluid, interwoven relationships and artistic experimentation of its inhabitants. Gender fluidity was as uninhibited as the absence of social protocol–both were openly embraced by the Bloomsbury Group.

The space and time explored in 46 Gordon seeks to inhabit the ambiguous world of Virginia and the Bloomsberries. The now-iconic phrase–they lived in squares, painted in circles, and loved in triangles–often attributed to Dorothy Parker, distills the spirit of Bloomsbury. The squares, circles, and triangles explored through the movement of 46 Gordon invites the continued exploration of an ongoing ‘abstract argument’ on ambiguity and boundary-breaking.