Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, a circus, from the Latin word meaning "circle", is a round open space at a street junction.

Piccadilly now links directly to the theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue, as well as the Haymarket, Coventry Street (onward to Leicester Square), and Glasshouse Street. The Circus is close to major shopping and entertainment areas in the West End. Its status as a major traffic junction has made Piccadilly Circus a busy meeting place and a tourist attraction in its own right. The 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 Eros. 

It is surrounded by several notable buildings, including the London Pavilion, Criterion Restaurant and Criterion Theatre. Directly underneath the plaza is Piccadilly Circus tube station, part of the London Underground system.

My memories of Piccadilly Circus are manifold; I have been here more times than I can remember a sometimes when imbibing helped me forget.  I recall a wild night in Wards Irish Bar off the Circus and the best pint of Guinness outside of Ireland on offer.  It was with a mass of mates from RAF Northolt on one of our regular trips down into London which culminated in a London show and a stopover at the Nuffield Centre where show tickets were also available at give away price of 50 pence.  I went to see the Thoughts of Chairman Alf with Alf Garnett the actor Warren Mitchell in 1976 in my first year of RAF service.  It would have been later in that year well after my basic training completed in July.  I saw five of him for most of the night and even managed to heckle and get heckled back.  He asked if there were any colonials in the audience and I shouted out that I was from Omaha (for some ill advised reason).  I seem to recall being told to bugger off back to where I came from!

The following joke from an on line source, is quite pathetic but I can’t help but include it here - O'Connor was sitting in Ward's Irish bar, Piccadilly, London with a large Rottweiler at his feet.  'Does your dog bite?' asks Murphy. 'No,' replies O'Connor. So Murphy pats the dog who almost rips his arm off completely.  'Hey!' screams Murphy, 'you said your dog didn't bite, O'Connor.' 'That's not my dog Murphy,' concludes O'Connor.

My ex work colleague Sarah Kingsnorth when with Northamptonshire Police told me of the time Billy Connolly streaked naked around the statue of Eros and that she had been there also in Wards Bar for that event.  She had been there with her dad who was part of Billy Connolly’s Team.  Interesting that the video is no longer accessible through YouTube, I guess over exposure has its limits.

My last two times at Piccadilly were with my beloved wife Kim in 2012 and in 2009 with Coreen Sauriol when I was the semblance of sensible and a tour guide.