F9 - Leicester Square - What to See and Where to Eat and Drink (1.4 km)
- philip carey
- Jul 11, 2023
- 12 min read
Updated: Feb 18
Start at Piccadilly Circus Station
Finish at Leicester Square Station
THE EXPERIENCE
Discovery route around London's entertainment epicentre.
The southern area surrounding Leicester Square is ideal for exploring places to eat and drink. It is also a cultural hub and an entertainment hotspot with cinemas, theatres, casinos, and galleries. The route also includes iconic sights such as Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Pall Mall, and Piccadilly Circus.
It is great for bright lights, great atmosphere, history, iconic sights, entertainment venues, crowds, transport links, shops, cinemas, casinos, theatres, art galleries, museums, and many places to eat, drink and be merry.
BEST TIME
Morning - Most of the route will be reasonably quiet except for the areas around Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus. The best time to explore the route is early morning when the lighting is at its best and few people are around. It is also a great way to discover places for breakfast.
Day -This route will get busier during the day, especially around Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus. However, there are plenty of places to stop for a light snack or a long lunch.
Evenings - This route will get busy around Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus in the evening. There are plenty of places to stop for a drink or an evening meal around Soho and Chinatown.
ROUTE OVERVIEW
This 1.4 km route starts at Piccadilly Circus and heads down Coventry Street to the western edge of Leicester Square by Chinatown. It then heads south via the Haymarket with its famous theatres and then around the National Gallery and back into the heart of Leicester Square with its bright lights, cinemas and entertainment venues.
See the route at speed (2:10)
Use this to see what the route looks like as if you were doing it at speed and to make you more familiar with what you will see along the way.
GOOGLE AND STRAVA MAPS
Use 'My Google Maps' to explore the venues around Leicester Square and Chinatown. If you are using a mobile device, the map can help you find the start point for the route, navigate to places of interest, and show your position on the map.
What to see and places to eat, drink and be merry.
What to See List
1 Piccadilly Circus and Shaftesbury Avenue
2 Coventry Street
3 Chinatown
4 Leicester Square
5 The Haymarket
6 Pall Mall and Waterloo Place
7 Canada House and Admiralty Arch
8 Trafalgar Square and Nelson’s Column
9 The National and Portrait Gallery
10 St- Martins-in-the-Fields and the Strand
Leicester Square Route - Pubs and Bars
Several bars and pubs are along the route, with more nearby, especially in Leicester Square, the Stand, and south of Trafalgar Square.
Here is a listing of nearby pubs and bars
Pubs in and around Leicester Square
East of Leicester Square
The Chandos – Yorkshire – Sams Smiths ales – 29 St Martins Lane
Garrick Arms – 8-10 Charing Cross Road
The Bear and Staff 10-12 Bear Street
Round Table 26 St Martin’s Court
Brewmaster 37 Cranbourn St
The Porcupine – 48 Charing Cross Road
The Long Acre 1 Upper St Martin’s Lane
Round Table 26 St Martin’s Court
The Salisbury Pub – 90 St Martins Lane
In Leicester Square
Moon Under Water – JD Wetherspoon 28 Leicester Square
Joshua’s Tavern – Part of the Londoner 38 Leicester Square
All Bar One – 46 Leicester Square
In and around Chinatown
The Imperial – 5 Leicester St
Slug and Lettuce – (Sports bar and cocktails) – 5 Lisle St
De Hems Dutch Café Bar – 11 Macclesfield St
Waxy’s Little Sister – Irish bar Live music 20 Wardour St
O’Neills 33-37 Wardour St (Irish Pub live music and sports)
Waxy o’ Connor 14-16 Rupert St
West of Leicester Square
The Comedy Pub – Sport and Comedy – 7 Oxendon St
Tom Cribb – Boxing theme – 36 Panton St
Bars and Cocktails
Leicester Square
Icon Balcony Bar – 5-6 Leicester Square - Part of Empire Casino
LSQ Rooftop Cocktail Bar and Kitchen
Heliot Cocktail Bar Part of the Hippodrome Leicester Square
Zoo Bar and Club – 13-17 Bear St – Disco bar
The Beau (Brummel) bar and restaurant – 3 Norris St -St James’s Market
Nearby
Opium Cocktail Bar – 15 Gerrard Street
Leicester Square Route - Places to Eat
There are not many places directly on the route. However, there are plenty nearby to the north of Leicester Square in Chinatown and Soho. Use the food links below to find your perfect spot.
