The area is called circus in the Roman sense, which means “circle”.

Basically a traffic roundabout, it was built in 1819 to join up two popular commerce areas, Regent Street and Piccadilly, but the juncture with Shaftsbury Avenue in 1886 changed the area into the squarish form we see now.

The name Piccadilly comes from the 15th century when Piccadilly Hall was located on the street. The home was owned by a prosperous tailor, and piccadils or piccadillies were collars that were popular at the time.

In 1692 the street was renamed Portugal Street in honour of the queen consort of Charles II, Catherine of Braganza, but by 1743 people had gone back to calling it Piccadilly.

Piccadilly these days has a collection of shops, theatres, and illuminated signs.

The lighted advertising signs once dominated nearly every surface in the area, but these days there is only one building on the north-western corner that carries them. The first signs ran on incandescent bulbs which then gave way to neon, and most of the modern signs are now LED screens.

Another landmark of Piccadilly is the Shaftsbury Memorial which consists of a bronze fountain topped by a winged statue. The statue is of a nude archer commonly thought to be Eros, the god of love but was in fact intended to represent his twin brother, Anteros.

This sculpture was the first in history to be cast from aluminium and caused some controversy when it was first erected as quite a few residents were scandalized that such a sensual statue was part of a memorial to the decidedly prim and proper Earl of Shaftsbury.

Piccadilly is an important part of the London streetscape and certainly worth a visit.

Address: Soho, W1J 0DA

Photo courtesy: nikoretro

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