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Location: Leicester square, City of Westminster, London,
United Kingdom
Leicester square:
Leicester Square is a pedestrianised
square in the West End of London. The Square lies within an area
 |
| Leicester square |
bound by Lisle
Street, to the north; Charing Cross Road, to the east; Orange Street, to the
south; and Whitcomb Street, to the west. The park at the centre of the Square
is bound by Cranbourn Street, to the north; Leicester Street, to the east;
Irving Street, to the south; and a section of road designated simply as
Leicester Square, to the west. It is within the City of Westminster, and about
equal distances (about 400 yards or 370 metres) north of Trafalgar Square, east
of Piccadilly Circus, west of Covent Garden, and south of Cambridge Circus.
History of Leicester square:
The
Square is named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, who purchased four
acres (1.6 hectares) in St. Martin's Field in 1630; by 1635, he had built
himself a large house, Leicester House, at the northern end. The area in front
of the house was then enclosed, depriving inhabitants of St Martin in the
Fields parish of their right to use the previously common land. The
parishioners appealed to King Charles I, and he appointed three members of the
Privy Council to arbitrate. Lord Leicester was ordered to keep part of his land
(thereafter known as Leicester Field and later as Leicester Square) open for
the parishioners.
The
area was developed in the 1670s. It was initially fashionable and Leicester
House was once residence of Frederick, Prince of Wales but by the late 18th
century, the Square was no longer a smart address and began to serve as a venue
for popular entertainments. Leicester House became home of a museum of natural
curiosities called the Holophusikon in the 1780s and was demolished about
1791–1792.
In
1848, Leicester Square was the subject of the land-law case of Tulk v. Moxhay.
The plot's previous owner had agreed upon a covenant not to erect buildings.
However, the law would not allow purchasers who were not 'privy' to the initial
contract to be bound by subsequent promises. The judge, Lord Cottenham, decided
that future owners could be bound by promises to abstain from activity.
Otherwise, a buyer could sell land to himself to undermine an initial promise.
Arguments continued about the fate of the garden, with Charles Augustus Tulk's
heirs erecting a wooden hoarding around the property in 1873. Finally, in 1874
the flamboyant Albert Grant (1830–1899) purchased the outstanding freeholds and
donated the garden to the Metropolitan Board of Works, laying out a garden at
his own expense. The title passed to the succeeding public bodies and is now in
the ownership of the City of Westminster.
By
the 19th century, Leicester Square was known as an entertainment venue, with many
amusements peculiar to the era, including Wyld's Great Globe, which was built
for the Great Exhibition of 1851 and housed a giant scale map of the Earth.
Several hotels grew up around the square, making it popular with visitors to
London. The Alhambra, a large theatre built in 1854, dominated the site, to be
joined in 1884 by the Empire Theatre of Varieties. The square remains the heart
of the West End entertainment district today.
During
the Labour government's 1979 Winter of Discontent, refuse collectors went on
strike. Leicester Square was used as an overflow dump, earning it the nickname
of "Fester Square".........
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