Piccadilly Circus
London's answer to Times Square, free and always buzzing, where the great curved billboards glow over the famous winged statue everyone calls Eros.
The lowdown
Piccadilly Circus is where several of the West End's grandest streets crash together, and it has been one of London's great public crossroads since it was laid out in 1819. Its curved bank of vast illuminated advertising signs has glowed over the junction for more than a century, the city's own miniature Times Square.
At its centre stands the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain, topped by a winged archer everyone calls Eros, though the sculptor intended it as his brother Anteros, the god of selfless love, in honour of the philanthropist Lord Shaftesbury. The steps beneath it are one of London's oldest and busiest meeting spots.
It is loud, bright and unapologetically touristy, but it is also free, central and unmistakably London. From here you are minutes from the theatres of Shaftesbury Avenue, the shops of Regent Street and the lights of Soho.
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