60-458: The Criterion Restaurant is an opulent restaurant complex facing Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London. It was built by architect Thomas Verity in Neo-Byzantine style for the partnership Spiers and Pond , which opened it in 1873. Apart from fine dining facilities it has a bar. It is a Grade II* listed building and is among the most historic and oldest restaurants in the world. In
120-522: A bomb injured 16 people. A 2 lb bomb exploded on 6 October 1992, injuring five people. The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain at Piccadilly Circus was erected in 1893 to commemorate the philanthropic works of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury . It was removed from the Circus twice and moved from the centre once. The first time was in 1922, so that Charles Holden 's new tube station could be built directly below it. The fountain returned in 1931. During
180-556: A friend at the Criterion, "I was standing at the Criterion Bar, when some one tapped me on the shoulder, and turning round I recognized young Stamford, who had been a dresser under me at Barts ." A plaque commemorating this event was placed there in 1953. The Criterion Bar is one of only two establishments permitted to serve liquor in G.K. Chesterton's 1914 novel, The Flying Inn . The British opium addict Grosely recalls yearning for
240-447: A large restaurant and tavern with ancillary public rooms. The competition was won by architect Thomas Verity . Building work began in the summer of 1871, and was completed in 1873 at a total cost of over £80,000 (£8 million adjusted for inflation ). The contractors included Messrs. Hill, Keddell and Waldram and Messrs. George Smith and Company. It was designed by Thomas Verity as a five-level complex with its Marble Hall and Long Bar on
300-540: A mark of 8/10. The Criterion won the "Best London Restaurant 2011" award having been voted in at first place by the dining community. In December 2015 restaurant has reopened as Savini at Criterion serving an all day classical Milanese menu until 2018 when the restaurant reopened under the Granaio brand. In 1992, after extensive refurbishment, the room was re-opened under the management of Bob Payton's My Kinda Town Restaurant Group as The Criterion Brasserie. My Kinda Town ran
360-440: A new London Pavilion was constructed, which also served as a music hall. In 1924 electric billboards were erected on the side of the building. In 1934, the building underwent significant structural alteration and was converted into a cinema . In 1986, the building was rebuilt, preserving the 1885 façade, and converted into a shopping arcade . In 2000, the building was connected to the neighbouring Trocadero Centre , and signage on
420-582: A one-way roundabout on 19 July 1926. Traffic lights were first installed on 3 August 1926. During World War II many servicemen's clubs in the West End served American soldiers based in Britain. So many prostitutes roamed the area approaching the soldiers that they received the nickname "Piccadilly Commandos", and both Scotland Yard and the Foreign Office discussed possible damage to Anglo-American relations. At
480-552: A place or situation which is extremely busy with people. It has been said that a person who stays long enough at Piccadilly Circus will eventually bump into everyone they know. Probably because of this connection, during World War II, "Piccadilly Circus" was the code name given to the Allies' D-Day invasion fleet's assembly location in the English Channel. Piccadilly Circus has inspired artists and musicians. Piccadilly Circus (1912)
540-592: A planned reopening as part of the Granaio chain at the end of July 2018. In May 2021, Granaio at Criterion has been taken over by the building's landlord Criterion Capital from the Gatto family, who had reportedly vacated the premises. Masala Zone, Piccadilly Circus opened in the Criterion building in 2023. In the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet , Dr. Watson is told of his prospective roommate after he meets
600-507: A purely personal ascendancy was unlikely to be enough for turning the Coalition into a long term political force. The only ways in which the wartime spirit of national unity could be perpetuated was by appealing to the ‘higher unity’ of coalition, with the creation of a single ‘fused’ party to reflect the ‘fusion’ taking place at parliamentary and programme level. Between July 1919 and March 1920 Lloyd George and his associates worked hard to bring
660-407: A tailor famous for selling piccadills , or piccadillies, a term used for various kinds of collars . The street was known as Portugal Street in 1692 in honour of Catherine of Braganza , the queen consort of King Charles II but was known as Piccadilly by 1743. Piccadilly Circus was created in 1819, at the junction with Regent Street , which was then being built under the planning of John Nash on
SECTION 10
#1732855354303720-513: A very busy traffic interchange since construction, as it lies at the centre of Theatreland and handles exit traffic from Piccadilly, which Charles Dickens Jr. described in 1879: "Piccadilly, the great thoroughfare leading from the Haymarket and Regent-street westward to Hyde Park-corner , is the nearest approach to the Parisian boulevard of which London can boast." Piccadilly Circus tube station
