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Everyone who comes to London ends up here at some point. They’ll be wandering past the bright lights of Piccadilly Circus and get sucked into Leicester Square along with a million billion other people. If you come on a Friday or Saturday night then the crowds are unbelievable… it’s the human equivalent of those mudslides that flow slowly over an entire town. You’ll enter the viscous thick of it as soon as you exit the tube station and then ride it up the station stairs to the street. The trick is to step out of the flow as it goes past your pub and hope the bouncers are a bit blasé.
Once you’ve made it past them (I never got past the bouncers) you’ll be facing a wall of jacketed backs five people deep at the bar. That’s the worst part about drinking round here, trying to grab a barman’s attention over the shoulders of fifteen other people all ten feet taller than you. Then you’ll have to wobble your sloshing beer bottles and pitching pints back through a maze of tables to the tiny patch of standing space you somehow managed to grab by the door, and then you’ll stand in that exact same spot for the rest of the night because you don’t want to lose it, but hey, it’s Leicester Square, and that’s what you do when you’re young.
Photo: londondrum.comBut it’s nice and quiet this morning. It’s just two kids sleeping on each other’s shoulders and a few suits staring into space as they suck on a cigarette. There are a couple of homeless dudes sitting here as well… those beer can dudes who drink Diamond White for breakfast. The only other person I can see is a bouncer outside the 24-hour casino.
Casinos, cinemas and radio stations
Photo: londondrum.comThere are two types of casino in Leicester Square. The Empire and Grosvenor are the posh ones where you have to dress up in a shirt and shoes to get through the door. If you can’t afford those then you can try the flashing fruit machine arcade outside the Hippodrome.
Photo: londondrum.com
Photo: londondrum.comThe big blockbuster movies play at the two Odeons, the big Cineworld and the Vue West End. The Prince Charles Cinema down a side street is a bit more fun, playing all-night movie marathons, sing-a-longs, dance-a-longs, and golden oldie classics.
If you get lucky then you might see a few famous faces coming out of Global Studios by the Hampshire Hotel (home to Capital Radio, Heart FM and LBC). I saw one of the Spice Girls coming out of there once. We’ll, that’s what someone told me anyway, it might have been one of the Golden Girls for all I know.
Shakespeare statue and ‘Scenes In The Square’
Photo: londondrum.comThe first statue to go up was William Shakespeare 150 years ago. You might notice that it’s the same pose as his memorial in Westminster Abbey, except this one has pigeons on its head and water jets around its feet. As I’m writing this a young kid has decided to tempt fate by standing over one of the sleeping spouts, laughing nervously, while his mates are egging him on with their camera phones at the ready. Any second now the water is going to spray up and soak him. Please, oh please let him get drenched… but nope. He has chickened out with seconds to spare. What a shame.
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If you need to wile away some time then you can try finding the twelve cinema-related statues that they’ve hidden around the square. I don’t want to spoil the fun by telling you where they all are but if you manage to find Batman then well done. Laurel & Hardy and Wonder Woman are pretty sneaky too.
The other ones are Mary Poppins, Harry Potter, Charlie Chaplin, Paddington Bear, Bugs Bunny, Mr Bean, Indiana Jones, the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones, and Gene Kelly doing his skipping skit from Singin’ In The Rain. If you can’t be bothered to hunt them all down then there’s a big bronze map in the corner.
Photo: londondrum.comSwiss clock and TKTS cheap theatre tickets
If you visited Leicester Square as a kid then you might remember that Swiss chalet shop with Heidi-like statues dancing round the roof. All that remains of it now is a glockenspiel clock by Piccadilly Circus. They’ve placed a few of the old musical figurines on top and you can see them banging their bells at 12 noon and 6 PM.
Photo: londondrum.comIf you want to buy some cheap theatre tickets then try the TKTS booth in the centre of the square. There are a couple of other shops down Cranbourn Street but they all look too pricey to me (…remember that this is tourist central, so everything is double the price it needs to be).
I also recommend… If you enjoy this then try Chinatown (you can walk it in less than 2 mins); Covent Garden (you can walk it in 7 mins); Piccadilly Circus (you can walk it in 4 mins); Trafalgar Square (you can walk it in 4 mins) and West End (you can walk it in less than 3 mins)
How to get to Leicester Square
| Fare zone | Cash | Oyster & Contactless | Travelcard | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single fare | Single fare | Daily cap | One day | ||||
| Peak | Off-peak | Peak | Off-peak | Anytime | Off-peak | ||
| Bus (all zones) | n/a | £1.75 | £5.25 | £6 | |||
| Train (zone 1) | £7 | £2.90 | £2.80 | £8.90 | £8.90 | £16.60(zone 1-4) | £16.60(zone 1-6) |
| Train (zone 1-2) | £7 | £3.50 | £2.90 | £8.90 | £8.90 | ||
| Train (zone 1-3) | £7 | £3.80 | £3.10 | £10.50 | £10.50 | ||
| Train (zone 1-4) | £7 | £4.60 | £3.40 | £12.80 | £12.80 | ||
| Train (zone 1-5) | £7 | £5.20 | £3.60 | £15.30 | £15.30 | £23.60(zone 1-6) | |
| Train (zone 1-6) | £7 | £5.80* | £3.80* | £16.30 | £16.30 | ||
| * Journeys between zone 1 and Heathrow are always charged at the peak rate. Prices are correct as of | |||||||
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