Did you know that...
Leicester Square, the focus of the film industry’s glitz and glamour in London and a stunning analogue to Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles famous for its multiple movie premieres, initially was the private property of Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, which bordered great Leicester House at the northern end.
Before becoming an entertainment venue, the area thereafter known as Leicester Square was a place for drying clothes, and, later, a popular place for dueling. The Great Globe constructed by James Wyld was used for exhibitions along with the middle of the square between 1851 and 1862.
Nowadays, there are over five cinemas in Leicester Square, including Odeon Leicester Square and Odeon Cinema West End, Empire Leicester Square, Prince Charles Cinema, and Leicester Square Theatre.
The glockenspiel, the ten-metre tall colorful timepiece structure, was originally a gift from Switzerland and Liechtenstein and embodied the spirit of cooperation, tourism, and trade with Switzerland.
The distance between stations Leicester Square and nearby Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line is the shortest tube journey in town, it usually takes just 45 seconds from platform to platform to pass about 260m. You’d probably be quicker walking and yet around 500 people a day still take London’s shortest tube journey.