780-551: Is Grade II listed. The Piccadilly Circus station on the London Underground is located directly beneath Piccadilly Circus itself, with entrances at every corner. It is one of the few stations which have no associated buildings above ground and is fully underground. The below ground concourse and subway entrances are Grade II listed . The station is on the Piccadilly line between Green Park and Leicester Square , and
840-538: Is a road junction and public space of London 's West End in the City of Westminster . It was built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly . In this context, a circus , from the Latin word meaning "circle", is a round open space at a street junction. The Circus now connects Piccadilly, Regent Street, Shaftesbury Avenue , the Haymarket , Coventry Street (onwards to Leicester Square ) and Glasshouse Street . It
900-517: Is a typically French feature, and so are the high pavilion roofs over the wings, with two tiers of dormers. These, and the single-storey roof over the centre, are crested with railings of ornamental ironwork. One of the restaurant's most famous features is the Long Bar, which retains the 'glistering' ceiling of gold mosaic, coved at the sides and patterned all over with lines and ornaments in blue and white tesserae . The wall decoration accords well with
960-471: Is close to major shopping and entertainment areas in the West End. Its status as a major traffic junction has made Piccadilly Circus a busy meeting place and a tourist attraction in its own right. The Circus is particularly known for its video display and neon signs mounted on the corner building on the northern side, as well as the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain and statue of Anteros (which
1020-605: Is often considered to be part of the Piccadilly Circus shopping area and is known for its expansive food hall. Dominating the north side of the circus, on the corner of Glasshouse Street, is the County Fire Office building, with a statue of Britannia on the roof. The original building was designed by John Nash as the extreme southern end of his Regent Street Quadrant. Its dramatic façade was clearly influenced by Inigo Jones 's old Somerset House. Although Robert Abraham
1080-494: Is popularly, though mistakenly, believed to be of Eros ). It is surrounded by several notable buildings, including the London Pavilion and Criterion Theatre . Underneath the plaza is Piccadilly Circus Underground station , part of the London Underground system. Piccadilly Circus connects to Piccadilly , a thoroughfare whose name first appeared in 1626 as Piccadilly Hall, named after a house belonging to one Robert Baker,
1140-626: Is referenced in the short-form documentary film "Goodbye, Piccadilly", produced by the Rank Organisation in 1967 as part of their Look at Life series when it was still seriously expected that Holford's recommendations would be acted upon. Piccadilly Circus has since escaped major redevelopment, apart from extensive ground-level pedestrianisation around its south side in the 1980s. The Circus has been targeted by Irish republican terrorists multiple times. On 24 June 1939 an explosion occurred, although no injuries were caused. On 25 November 1974
1200-684: Is the name and subject of a painting by British artist Charles Ginner , part of the Tate Britain collection. Sculptor Paul McCarthy also has a 320-page two-volume edition of video stills by the name of Piccadilly Circus . In the lyrics of their song "Mother Goose", on the Aqualung album from 1971, the band Jethro Tull tells "And a foreign student said to me: 'was it really true there were elephants, lions too, in Picadilly Circus?'". Bob Marley mentioned Piccadilly Circus in his song "Kinky Reggae", on
1260-428: Is the star of the show", but criticised the "dodgy oligarch taste: the crushed-red velvet love seats, the metal statues that look like they’ve been liberated from TK Maxx, the unflattering lighting". O'Loughlin felt the food was "infinitely better than the food we endured during Marco Pierre White 's reign". Giles Coren from The Times reviewed the restaurant using his Twitter account awarding his overall experience
SECTION 20
#17328553543031320-469: Is unnamed (usually referred to as "Monico" after the Café Monico , which used to be on the site); its addresses are 44/48 Regent Street, 1/6 Sherwood Street, 17/22 Denman Street and 1/17 Shaftesbury Avenue , and it has been owned by property investor Land Securities Group since the 1970s. The earliest signs used incandescent light bulbs ; these were replaced with neon lights and with moving signs (there
1380-471: The Catch a Fire album from 1973. L. S. Lowry R.A painting Piccadilly Circus, London (1960), part of Lord Charles Forte 's collection for almost three decades, sold for £5,641,250 when auctioned for the first time at Christie's 20th Century British & Irish Art sale on 16 November 2011. Contemporary British painter Carl Randall 's painting 'Piccadilly Circus' (2017) is a large monochrome canvas depicting
1440-460: The Coalition government of David Lloyd George appeared to be in a position of overwhelming strength and public support. Lloyd George's personal reputation was known to be as the "man who won the war ". Yet the government faced serious problems notably in the economy and with industrial unrest . More problematic was the stability of the Coalition as a governing platform. Lloyd George was aware that
