Tangram locations

Tangram has been in Broadwick Street, Berwick Street  and Sherwood Street in Soho
 and in the area usually known as Fitzrovia but now also called Noho. 
 The buildings we have been in have their own kind of fame . . . 
 

33a Berwick Street  (Tangram 1989 - 1994) can be seen on the cover of the Oasis album  (What's the story) morning glory?.

5 Sherwood Street (Tangram 1994 - 2001)
can be seen at Legoland in Windsor. Only part of the building is shown, tucked in behind Piccadilly Circus. 

The building is depicted rather more accurately than the street layout. 

1 Charlotte Street (Tangram 2001 - 2017) makes a very brief and very limited appearance in the classic Michael Powell film 'Peeping Tom'. 

Parts of the film were shot around Rathbone Place and in the shop/cafe on the corner. In this frame from the film, the Marquis of Granby pub and the red brickwork of 1 Charlotte Street can be seen through the window .

                                                What is a Tangram?

A Tangram is a Chinese puzzle game. It is a square divided into seven geometric shapes. These can be used to create many different pictures when re-arranged. 

This is a Tangram (or rather three Tangrams):                           
                               You may download a Tangram game by clicking here.

                     A Brief History of Tangrams

Tangrams originated in China and first appeared in Britain in the 19th Century.
Little is known for certain about the inventor or the origin of the Tangram. Even the origin of the name is obscure.

According to Samuel Loyd, the American puzzle expert, the God Tan invented the puzzle 4,000 years ago and described it in the Seven Books of Tan. Each volume contained over 1,000 puzzles which were supposed to illustrate the creation of the world and the origin of species. The seven pieces were taken from the sun, the moon and the five planets of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and Venus. His story was later uncovered as a an elaborate and scholarly spoof.

According to some, the name Tangram is a corruption of the obsolete English word trangam, which meant a puzzle or trinket.  Others suggest that the word was derived from the Tang Dynasty of China. One story tells that Tangram was invented accidentally by a man named Tan  while he tried to put broken pieces of a porcelain tile together. In Asia, it is called 'Seven Plates of Wisdom'.

Tangram-like puzzles first appeared in a book published in Japan in 1742.    Scholars assume that Tangram began in the East before the 18th century and then spread westward. By 1818, Tangram publications had appeared in  Germany, Italy, France and England. It swept through Europe and America at the beginning of 19th century and its popularity continues to this day. In 19th century China, it was so popular that the shape of the pieces found their way into the design of dishes, lacquer boxes and even tables.

Toward the end of 19th century, a German industrialist began to produce stone versions of Tangram and other dissection puzzles under the name of 'The Anchor Puzzle'. The Anchor puzzles were so successful that over 30 new designs of puzzle sets were followed. During the World War I, it was popular among the troops in the trenches of both sides. Thomas Edison and U. S. President Grover Cleveland publicly endorsed the puzzles in puzzle booklets.  Lewis Carroll and Edgar Allan Poe are known to have played the game extensively.