Open Table London prides itself on bringing together people and the restaurants they love in the moments that matter, offering dining options, experiences, and offers.
The Fork —This is a Tripadvisor company that relies as much on its communities of users as its communities of restaurateurs. You can search by price, cuisine, rating, and special offers.
Hardens – This is probably the UK's most comprehensive independent restaurant guide, with reviews written by its members. It ranks each place by its food, services and ambience and has extensive search capabilities.
Design My Night This site is designed to help you discover and unlock secret, new and unique city experiences, from events to bars and restaurants, but it is also a site to help plan and book online. It has categories for restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, and 'what's on'.
Afternoon tea This is an Afternoon Tea guide to help you find the 'perfect venue for afternoon tea' in London and the UK. It provides descriptions, offers, booking facilities and an extensive search option.
Leicester Square Route - Things to Do
This area has many entertainment venues around Leicester Square, including cinemas, theatres, casinos, exhibitions, and art galleries. Theatreland is to its north and east. This range of venues is highlighted below.
Leicester Square and Charing Cross Theatres
Vaudeville Theatre 404 Strand
The Adelphi Theatre Strand
London Coliseum – St Martin's Lane
Duke of York’s Theatre St Martins Lane
Noel Coward Theatre 85-88 St Martin’s Lane
Garrick Theatre 2 Charing Cross Road
Wyndham Theatre – Charing Cross Road by Leicester Square
Theatre Royal Haymarket 18 Suffolk Street
Her Majesty’s Theatre – Haymarket
Trafalgar Theatre – 14 Whitehall
Charing Cross Theatre – The Arches, Villiers St
Leicester Square Theatre 6 Leicester Place
Sondheim Theatre 51 Shaftesbury Avenue
The Gielgud Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue
The Apollo Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue
Lyric Theatre 29 Shaftesbury Avenue
Piccadilly Theatre 16 Denman Street
Criterion Theatre 218 -223 Piccadilly
The Price of Wales Theatre Coventry Street
The Harold Pinter Theatre – Panton Street
Others
The Comedy Store 5 Great Newport Street
The Crystal Maze Live Experience – 22-32 Shaftesbury Avenue
BODY WORLDS London 1 Piccadilly Circus
Casinos
Empire Casino 5-6 Leicester Square
The Hippodrome Casino Cranbourn Street
Grosvenor Casino – The Rialto – 3-4 Coventry Street
Cinema Around Leicester Square
Cineworld Leicester Square – 5-6 Leicester Square
Vue Cinema London 3 Cranbourn Street Leicester Square
ODEON Luxe – 24-26 Leicester Square
ODEON Luxe West End – 38a Leicester Square
The Prince Charles Cinema – 7 Leicester Place
ODEON Luxe Haymarket – 11/18 Panton Street
Empire Cinemas – London Haymarket 63-65 Haymarket
Picturehouse Central – Corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Windmill Street
Curzon Soho 99 Shaftesbury Avenue
PHOTO GALLERY
This gallery provides a descriptive and visual reference to many sights along this route.. Double-click to see the image in full size.
HISTORY & INTERESTING FACTS
Around Piccadilly and the Haymarket
Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus was created in 1819 at the junction with Regent Street, which John Nash was then building. It is called a circus because it was a turning point for horses and carriages as they made their way along Piccadilly or down to Westminster and the Palaces along Pall Mall. The Piccadilly Circus tube station was opened in 1906 on the Bakerloo line and the Piccadilly line in 1926. It is one of the few station entrances that are entirely below ground. The area has always been a busy junction for both traffic and people as it sits between the shopping areas to the north and west, Soho and the entertainment areas to the north and east, and royalty and government to its south, which is why there are so many places around here to eat, drink and be merry.
