16 Facts About Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster.

The Piccadilly Circus is particularly known for its video display and neon signs mounted on the corner building on the northern side, as well as the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain and statue of Anteros .

Piccadilly Circus connects to Piccadilly, a thoroughfare whose name first appeared in 1626 as Piccadilly Hall, named after a house belonging to one Robert Baker, a tailor famous for selling piccadills, or piccadillies, a term used for various kinds of collars.

Piccadilly Circus was created in 1819, at the junction with Regent Street, which was then being built under the planning of John Nash on the site of a house and garden belonging to a Lady Hutton; the intersection was then known as Regent Circus South and it did not begin to be known as Piccadilly Circus until the mid 1880s, with the rebuilding of the Regent Street Quadrant and the construction of Shaftesbury Avenue.

At the start of the 1960s, it was determined that the Piccadilly Circus needed to be redeveloped to allow for greater traffic flow.

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Holford plan is referenced in the short-form documentary film "Goodbye, Piccadilly Circus", produced by the Rank Organisation in 1967 as part of their Look at Life series when it was still seriously expected that Holford's recommendations would be acted upon.

Piccadilly Circus has since escaped major redevelopment, apart from extensive ground-level pedestrianisation around its south side in the 1980s.

Piccadilly Circus has been targeted by Irish republican terrorists multiple times.

Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain at Piccadilly Circus was erected in 1893 to commemorate the philanthropic works of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury.

Piccadilly Circus is surrounded by tourist attractions, including the Shaftesbury Memorial, Criterion Theatre, London Pavilion and retail stores.

Piccadilly Circus was surrounded by illuminated advertising hoardings on buildings, starting in 1908 with a Perrier sign, but only one building now carries them, the one in the northwestern corner between Shaftesbury Avenue and Glasshouse Street.

Phrase it's like Piccadilly Circus is commonly used in the UK to refer to a place or situation which is extremely busy with people.

Probably because of this connection, during World War II, "Piccadilly Circus" was the code name given to the Allies' D-Day invasion fleet's assembly location in the English Channel.

Piccadilly Circus is the name and subject of a painting by British artist Charles Ginner, part of the Tate Britain collection.

Contemporary British painter Carl Randall's painting 'Piccadilly Circus' is a large monochrome canvas depicting the area at night with crowds, the making of which involved painting over 70 portraits from life.

Piccadilly Circus's film ran for just over an hour, pausing the regular advertisements at precisely 20:20 GMT, joining together the 30 parts of his month-long CIRCA residency.