Subject Circle
Posted by wwh (Carpal Tunnel)
Posted on Thu Mar 6 09:19:18 2003


Trying to figure out a way to make a post about "circle", I suddenly remembered "circus" -
shich to me used to mean a big tent covering a big round track around which bears rode
motorcycles, and in the center wirewalkers and trapeze artists performed up high, and
lots of animals performed down below. So when I was young I wished I lived in London,
because there was a circus there every day - Picadilly Circus.
I found a lot of pictures, but none that gave a clear idea of the whole. And I had no
luck finding history of it. Maybe dxb would be willing to tell us about that.

Well, OK, you did ask - see the next post.

Piccadilly Circus came into being as one of the main intersections on the Royal Route (I’m afraid it was never a circus with clowns and animals). Some high points in its history are given below.

In 1688 building work started along Piccadilly itself, a road running south-west from the Circus, and the name comes from an old word for a stiff collar, 'pickadil', taken from the clothing work that used to be done by a tailor in nearby Haymarket. The tailor built himself a house that he called Piccadilly Hall.

In 1707 Fortnum and Mason’s shop was opened on Piccadilly.

In 1819 Piccadilly Circus was constructed according to plans by architect John Nash.

In 1893 one of the symbols of London, the famous statue of ‘Eros’ was unveiled. The winged angel in fact depicts Charity, not Eros, and is a memorial to the philanthropist Lord Shaftesbury. The figure rises above a fountain, which is made in bronze, but Eros is made out of aluminium, at that time a rare and novel material.

In 1910 the first electrically illuminated advertisements on the facades of Piccadilly Circus buildings appeared. The other sides of the Circus are free from adverts because the ground leases granted by the Crown strictly prohibit all signs.

1914-18, a First World War trench song especially for Dr Bill:
I don't want to join the army,
I don't want to go to war.
I'd rather hang around Piccadilly underground,
Living off the earnings of a lady typist.
I don't want a bayonet in my belly,
I don't want my bollocks shot away.
I'd rather stay in England, in merry merry England,
And fornicate this bleeding life away.
There are many different versions of this – most are very crude and not for this sophisticated forum. If you are familiar with the reputation of Piccadilly Circus at that period and for some decades before and after, you will guess that ‘lady typist’ is a euphemism.

In 1917 the last of the zeppelin raids of WW 1 dropped bombs on the Swan and Edgar store in Piccadilly Circus.

In 1926, to ease traffic congestion, the first roundabout system was introduced – in Piccadilly Circus. A few years ago Eros was moved towards the south side of the Circus and the pavement was built out to surround it, so there is no longer a roundabout here.

I made a potted history of London’s development to put Piccadilly into a context. If you are interested see the post following this one.

London is really two cities; the City of London, the country’s business centre, often known as the ‘Square Mile’ or ‘The City’ (approximately the area that used to be enclosed by the old Roman walls), and the City of Westminster which, with its environs, makes up the West End and is home to the country’s administration. Westminster also contains shops, parks, palaces, hotels and residential property. Connecting the two is a street called Strand that runs south-west from Chancery Lane, the western border of The City, in a straight line to The Mall – a roadway that extends that line on to Buckingham Palace.

The Celts called it Llon Din (Ship Hill). The Romans called it Londinium and built a massive wall around its 30,000 population. The Saxons followed and the population dropped to 12,000. The Vikings arrived and displaced the Saxons and then the Normans (who were really some other Vikings in disguise) took over in 1066.

King Canute, a pre-Norman Viking who wanted to keep an eye on the powerful London merchants, set up house west of London in 1016, Edward the Confessor completed an Abbey there in 1065 and so Westminster got its name. It became home to the Kings of England for the next 500 years.

