Victorian London - Districts - Streets - Piccadilly (and Circus)

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Piccadilly, the great thoroughfare leading from the Haymarket and Regent-street westward to Hyde Park-corner, is the nearest approach to the Parisian boulevard of which London can boast. From Hyde-park-corner to Devonshire House the houses are confined to the north side, the Green-park forming, to that point, the southern side, which, for a considerable distance, is lined by foliage trees of some antiquity, and of great beauty. Being the high road to the most fashionable quarters in the west and south-west of London, Piccadilly, during a great portion of the year, presents a bright and lively, not to say kaleidoscopic, appearance; and even when the great stream of “West-end” London life seems to have nearly run dry elsewhere it is still to be found, though perhaps but a rivulet, in Piccadilly. Few streets in town have so many associations. Here, or hard by, at one time or another, have lived such people as Byron, Scott, Sir Wm. Petty, Lord Eldon, Nelson’s Lady Hamilton, Verrio, Sir Francis Burdett, Lord Palmerston, and “Old Q.” Piccadilly is one of the few streets left in London which are remarkable both from a commercial and from a “society” point of view. Eastward the double row of houses is almost entirely devoted to trade, and westward a few shops are still dotted among the stately abodes which overlook the Green-park. From the “White Horse Cellar” to the mansion of the Rothschilds, and Apsley House; from the butcher’s shop to Devonshire House; from the tavern to the club-house, every kind of edifice is represented. On a fine summer’s morning the departure of the coaches from the “White Horse Cellar” is an amusing and interesting sight, unique of its kind, in these railway times. (See —COACHES). Among the principal public buildings are Sir Christopher Wren’s brick church, dedicated to St. James, certainly not one of the master’s happiest efforts so far as its exterior is concerned; the Geological Museum, which abuts on the southern side; and Burlington House, the home of the Royal Academy, and of many learned societies.

Victorian London - Publications - History - The Queen's London : a Pictorial and Descriptive Record of the Streets, Buildings, Parks and Scenery of the Great Metropolis, 1896 - Piccadilly Circus

The large open space here represented is one of the great centres of metropolitan traffic, and may be regarded as the very heart of that of the West End, being within a quarter of a mile of practically all the clubs and theatres, and crossed by omnibus lines to all parts, with a number of important thoroughfares converging upon it. Our view looks down Coventry Street towards Leicester Square. On the left is the London Pavilion, and on the right the Criterion Theatre and Restaurant. In the foreground, at the beginning of Shaftesbury Avenue, is the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain, designed by Mr. A. Gilbert, R.A., and remarkable among the monuments of the Metropolis for its daring symbolism.

Our view of Shaftesbury Avenue is taken from Piccadilly Circus. This broad thoroughfare, opened in 1886, leads from the Circus to New Oxford Street, which it strikes nearly opposite the beginning of Hart Street, meeting on the way Charing Cross Road at Cambridge Circus, and Great St. Andrew Street further on; and it has proved a great convenience to the public. On the left of the Avenue may be seen the Lyric Theatre, and some way beyond it, the tower of St. Anne's Church, Soho. The fountain in Piccadilly Circus, which stands on the left of our picture, was erected in memory of the great philanthropist, the late Lord Shaftesbury, in 1893. The sculptor was Mr. Alfred Gilbert, R.A. The building to the right, with the handsome columns, is the London Pavilion Music Hall.

That part of Piccadilly which overlooks the Green Park is chiefly remarkable for its numerous Clubs and palatial private houses, notable among the latter being Devonshire House and Apsley house. Our view, looking west the beginning of the hill, embraces several Clubs, of which the best known are the New Travellers', situated at the further corner of the first turning (a short cut to Curzon Street), and the Junior Constitutional, the splendid, manv-storeyed building further west. Piccadilly does not rank so high in Clubland, of course, as Pall Mall, but the outlook over the Green Park - so verdant and well-timbered - and St James's Park towards Westminster is pleasant in the extreme. The Green Park is some sixty acres in extent.