London’s top attractions - Leicester Square

Leicester Square(Less-ter) is most definitely an area that can be called a tourist trap. It’s a pedestrianised square in an area that’s bordered by Soho, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly, and in and around it you’ll find all the big chain restaurants and bars such as Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock Casino etc.

Looking for the Union Jack t-shirt or plastic policeman’s helmet, they’ll be a stall with it somewhere around here, but you’ll also get big crowds at night, drawn to the cinemas all around the square and nightclubs like Cafe de Paris, the Hippodrome(Cirque) and a few others in the area. Leicester Square is where pretty much every big movie premiere will take place in London. There’s plenty of space outside somewhere like the Empire for a red carpet top be rolled out and a crowd to gather.

In the centre of the square are two grassy areas with large trees providing shade throughout and benches to sit on all the way round. You’ll get the occasional street performer doing their thing to make a couple of quid around here although they might not be top quality.

There are a lot of booths offering discount and half price theatre tickets around Leicester Square but the busiest is the tkts office in the southwest corner. tkts is the official Society of London Theatre’s discount outlet and the last time I was there it had a long line of people waiting while other discounter’s weren’t that busy.

If you’re walking around central London you’re bound to pass through Leicester Square at some point especially heading between Soho and Covent Garden. It’s a place to stop if you want a quick drink or something to eat or to catch a film, its very busy at night but there are better places to hangout. Map