There was nothing one could not say, nothing one could not do at 46 Gordon Square (Old Bloomsbury,Virginia Woolf)
The Gordon Square Society is a non-profit organisation founded to promote the philosophy of Virginia Woolf and The Bloomsbury Group and to reflect about their relevance in the world today.
Founded in Antwerp in 2024 - exactly 120 years after the Bloomsbury Group's inception - the Society grew out of a shared passion of the founders for the life, work and thoughts of Virginia Woolf and the members of the Bloomsbury Group.
BLOOMSBURY GROUP & VIRGINIA WOOLF
The Bloomsbury Group consisted of a group of English intellectuals (including writers, philosophers, economists, and artists) in London at the beginning of the 20th century. Its main members were Virginia & Leonard Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, Vanessa & Clive Bell, Duncan Grant, E.M. Forster, Roger Fry, Desmond & Molly MacCarthy, Saxon Sydney-Turner and Lytton Strachey .
The group had its origins in a secret society of undergraduates at Cambridge called The Apostles. From 1904, Thoby Stephen, the brother of Vanessa & Virginia Stephen, continued the weekly discussions with his intellectual friends at the At Homes in his home at 46 Gordon Square, in London's Bloomsbury district. From these meetings steadily grew a desire to live by a set of new principles.
The Bloomsburies broke with prevailing conservative Victorian morality, which preached rigid social conventions, sexual repression and strictly defined artistic norms. They valued intellectual discussions and encouraged innovation and individual freedom of expression in art, literature and life. They favoured gender equality and were open to various forms of relationships and sexuality. In short, from their humanist beliefs, they were aiming for a more liberated and open society in which individuals could follow their own path, free from stifling traditional norms and expectations.
Beauty was an important and comprehensive concept for the Bloomsbury Group. It was not merely regarded as an aesthetic quality, but also as a tool of giving meaning and purpose to life. For them, it was a source of inspiration and enrichment.
Virginia Woolf was a central figure within the Bloomsbury Group. She owed her influence not only to her brilliant innovative literary creations, but also to her sharp wit, her critical mind and her progressive ideas on art and feminism.
GORDON SQUARE SOCIETY
The Gordon Square Society aims to bring together not only Woolf and Bloomsbury enthusiasts, but anyone with an open, curious and critical mind. Premised on the heritage of the Bloomsbury Group and Virginia Woolf, the Society organises lectures, exhibitions, concerts, films, performances and debates to encourage critical thinking.
The Society's name, Gordon Square Society, has its origins in a quote by Virginia Woolf from the autobiographical essay Old Bloomsbury, in which she describes the beginnings of free thinking by the still-young Bloomsburies as follows: "There was nothing one could not say, nothing one could not do at 46 Gordon Square”
The Gordon Square Society aims to provide space for individual and intellectual freedom of expression and creativity. It is open to critical discussion and pays attention to beauty as a source of aesthetic pleasure as well as inspiration and meaning. Universal human rights are held in high regard. The Gordon Square Society is therefore an advocate of humanism in the broad sense of the word, focusing on gender equality, diversity, interpersonal relations and alertness to social change.