The proposal was supported by Sir Samuel Morton Peto, the civil engineer and MP for Finsbury, and by Nevil Story Maskelyne of the British Museum (who later became one of the officers).

[6][3][8] After formation, the corps was organised as;[5] The new Bloomsbury Rifles consisted of one company, which joined the 4th Administrative Battalion of Middlesex RVCs.

It maintained its independence despite suggestions that it should merge with the 28th (St Pancras) Middlesex RVC, and the existence of another corps in Bloomsbury, the 19th, formed at the Working Men's College by Thomas Hughes.

[3] In its early days the corps organised a private camp at Wimbledon Common, on the ranges of the National Rifle Association, and in 1871 it inaugurated the tradition of marching to the annual Volunteer Review at Brighton.

Designed by the architect Samuel Knight, an officer in the corps, and costing £11,000, The Drill Hall in Chenies Street was built in 1882–3.

[5][3][7] The Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 introduced a Mobilisation Scheme for Volunteer units, which would assemble in their own brigades at key points in case of war.

[7][11] When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force under the Haldane Reforms of 1908,[17][18] the Middlesex RVCs were transferred to the new all-Territorial London Regiment.