Leicester Square

Empire, Leicester Square.

Leicester Square has been a busy hub for tourists and those visiting the area to watch films and shows for many years. The square is used for exhibitions and events throughout the year and is always bustling with a palpable energy.

William Shakespeare fountain.

With the Empire Leicester Square and the Odeon Leicester Square, on two sides which are used for film premieres, and more restaurants than you can count and pubs on the other, it is a magnet for anyone heading to the West End. 

Lumiere Festival, 2016.

To the north is Chinatown, the east Covent Garden, south lies Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus is to the west, making Leicester Square a true hub in the West End.

Enough said.

It is possibly because of how busy the area gets that I prefer walking around other areas of London.

m&m's World.

However, every once in a while, I do head here, especially if there is something worth seeing.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.

Over the years I have seen many changes to the square and its surroundings. Statues have come and gone. Fountains and water features have been rebuilt and installed. Paving and seating has been improved. Theatres, cinemas, shops and restaurants have come and gone, too.

Celebrity handprints, 2010.

But the atmosphere has always remained.

Oxo Tower

The original façade of the former power station.

Walking along the South Bank, of the River Thames, there is a myriad style of architecture, with old buildings sitting beside new tower blocks, but, somehow, it works.

It is hard to imagine, but the Oxo building was originally a power station, which opened towards the end of the 1800s, supplying power to the Royal Mail post office.

The windows, built into the tower, hint at what the building would become, following its closure as a power station, but it is these windows that would cause a controversy.