PLACE NAME
After the village of Ridgmont, Bedfordshire, where Bloomsbury landowners, the dukes of Bedford also owned land. The name of the village was first recorded as Rugemund in 1227 and is taken from the French, Rouge Mont, meaning Red Hill on account of its deep reddish brown soil. This area was in the west of the dukes’ Bloomsbury estate, and up until the late 18thCentury remained undeveloped before being converted for residential use as part of a prestigious building project. While the adjoining Ridgmount Street was built at this time as a mews for the estate residents, Ridgmount Place wasn’t formally laid out until much later. The area was heavily bombed during the Second World War on April 16-17, 1941. Local landmark, the Dallas Building, a purpose-built five-storey factory that since 1937 had been home to the firm John E Dallas & Sons which manufactured banjos (trademarked ‘Jedson’), guitars, drums and other instruments, and also published sheet music was destroyed by an incendiary in the air raid.
