Two linked iconic civic spaces: Managing Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, London

This chapter continues the detailed analysis of public space carried out in Chapter 9, but the focus now is on Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus (Figures 10.1 and 10.2), neighbouring iconic civic spaces in London. As with Times Square, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus have come to exemplify the commodified, privatised and homogenised character of much contemporary public space. They have become areas of hedonism and consumption, and it is the consequence of this that management processes are now attempting to control.