Piccadilly Circus: New screen to make landmark bolder and brighter

Big, bright, bold and Boots

Already blazing with light and bustling with people, the beguilingly brash Piccadilly Circus could become even more so if plans for an extra illuminated screen are approved.

The thoroughfare - a byword in households across Britain for describing any slightly busy space in or out of the home - marks the middle of London's entertainment district.

Now developer Criterion Capital wants to erect another screen to show travel updates, breaking news and promote the latest West End plays and shops.

A cleaner at Boots scrubs the steps and dreams of Bovril

"3 days of peace, music... and love" (no Bovril though)

Connecting Regent Street and Piccadilly, the junction was built two centuries ago and opened to traffic in 1819.

Now known for its giant lit-up advertising hoardings - like the baby brother of New York's Times Square - it is a popular area for tourists, with an estimated 100 million visitors a year.

The first illuminated advert was introduced in 1908, when fizzy water specialists Perrier took on a board to dazzle the folk leaving the recently opened Tube station.

"Fancy a glass of Bovril, darling?"

Happy occasions make it on to the Piccadilly screen as well as more solemn ones

"I've got a beaker of fluid beef under my helmet"

In 1923 electric billboards were set up on the front of the London Pavilion - the site of a music hall built in 1859 then reconstructed when Shaftsbury Avenue was built in 1885.

Sticking with the drinks theme established by Perrier, but more suited to a London climate, the first promotion was for Bovril. A meat extract that had understandably changed its name from Johnston's Fluid Beef, Bovril was the first brand to use neon lights.

Surprisingly, "healthful, delicious, satisfying" refers to chewing gum, not meat extract

It's not and it doesn't

In 1998, digital projectors started to take over over from the neon - and the 2000s saw a move to LED displays.

Richard Malton, from Ocean, the company which managed the lights site at the time, says the biggest change has been the relaunch of the hoardings as one single screen.

The screen counts down to its reopening in October 2017

The area went uncharacteristically dark in 2017 as the old system was dismantled and the new one installed.

Previously, the only times the lights had been switched off were during World War Two, for the funerals of Winston Churchill and Princess Diana, and as part of a London-wide shutdown in support of an energy-saving campaign.

Prince Philip smiles out in 2021

A gathering place for mourning the Queen

Mr Malton said: "Not only was it significant for Piccadilly, it was a reboot that turned one of London's most famous landmarks and tourist attractions into an enabler for global brands to communicate with a global audience - a stage unprecedented and unrivalled."

Yoko Ono paid to have the lyrics from Imagine displayed

The new Piccadilly Lights replaced the previous patchwork of screens with a single LED digital screen - the largest of its kind in Europe.

Bovril started the trend of dark-coloured drinks, which was also taken up by Guinness (Is Good For You, Gives You Strength) and Coca Cola (Have a Coke, Delicious, Refreshing).

Other comestibles companies to tout their wares include Wrigley's chewing gum (After Every Meal for Vim and Vigour), various brands of beer, and fast food outlets.

The biggest London Pride was held in 2019

David Hockney's i-Pad creation

Moving away from eating and drinking, the screens have been used to honour the Royal Family in happy moments (weddings, jubilees) and less so (deaths, funerals).

Fashionista Victoria Beckham beamed her inaugural show at London Fashion Week through the screen, designer Stella McCartney took over on Earth Day 2020 (For Us, Every Day is Earth Day) and grande dame of British fashion, (and actual dame of British honours system) Vivienne Westwood showed a short film there to mark her 80th birthday in 2021 (Do Not Buy a Bomb).

Yoko Ono rented a space for three months in 2002 for an estimated £150,000 to display a verse from late husband John Lennon's famous song Imagine (All the People Living Life in Peace).

"... or Britain goes down"

Campaigners have also taken advantage of the screen's influence. In 1962, growing the country's economy (Either Exports Go Up or Britain Goes Down) was displayed next to an advert for Double Diamond (The Beer the Men Drink).

Portal to the future

Pride in London (We've Come a Long Way But There's Still a Way To Go) used the screens to add a flash of rainbow-coloured awareness in 2019, and Humane Society International (Fur is Not Fashion) took over in 2021.

Space enthusiasts were able to experience in huge detail a vision of the future, via the simulation of the landing of Nasa's Perseverance rover on the planet Mars, where it will look for signs of past microbial life, cache rock and soil samples, and prepare for future human exploration.

The Covid pandemic and associated lockdowns made it difficult to sell advertising space - leading to an advertising space advertising an advertising space

People gathered to view a new artwork from British artist David Hockney entitled "Remember you cannot look at the sun or death for very long" which was created on the artist's iPad in Normandy.

Also using the hoarding is digital arts platform Circa, which utilises a global network of billboards in London, Tokyo and Seoul. The advertising on the screens is paused for three minutes every evening to showcase a daily public arts programme.

The first artist to feature on the slot was Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

David Hockney's "Remember you cannot look at the sun or death for very long" -

"For a Bovril?"

Criterion Capital is currently holding a survey to see what the local community wants from the screen before it submits a planning application to Westminster City Council.

Criterion said the new screen would be hung on the London Pavilion's 1980s steel panels in order to not damage the Grade II listed brickwork underneath.

A description of the design on its website said: "The design will be sensitive to the character of the building and the works that will be carried out will preserve its historic features. The historic importance of the London Pavilion will be respected and enhanced to become a key centre of civic communication and a community hub of public information."

But sadly, no mention is made of Bovril.