1500-471: The Cultural Institute of Radical Contemporary Arts has broadcast specially commissioned two-minute artworks for the screens, broadcast at the same time each evening. In 2022 the segments were shown at 8:22 p.m. At the south-eastern side of the Circus, moved after World War II from its original position in the centre, stands the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain , erected in 1892–1893 to commemorate
1560-714: The Great War . Those Liberals who continued to support Asquith served as the Official Opposition . The government continued in power after the end of the war in 1918, though Lloyd George was increasingly reliant on the Conservatives for support. After several scandals including allegations of the sale of honours , the Conservatives withdrew their support after a meeting at the Carlton Club in 1922, and Bonar Law formed
1620-483: The Second World War , the fountain was removed for the second time and replaced by advertising hoardings. It was returned again in 1948. When the Circus underwent reconstruction work in the late 1980s, the entire fountain was moved from the centre of the junction at the beginning of Shaftesbury Avenue to its present position at the southwestern corner. Piccadilly Circus is surrounded by tourist attractions, including
1680-528: The Shaftesbury Memorial, Criterion Theatre , London Pavilion and retail stores. Nightclubs, restaurants and bars are located in the area and neighbouring Soho , including the former Chinawhite club. Piccadilly Circus was surrounded by illuminated advertising hoardings on buildings, starting in 1908 with a Perrier sign, but only one building now carries them, the one in the northwestern corner between Shaftesbury Avenue and Glasshouse Street. The site
1740-546: The Bakerloo line between Charing Cross and Oxford Circus . The Circus' status as a high-profile public space has made it the destination for numerous political demonstrations, including the February 15, 2003 anti-war protest and the "Carnival Against Capitalism" protest against the 39th G8 summit in 2013. The phrase it's like Piccadilly Circus is commonly used in the UK to refer to
1800-546: The Criterion Bar in W. Somerset Maugham 's short story "Mirage" from On a Chinese Screen (1922), where it represents the London of his youth, far from the squalid life he now leads in Haiphong . In P G Wodehouse's short story Indian Summer of an Uncle (1930) Bertie Wooster's Uncle George is unexpectedly reunited with an old flame whom he met when she was a waitress at the Criterion. Piccadilly Circus Piccadilly Circus
1860-558: The Lights Out London campaign. After the death of Elizabeth II , all advertising on Piccadilly Circus was replaced with an image honouring the Queen, as part of a suspension of out-of-home advertising agreed upon by the industry. Other companies and brands that have had signs on the site were Bovril , Volkswagen , Max Factor , Wrigley's Spearmint , Skol , Air India and Gold Flake (as Will's Gold Flake Cigarettes). Since 2020,
Criterion Restaurant - Misplaced Pages Continue
1920-577: The United Kingdom . Kate Frye, who was a member of the Actresses' Franchise League , would frequently attend and make diary entries on some of those Criterion meetings. Friday February 4th 1910. Started off about 1.45 for the Criterion Restaurant – went by bus. We went early as we wanted a good seat to see Miss Pankhurst . The place was packed before they began at 3 o’clock. Miss Granville took
1980-516: The area at night with crowds, the making of which involved painting over 70 portraits from life. Books Articles and websites Lloyd George ministry Liberal David Lloyd George formed a coalition government in the United Kingdom in December 1916, and was appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by King George V . It replaced the earlier wartime coalition under H. H. Asquith , which had been held responsible for losses during
2040-545: The best surviving work of Thomas Verity , a leading theatre architect of his day. The Second Empire masterpieces of Charles Garnier —the Paris Opera House and the Monte Carlo Casino —seem to have influenced Verity's design, which is carried out in stone, now painted, and is composed of a central face slightly recessed between wings, all similar in width and three storeys high. As originally completed, however,
2100-461: The building was altered in 2003 to read "London Trocadero". The basement of the building connects with the Underground station. The former Swan & Edgar department store on the west side of the circus between Piccadilly and Regent Street was built in 1928–29 to a design by Reginald Blomfield . Since the closure of the department store in the early 1980s, the building has been successively
2160-485: The chair and Miss Adeline Bourne as Secretary and Miss Maud Hoffman as Treasurer spoke in a more or less business-like fashion and Lt Col Sir something Turner spoke – an old dodderer. I could hardly keep my face straight he looked in such a loving fashion at the ladies but of course the thing of the afternoon was Christabel Pankhurst. She is a little wonder. — Extract from Kate Frye's diary on Christabel Pankhurst. David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill In 1919,
