3-015-997 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Piccadilly Circus, 1915. A dramatic scene of crowds as they move through Piccadilly Circus, a circular road junction and major public space bordered by stately buildings in London’s West End. The buildings rise up around the crowd, their facades emanating a soft light from their shop fronts, the most prominent being the edifice of the County Fire Office on the far left; the Pavilion is beyond the crowd near the centre of the work. A tense feeling of war hangs over the scene; search lights slice through the dark ink of the sky and street lamps, their regulation war lampshades cast an eerie light throughout the crowd, silhouetting the motor cars and the Shaftesbury Memorial (Eros).