By the time of Henry VIII London was already two cities; London where the merchants lived and worked, and Westminster, where the king lived and held court. Strand, running between the two became home to wealthy influential people – lawyers mostly (who else), and it is still the centre for legal business today. Between 1400 and 1630 London grew from 50,000 people to 250,000. Ever more people and housing were packed into its muddy, slimy, smelly, narrow, tortuous streets; it stank, there were plagues. The great fire of 1666 meant London needed rebuilding. Although the architect Sir Christopher Wren wanted to start over, people mostly built on the maze of streets that had been there before so the random pattern was perpetuated; but he built lots of churches.

During the Georgian period the population grew to 1.7 million, the majority living in slums in the East End. The wealthy built fine squares and houses in and around Westminster – what is now the West End. In 1802 John Nash, another great architect, was tasked by the Prince Regent with the huge project of Regent’s Park and Regent Street, which was to include a royal processional route to Buckingham Palace. The processional route included Park Crescent, Oxford Circus, Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and The Mall. Although great swathes of buildings were flattened to make way for this project the remainder of London was untouched.

The London metropolitan area grew to about 6 million people in Victorian times and is now around 15 million, but whereas The City of London in 1801 had a population of 124,000, it now houses a mere 5000.

As a result of these steps of unplanned growth, each time with population growing ahead of area, London is neither a rigid pattern like grid-iron New York nor a city of great boulevards designed to provide a clear field of fire like the rebuilt ramrod Paris of Haussman. London, particularly to the east of Regent Street, is random. And this lack of planning makes it both interesting and infuriating to navigate.

Today there are two London mayors. Gavyn Arthur is The Lord Mayor of London, a title that’s been around since 1189, and he is concerned with the well-being of The City of London, whereas Ken Livingston is The Mayor of London, the first to hold this position, and he is concerned with the whole of London. Ken it is who has introduced congestion charging in the capital along with some other traffic schemes, such as closing the north side of Trafalgar Square to traffic that, I must confess despite early scepticism, do seem to have improved traffic flow in the centre of town by reducing the number of vehicles. I wonder how long it will last. So London’s administration and topography continues to change, and I hope it always will.

Thanks, dxb. I have read it once, but will have to read it a couple more times. You clearly
put a good bit of work into it. Picadilly reminds me of the chopped pickle relish so common'y
serve in U.S. with hotdogs or hamurgers. Thanks for your labors on our account.

For those interested Perseus has an online collection of maps of London dating from 1600 to 1999 at:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/city-view.pl



Bingley

Now that I've had time to really read your posts, dxb: wow! [utterly impressed e] What knowledge you have, and what ability to impart it clearly. Um--so, how did those places come to be called circuses, please? Pickadil...peccadillo...was there a connection in some way?
'Eros' is really Charity? Golly--isn't it something, how if a wrong is repeated oft enough, it can become a right? I also never realized that the Mayor of London and the Lord Mayor of London were two different people/offices, or that London is really two cities. Golly, there's so much that I don't know! It really is a shame that, after the fire, they didn't rebuild according to a logical plan. And yet, it's neat to see, literally, see, the effects from the long-ago history of a place. Wow--in the City, you could imagine that 400 years ago, right under the very pavement you're on, someone was walking their cow to market... Is there much archeology, there?

so, how did those places come to be called circuses, please?

I think it's the same reason the shows under the Big Top are called circuses. The circus rings. The traffic circles. Latin word for ring is circus.

Re:Connecting the two is a street called Strand that runs south-west from Chancery Lane, the western border of The City, in a straight line to The Mall – a roadway that extends that line on to Buckingham Palace.

The Strand is very old... it was an old Street in the 1300's when John of Gaunt build his hold in London on the Strand... in the middle of Strand, is the Church of St Clement (the Dane), or as it is called 'St Clemen's Dane', as in

"Oranges and Lemons" say the bells of St Clemens,
"You owe me five farthings" say the bells of St Martins,
"When will you pay me?" say the bells of old Bailley,
"When i grow rich!", says the great bells of Ditch.

(from memory of the childhood song... some of the church names might be wrong, but its how i learned it...)