2220-484: The entire theatre, with nearly 600 seats, is underground and is reached by descending a tiled stairway. Columns are used to support both the dress circle and the upper circle, restricting the views of many of the seats inside. The theatre was designed by Thomas Verity and opened as a theatre on 21 March 1874, although original plans were for it to become a concert hall. In 1883, it was forced to close to improve ventilation and to replace gaslights with electric lights and
2280-401: The first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet , Dr. Watson is told of his prospective roommate after he meets a friend at the Criterion. In 1870 the building agreement for Nos. 219–221 (consec.) Piccadilly and Nos. 8–9 Jermyn Street was purchased by Messrs. Spiers and Pond , a firm of wine merchants and caterers , who held a limited architectural competition for designs for
2340-428: The first two storeys of the central face contained a great round-arched opening forming the deeply recessed entrance to the restaurant. In each wing the first two storeys have three-bay openings, wide between narrow, flanked by wide piers. In the ground storey these piers are plain, but those above are dressed with segmental-pedimented niches containing statues. A pedestal, with enriched panels in its die, underlines
2400-597: The flagship London store of music chains Tower Records , Virgin Megastore and Zavvi . The current occupier is clothing brand The Sting . Lillywhites is a major retailer of sporting goods located on the corner of the circus and Lower Regent Street, next to the Shaftesbury fountain. It moved to its present site in 1925. Lillywhites is popular with tourists, and they regularly offer sale items, including international football jerseys up to 90% off. Nearby Fortnum & Mason
2460-543: The fusion project to fruition. Winston Churchill set the tone on 15 July with a speech to the New Members’ Group at the Criterion Restaurant in London. Party spirit, party interest, party organisation, must, in these very serious times, be definitely subordinated to national spirit, national interests, and national organisation. —Extract of Winston Churchill's speech in Criterion Restaurant, 15 July 1919 . The Criterion Restaurant's front may still be regarded as
Criterion Restaurant - Misplaced Pages Continue
2520-414: The ground floor; dining rooms on the first and second floors; a ballroom on the third floor and a theatre in the basement. It also had an American Bar , which some view as the first American-style cocktail bar in London. The interiors of the new building were extensively decorated with ornamental tile-work , one of the first examples of the use of this material on such a scale following its successful use in
2580-429: The lofty third storey where the central face has a group of three round-arched windows, their moulded archivolts rising from entablatures above plain piers flanked by Ionic half-columns. Carved in the spandrels are draped female figures, holding festoons looped below oblong tablets. In each of the wings paired Corinthian plain-shafted pilasters flank an Ionic Venetian window, its arched middle light being of
2640-540: The north side, occupied by Boots , Gap and a mix of smaller retail, restaurant and office premises fronting the other streets. A Burger King located under the Samsung advert, which had been a Wimpy Bar until 1989, closed in early 2008 and was converted into a Barclays Bank. On special occasions the lights are switched off, such as the deaths of Winston Churchill in 1965 and Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. On 21 June 2007, they were switched off for one hour as part of
2700-508: The philanthropic works of Lord Shaftesbury , a Victorian politician , philanthropist and social reformer. The subject of the Memorial is the Greek god Anteros and was given the name The Angel of Christian Charity but is generally mistaken for his brother Eros . The Criterion Theatre , a Grade II* listed building , stands on the south side of Piccadilly Circus. Apart from the box office area,
2760-461: The real yellow gold leaf ceiling, being lined with warm marble and formed into blind arcades with semi-elliptical arches resting on slender octagonal columns, their unmolded capitals and the impost being encrusted with gold-ground mosaic . Under the ownership of Georgian entrepreneur Irakli Sopromadze, in July 2009 Marina O'Loughlin reviewed the restaurant for Metro , saying that "The Criterion
2820-625: The recently completed refreshment rooms at the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum ). The restaurant was opened on 17 November 1873. The new venture proved very profitable within a short time. The East Room was popular with ladies who had come to London's West End to shop. The restaurant was a setting for many events and celebrations such as at the Royal College of Science's First Annual Dinner. The Chairman that night
2880-698: The restaurant in May 2009 and planned to acquire other restaurant opportunities in central London. In June 2015, decision was made to place the restaurant into administration following a rent review decision resulting in 60% rental uplift. In December 2015, the Gatto family, owner of the Savini Restaurant in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, reopened the restaurant with the name of Savini At Criterion. The Savini restaurant closed on 27 June 2018, with
