PICCADILLY CIRCUS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 11 August 1928, Page 11

PICCADILLY CIRCUS

QOMPLETION of the famous quad-1 xant in Regent. Street has made a problem of Piccadilly Circus. The hub of the world.” as the famous circus is Known to all Londoners, Inns now' been rebuilt on its west side where the quadrant and Piccadilly enter it, but the jumble of its east "side still ' snr*i\es. Sir Reginald Blomtiold is the architect who is responsible lor the nne new buildings on the west side, and the London County Council is being urged to ha i e him complete the new circus by drawing plans to whLh the unregenerate east side can m time be rebuilt. There is no hope of being able to make of the new circus what Paris lias made of the Place de I’ opera. Loudon’s rather clingy opera house is likely to remain in co.ent Garden, surrounded by the sounds and smells of a • fruit and vegetable market. it is hoped, howe»er, that provision will lie made without delay for giving Piccadil- i Jy Circus a unity that- it woefully jacks , to-day and an architectural treatment ’ more nearly worthy of its great pres- < tige. " i

it was bound to come, for the original circus had long been lost. A circus is a round place at the intersection of: streets, and the srnad original circus at the intersection of Piccadilly and Lower Regent Street now forms only one corner of the great triangle that is customarily referred to as Piccadilly Circus. Nor is the .present triangle more than a step toward the even larger Piccadilly Circus of the future. It is uni.ersaliy assumed that the I future Pi.cuddly Circus wi.l be a rectangle rormed oy carrying the line m the north sit.e 01 the quadrant straight across to fell a its bury Avenue, and cutting away most ox the triangular island site on which the Pavilion theatre now stands. This setting bade and rebuilding of the east side will be the next and perhaps the final step in the evolution o. Piccadilly Circus. The sites on which Sir Reginald B omneid has been rebuilding on the -.'e.st: side are Ciown property, while most of the sites on the east side belong to the London Lounty Council. He has already put into drawings his ideas .or the large rectangular circus of the mture, rebuilding the east side to the architectural ideas employed on tne west side, and making of the future circus a dignified architectural unity.

REBUILDING PLAN

iHe believes, indeed, that the famous quadrant in ltegeiit street could find an answer in a similar quadrant curve at the foot of hhaftsbury Avenue. Nash's oid quadrant m Regent Street has, of course, entirely disappeared. Modern site values and tratiie considerations have banished Nash and all his ideas. Although the modern circus has to cope with as great a volume of traf;.c as converges on any point in the west End, Sir Reginald's plan provides for the return oi e<ilbert s little Eros, not to its o<d site in the centre of the present triangular circus, but to a new site a little to the east in the centre of tiie future rectangle. This famous liitle fountain (whLh does not spout, for fear of wetting passengers on passing buses) has been . temporarily removed to maKe room lor the construction shavt used in building the new* unde, ground station at the circus, and at present it occupies an impromptu pedestal on tiie Embankment. underground operations are expected to be completed this jear, and are in themselves indicative of the very

- ueavy traffic which plans lor the future l cir.us have to reckon. The present - underground station stands between 1 cower Regent tetreet and the Hay- - : market on the south side of the circus/ ; but-the new station, said to be capable ! of dealing with more passengers than - any other subway station in the world, - will occupy the entire underground area i of the circus, and will have seven sidewalk entrances. i Tiie big central hall of the new station will lie immediately beneath the surface of the circus, with huge moving stairways in tunnels diving clown to the Baker 100 railway, eighty-eight feet below the surface, and to. .the Piccadilly railway, ICS feet below. The Piccadilly Circus station is a junction station, the liakerlco line running north and south beneath the West End, the Pic adilly line running east and west. Although it is possible that the London County Council will soon take action toward the adoption of a plan for the east side of the circus, there r is as yet little prospect of the demolition o the Pavilion Theatre and its chaotic neighbours. It has long been common I nowledge that some day the present theatre would come down, and London has ne.er wholly resigned itself to the electric signs which deface the entire east side at present.