Piccadilly Circus, London

Piccadilly Circus is a public square formed by the meeting of several important West End streets. It began in 1819 as a link between Piccadilly and Regent Street, and the word “circus” describes an open, rounded space at a junction. The place now brings together Piccadilly, Regent Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, Haymarket, Coventry Street and Glasshouse Street, making it a natural meeting point amid theatres, shops and nightlife.

The glowing advertising screen on the corner building is its most recognisable feature. Coca-Cola has advertised here since 1954, while electric advertising began at the junction in 1908. Look across the space to the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain, created in 1893 to honour the charitable work of Anthony Ashley Cooper, the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury.

Its statue is Anteros, although popular belief often misidentifies it as Eros. The Criterion Theatre and London Pavilion add architectural landmarks around the junction, while Piccadilly Circus Underground station lies beneath the plaza. The fountain has been removed and returned more than once, including during wartime, and it was eventually shifted from the junction’s central position to its present place beside Shaftesbury Avenue. What feels like a timeless spectacle is therefore a carefully altered piece of London, still animated by traffic, theatre-goers and illuminated signs.