2940-422: The restaurant until July 1995 when the lease was taken by Marco Pierre White who arranged for it to be refurbished by top interior designer, David Collins . In 2009 Criterion Restaurant was bought by Irakli Sopromadze of VINS Holdings carrying out a "gentle and sympathetic" restoration of the venue including the refurbishment of the premises and upgrading of the kitchen and equipment. Irakli Sopromadze relaunched
3000-527: The same size as those in the central face, with a fan-shaped lunette of wide and narrow panels, the former ornamented and the latter plain. The main entablature has an enriched architrave, a plain frieze except for the carved panels in the breaks above the Corinthian pilasters, and a dentilled and modillioned cornice which is returned to form large triangular pediments over the two wings. The high pedestal-parapet, its die enriched with ornamented panels,
3060-483: The site of a house and garden belonging to a Lady Hutton; the intersection was then known as Regent Circus South (just as Oxford Circus was known as Regent Circus North) and it did not begin to be known as Piccadilly Circus until the mid 1880s, with the rebuilding of the Regent Street Quadrant and the construction of Shaftesbury Avenue. In the same period the circus lost its circular form. The junction has been
SECTION 50
#17328553543033120-432: The six remaining advertising screens were switched off as part of their combination into one large ultra-high definition curved Daktronics display, turning the signs off during renovation for the longest time since the 1940s. On 26 October 2017, the new screen was switched on for the first time. Until the 2017 refurbishment, the site had six LED advertising screens above three large retail units facing Piccadilly Circus on
3180-498: The start of the 1960s, it was determined that the Circus needed to be redeveloped to allow for greater traffic flow. In 1962, Lord Holford presented a plan which would have created a "double-decker" Piccadilly Circus; the upper deck would have been an elevated pedestrian concourse linking the buildings around the perimeter of the Circus, with the lower deck being solely for traffic, most of the ground-level pedestrian areas having been removed to allow for greater vehicle flow. This concept
3240-431: Was H. G. Wells , the pioneer of science fiction . H. G. Wells was a regular diner at the restaurant. The Criterion was frequently used for luncheon clubs in the early 1920s. Members met for lunch every Thursday at 1pm and the price of lunch was 4s-6d. The first recorded lunch meeting was held on 6 December 1923. The speaker was a member, Miss Joyce Partridge, FRCS, surgeon and lecturer on anatomy. The list of guest speakers
3300-574: Was a large Guinness clock at one time). The first Neon sign was for the British meat extract Bovril . From December 1998, digital projectors were used for the Coke sign, the square's first digital billboard, while in the 2000s there was a gradual move to LED displays, which completely replaced neon lamps by 2011. The number of signs has reduced over the years as the rental costs have increased, and in January 2017
3360-526: Was impressive and varied, including Edgar Wallace , Sir Hugh Walpole , G. K. Chesterton and Bertrand Russell . Suffragettes at the Criterion In April 1909 the Criterion Restaurant, renowned for its afternoon tea and in particular high standard of ladies cloakrooms, was a setting for many afternoon tea meetings organised and held by the WSPU and Christabel Pankhurst as a part of Women's suffrage in
3420-540: Was kept alive throughout the rest of the 1960s. A final scheme in 1972 proposed three octagonal towers (the highest 240 feet (73 m) tall) to replace the Trocadero, the Criterion and the "Monico" buildings. The plans were permanently rejected by Sir Keith Joseph and Ernest Marples ; the key reason given was that Holford's scheme only allowed for a 20% increase in traffic, and the Government required 50%. The Holford plan
3480-531: Was opened on 10 March 1906, on the Bakerloo line , and on the Piccadilly line in December of that year. In 1928, the station was extensively rebuilt to handle an increase in traffic. The junction's first electric advertisements appeared in 1910, and, from 1923, electric billboards were set up on the facade of the London Pavilion . Electric street lamps, however, did not replace the gas ones until 1932. The circus became
3540-517: Was reopened the following year. The theatre closed in 1989 and was extensively renovated, reopening in October 1992. On the north-eastern side of Piccadilly Circus, on the corner between Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry Street, is the London Pavilion . The first building bearing the name was built in 1859 and was a music hall . In 1885, Shaftesbury Avenue was built through the former site of the Pavilion, and
3600-550: Was the County Fire Insurance Company's architect, it was probably Nash who was instrumental in choosing the design. In 1924 the old County Fire Office was demolished and replaced with a similar but much coarser building designed by Reginald Blomfield , but retaining the statue of Britannia. During the London Blitz it was the only building in the Circus to be damaged, with a few window panes blown out. The building
#302697