A curved LED screen wraps the stone corner building above a six-way traffic roundabout, with a fountain and its winged statue at the centre.
What Piccadilly Circus looks like
Six streets meet at Piccadilly Circus in a one way roundabout, so traffic circles continuously around the fountain at the centre rather than stopping in front of it. A single curved LED screen wraps the corner building above , running the height of the upper floors.
The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain stands on wide stone steps where visitors sit and gather around its base. A winged aluminium statue of Anteros, popularly known as Eros, tops the fountain on a bronze basin, sculpted by Alfred Gilbert and unveiled in 1893.
The buildings framing the Circus curve around it in channel jointed Portland stone. Three main storeys rise under an attic level of dormers, with Ionic pilasters running through the middle floors. The occupies the south side, its auditorium built entirely below street level. On the north side, the County Fire Office carries a statue of Britannia on its roof.
Piccadilly Circus Underground station lies entirely below ground, with no station building visible at street level. Above the pavement, illuminated advertising has run along the corner since 1908, and the current screen replaced six separate displays that had gone dark in 2017.
Shot in Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus has stood in for itself on screen in recent decades, once stripped of people and once with traffic running as normal. Both productions filmed the real junction rather than a set built elsewhere.
28 Days Later, 2002
Danny Boyle picked Piccadilly Circus for the statue at its centre, which stood inside scaffolding for repairs when the production arrived. To fill the empty square, the crew clipped handmade notices onto that scaffolding, boards reading appeals like 'Have you seen this person?' and 'I will wait here for you.' Street View
Fast & Furious 6, 2013
Fast & Furious 6 became only the third production permitted to film a scene in the real Piccadilly Circus. Dom's Dodge Daytona and Letty's vintage Jensen drag race through the junction among the double decker buses, continuing on toward . Street View
What Piccadilly Circus can double for
Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, Japan
Shibuya Crossing wraps LED screens over a crossing in the same way Piccadilly Circus does, mounted on curved corner buildings above a dense crowd. The screens there run continuously rather than on one wraparound surface, so the closest match is in tight shots that crop out the scramble crossing's painted lines. Shibuya has no roundabout and no central fountain, so a wide establishing shot gives away the difference immediately. Try searching LED screens over a crossing now.
Times Square wraps illuminated billboards over a junction at the same density, stacked around building corners with crowds gathering on its own stepped seating. Its billboards sit on a grid of straight avenues rather than a curved roundabout, which changes how traffic reads in a wide shot. Keep the camera low and tight on the screens themselves rather than the street layout. Try searching illuminated billboards over a junction now.
Oxford Circus in London, United Kingdom
Oxford Circus has similarly curved Portland stone corners and Ionic pilasters from the same early twentieth century Regent Street rebuilding. It has no illuminated wraparound screen and no central fountain, so only tight shots of the stonework read as an interchangeable match. Keep the frame on the upper floors and cornice line, away from the ground level signage that gives away which circus it is. Try searching curved Portland stone corners now.
