Leicester Square is very much an entertainment hub
nowadays. London’s biggest cinemas are clustered around the square, and it is the
venue for more film premieres than all other locations in the UK combined.
Leicester Square is at the heart of the ‘West End’ of London, the theatre
district. It’s also home to many restaurants, and is noted for Chinese cuisine,
bordering as it does on Soho’s ‘chinatown’.
Like Pall Mall. Leicester Square came into being during the
Restoration period , just a few years later in 1670. It developed around
Leicester House, home of the 2nd Earl of Leicester, Robert Sidney.
For almost a century it was a highly genteel area, amongst whose residents
included Frederick, Prince of Wales, the father of George III. Poor old
Frederick never had much luck. He co-wrote a play which nearly caused a riot on
the first (and only) night and lost a fortune giving the audience their money
back. Like most of the Hanoverian kings, he never got on with his father, who
refused permission for him to see his mother, Queen Caroline, when she was on
her death bed. Finally he died at the age of 44, supposedly after being struck
by a cricket or a real tennis ball.
Reflecting its connections with the theatre and later, with
cinema, the gardens in the Square contain a famous statue of William
Shakespeare and Charlie Chaplin and more recently statues have been added
including Paddington Bear, Mary Poppins, Harry Potter and Bugs Bunny. Mind you,
you’ll have to really look to find some of them, for example, Wonder Woman is
halfway up a wall, and Batman is standing on the roof of the Empire Cinema.
You’re really spoiled for choice for things to sketch in
Leicester Square. I settled on this view from the mid fifties. The film showing
in the Warner cinema is Hondo, which was a Western released in 1953. I just
really liked the two Londoners chatting on the park bench. Even now in the third
decade of the 21st century, you can’t beat yakking on a bench in
Leicester Square on a sunny day.
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