Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus is a very busy junction in the heart of central London, an iconic place that you’ll see on a thousand postcards of London or in stock photographs, similar to the way Times Square is seen as an image of New York.

Its where the major streets of Piccadilly, Regent Street, Shaftesbury Avenue and Haymarket meet and means that within easy walking distance are the entertainment areas of Soho and Leicester Square, Chinatown, many West End theatres and the shopping on Regent and Oxford Street’s.

There’s an Underground station at Piccadilly Circus, on the blue Piccadilly Line, and many people coming into the West End will use this as their starting point before fanning out to see what is happening in the city.

On the south side of the Circus is the famous Eros statue, a memorial fountain to the late Earl of Shaftesbury first erected in 1892 that is topped by a winged archer. Eros is surrounded by steps making it a popular place for tourists and Londoners to sit and people watch, eat lunch or have a picture taken.

Another distinctive image of Piccadilly Circus are the huge neon signs that wrap around buildings on its northern side. Because it attracts so many people its had various types of this large advertising for over a hundred years, today giant LED screens are in vogue. Major shops you’ll find at Piccadilly Circus include the famous Lillywhites sporting goods store which has Eros immediately in front of it and the former Tower Records store on the west side where Regent Street meets Piccadilly, this became Virgin Megastores and has since rebranded as Zavvi.

Any visitor to London is bound to pass through Piccadilly Circus at some time even if doing so is unplanned because its such a focal point on the way to other busy areas of the city. Stop and have your picture taken, its one of the most recognizable London locations, used in countless movies set in the capital and you’ll be able to say I was there.