Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus is both a street junction and a public space in London's West End, laid out by John Nash in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. Architecturally, circus means a circular open space at a road junction. At its centre stands Alfred Gilbert's Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain of 1893, topped by the winged aluminium figure usually called Eros - actually his brother Anteros - an allegory of selfless Christian love honouring the social reformer Lord Shaftesbury, and the world's first aluminium sculpture. The north-east corner has been famous for its illuminated advertising since 1908: London's first electric sign hung here in 1923. Today Shaftesbury Avenue, Regent Street and Haymarket all cross here; the steps at the foot of Eros remain the classic London meet-up point before theatre or Soho.