Piccadilly Circus

[rst22]

Here are some recent pics from the other main thread.

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

Regent Street is one of the most beautiful streets anywhere on the planet. I took these pics around the Picadilly vicinity a few months back:















uber-tacky:

[DarJoLe]

Do they ever have the fountains on Eros anymore?

[rst22]

I think what Copenhagen has in their town square would be perfect. The right balance between signs and showing the facade of the buildings. I think they even have neon on their city hall.

[beefykeefy]

Originally Posted by CheekySlut

I agree: London should maximise the emphasis on the history of the area. Oxford Circus, Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus, Waterloo Place, and Carlton Terrace, together form one of London's only 'period set-pieces'. That one area contains almost all of London's best examples of Regency architecture and design, and the uniformity of the area is extremely rare in what is often described as a 'patchwork' city.

I don't think there's much left of the old Nash Regency terraces in Regent Street/Piccadily Circus area. What's there is an early 19th revamp of Nash's work, I think by Aston Webb famous for Buckingham Palace and The Mall remodelling.

There was a plan to turn PC into a square/oblong at that time too, and give it more symmetry and drama. Pity it never happened. London is littered with what if's...

[Growing London]

There is sccafolding work over the LG sign

[rst22]

Originally Posted by Growing London

There is sccafolding work over the LG sign

What sign is that?

[eddyk]

Originally Posted by rst22

What sign is that?

The LG one.


If opposite the Piccadilly circus signs almost atop of another building... whos name I do not know.


It used to be a vodafone sign, here is my message being read on it.


'HI EDDY HOWS IT HANGING?.....EDDY'

[rst22]

I wasn't familair with that sign. Are they getting rid of it? This is what they have in Copenhagen. They have the Neon signs on top of the buildings.

http://classiccopenhagen.blogspot.co...neon-king.html

[rst22]

Some more pics from a few years ago.

Originally Posted by wjfox

[davidaiow]

It's looking much better lately. The removal of all that clutter is amazing. Again, I wish there were more lights, here and Leicester square (Imagine a great big screen showing films etc on the Burger King curve), but what we have now, is much better than what we had even 5 years ago.

[rst22]

Originally Posted by davidaiow

It's looking much better lately. The removal of all that clutter is amazing. Again, I wish there were more lights, here and Leicester square (Imagine a great big screen showing films etc on the Burger King curve), but what we have now, is much better than what we had even 5 years ago.

What exatly do you mean by clutter being removed? What speficically was removed?

[eddyk]

They removed all the road barriers (pictured above), dunno what else.

[TedStriker]

I'm every day in Piccadilly Circus and the place looks and feels so much better than before, both because of the clutter removal and the new road layout.

[hifive605]

There was meant to be a major remodeling and widening of the pavements together with removal of the barriers in time for the Olympics - has this all happened?

[jdjones]

I personally think they should not have allowed Coca Cola to take up the Nescafe/Fosters space, and given it to someone else, to break up the area. Similarly they should cut the Samsung advert in two, giving one half to someone else, I think there should be more of a variety. Also I think they should cover the rest of the same building down Shaftesbury Avenue, the area covered by a French Connection advert in this pic:



If they did that I would have no worries about leaving the other buildings bare. Then again if they were to head down Shaftesbury Avenue, they might aswell cover that ugly Nat West building, although that is a bit further down the street and not as clear to view, after all the companies are going to want to be seen from the tourist view point (the centre of the Circus), not down 'some street'.

[TedStriker]

Originally Posted by hifive605

There was meant to be a major remodeling and widening of the pavements together with removal of the barriers in time for the Olympics - has this all happened?

All done.

[Mr Bricks]

^Any pics?

[Light Parade]

Originally Posted by beefykeefy

I don't think there's much left of the old Nash Regency terraces in Regent Street/Piccadily Circus area. What's there is an early 19th revamp of Nash's work, I think by Aston Webb famous for Buckingham Palace and The Mall remodelling.

There was a plan to turn PC into a square/oblong at that time too, and give it more symmetry and drama. Pity it never happened. London is littered with what if's...

Early 20th century - Regent Street was remodelled after WWI.

Here's the post-WWII remodelling plan. As you can, Regent Street, Piccadilly and the Criterion are all present and correct, as is the Regents Palace Hotel! Shaftesbury Avenue and the London Pavilion are replaced by... well, a new palace, by the looks of things. I assume the thinking was that it would be a new college, institution or museum. Or a giant Raymond Revue Bar.

All very Parisian, and not very London at all.

[davidaiow]

That's fascinating! Thanks for sharing!

[Light Parade]

My pleasure. At this point, I always recommend people to go over to the Lost London thread, to see what was, and what never was. It one of the best things (and best-kept secrets) on the internet. Even when it goes on for pages about street furniture...

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=442332