Coventry Street
Coventry Street was constructed in 1681 for entertainment and retail purposes and later acquired a shady reputation with its numerous gambling houses and a reputation for prostitution. This changed during the late 19th century with the establishment of several music hall outlets, including the London Pavilion and the Prince of Wales Theatre. In 1894, J. Lyons arrived at the Trocadero in Piccadilly and created a tearoom, restaurant and dance hall for tea parties, and from 1909, J. Lyons developed into a chain of teashops in high streets across the UK.
Prince of Wales - Coventry Street
The theatre first opened as a traditional three-tier theatre, seating just over 1,000 people. In 1886, it was renamed the Prince of Wales Theatre after the future Edward VII. It was rebuilt in 1937, and in the 1950s, the likes of Peter Sellers, Bob Hope, Morecambe and Wise, and Gracie Fields graced the stage. Delfont Mackintosh Theatres own it now, and The Book of Mormon is their theatre’s longest-running musical.
Three Graces sculpture by Rudy Weller
These three female divers are atop the Criterion Building at the junction of Coventry Street and the Haymarket. The Daughters of Helios or Three Graces depict the Charites - Aglaea, Euphrosyne, and Thalia - Splendour, Good Character and Festivity. At the base of the building is The Four Bronze Horses of Helios, also by Rudy Weller and depicts Aethon, Aeos, Phlegon, and Pyrois - the four horses of Helios, the Greek god of the sun.
His Majesty's Theatre
The present His Majesty's Theatre is the fourth theatre on the site; the first opened in 1705 as the Queen's Theatre, named in honour of Queen Anne, and was built on a former Stable Yard in the Haymarket. The current Her/His Majesty’s Theatre was opened in 1897 and was changed to His Majesty’s Theatre when King Charles III was coronated in 2023.
The Haymarket
The Haymarket is a broad street connecting Pall Mall with Piccadilly, and during Tudor times in the late 1500s, it was chiefly used as a street market for the sale of fodder, hay, and other farm produce. It was a rural spot then, with the village of Charing as the closest settlement.
Around Trafalgar Square
National Gallery
The National Gallery was founded in 1824 and housed the national collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the 13th to the 19th centuries. It has over 2,300 paintings and is open 361 days a year –free of charge.
The present St Martin-in-the-Fields church was constructed in a neoclassical design by James Gibbs in 1726, but there has been a church here since 1222. Henry VIII rebuilt the church in 1542 and redrew the parish boundaries to keep plague victims from having to pass through his Palace of Whitehall. At that time, the church’s location was literally "in the fields", occupying an isolated position between Westminster and London. Queen Elizabeth II opened the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in 1991 as the new home for its collection of early Renaissance paintings.
Apart from the National Gallery, the eat, drink and be merry places are to the southeast around Charing Cross, the north towards Leicester Square, and east towards Covent Garden.
Irving Street
This street is named after Henry Irving, an English stage actor and actor-manager who took complete supervision of sets, lighting, direction, and casting and played many leading roles at the West End’s Lyceum Theatre. In 1895, he became the first actor to be awarded a knighthood, indicating full acceptance of the profession into the higher circles of British society. There is a Henry Irving statue on the National Portrait Gallery grounds just at the start of this street. There are eat, drink, and be merry places along the street and in the surrounding area.
Wyndham Theatre
Sir Charles Wyndham was an actor and theatre proprietor, and this was his first theatre – The Wyndham's Theatre – which opened on 16 November 1899 in the presence of the Prince of Wales – the future Edward VII. Charing Cross Road goes from Trafalgar Square northwards towards Tottenham Court Road and is known for its bookshops. There are several theatres, casinos, and cinemas in this location. Food and drink can be found nearby in Leicester Square, St Martin’s Lane, and towards Chinatown and Soho.
Canada House and Trafalgar Square
Canada House was officially opened in 1925 by King George V as the office of the High Commission of Canada for the United Kingdom. The building dates from 1827 when the Union Club and the Royal College of Physicians occupied it.
Trafalgar Square was designed in 1830 to commemorate the British victory against the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Apart from the National Gallery, the eat, drink and be merry places are to the southeast around Charing Cross, the north towards Leicester Square, and east towards Covent Garden.
Around Leicester Square
Northwest Leicester Square
Leicester Square was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields and was named after Leicester House and its owner, Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester. The square was built for the rich and famous, and its tenants included Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the artist William Hogarth. Leicester House was demolished in the late 18th century, and the area became more rundown as it became a centre for retail and entertainment. Several significant theatres were built in the 19th century and converted to cinemas towards the middle of the 20th century.
Empire Leicester Square
Thomas Verity designed the Empire in 1884 as a variety theatre, music hall, and ballet venue with 2000 seats. As moving pictures grew in popularity in the 1920s, the Empire and many of the theatres in this area were converted into cinemas. In 1962, it was reconstructed as a cinema and dance hall—the Mecca Ballroom. Today, it is regularly used for film premieres and first runs. There is also a casino in the same building.
Odeon Luxe Leicester Square
The Odeon cinema was built in 1937 on the site of the Alhambra Theatre - a large ‘landmark’ music hall dating from 1854. It regularly hosts European and world film premieres and the annual Royal Film Performance - which the Queen has attended. Originally it had over 2000 seats. Today, it has one massive main screen with 800 seats and four more intimate screens.
Leicester Square Gardens
The land that today forms Leicester Square Gardens once belonged to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster Abbey and was known as Leicester Field. This field was classed as common land, where people were allowed to let their livestock graze. The square has always had a park in its centre. However, its fortunes have varied over the centuries, reaching near dilapidation in the mid-19th century after changing ownership several times. It was restored in the 21st century, which included the construction of four new statues and a fountain of William Shakespeare. The square was extensively refurbished and re-modelled for the 2012 London Olympics.
Swiss Glockenspiel - Leicester Square
The Swiss glockenspiel sits near where the Swiss Centre once stood before being replaced by the W Hotel and the M&M store. It was redesigned and restored by the clockmaker Smith of Derby in 2011. It plays music, rings bells, and features 11 moving Swiss figures against a traditional Swiss alpine backdrop. At the top of the structure, it has images of the 26 Swiss Cantons, 27 bells, and two clocks.
Leicester Square Statues
The Leicester Square Statues are famous film stars immortalised in bronze in and around the square. The current collection, which dates from 2020, includes Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Bugs Bunny, Paddington Bear, Gene Kelly, Mary Poppins, Mr Bean, and Harry Potter. The statue of William Shakespeare is by Giovanni Fontana, an Italian sculptor, and it has formed the centrepiece of Leicester Square Gardens in London since 1874.
Wardour Street runs between Leicester Square and Oxford Street through Chinatown and Shaftesbury Avenue. In the 20th century, it became a centre of the British film industry, with the big production and distribution companies having headquarters in the street. It was also known for popular music venues and clubs like The Flamingo and Marquee Club. Today, it has over 30 restaurants along its length and plenty of pubs and bars. This junction with Leicester Square has the M&M’s World and Lego stores nearby, the iconic W hotel, and many famous cinemas and casinos.
W Hotel and M&M’s World
They were designed by architects Jestico + Whiles for the Starwood W hotel in 2011 and were built on the site of the Swiss Centre. They have ten floors, with two stories of high-quality retail space, a spa, and ten penthouse apartments with views across Leicester Square. W Hotels are renowned for their hip interior design, and this one has 192 rooms and several WOW suits. M&M’s World is their largest shop, spread over four floors.
The LEGO Store in Leicester Square opened in 2016 and is their biggest store, spanning two floors, with 914 square metres of LEGO fun. It features a giant LEGO model of London’s famous clocktower, Big Ben. The name ‘LEGO’ is an abbreviation of the two Danish words “leg godt”, meaning “play well”, and was created in 1932. The building was built in the 1920s and was formerly known as Communication House.
The Chinatown Gate is designed with ornate features in a traditional Qing Dynasty style.
There is no shortage of eat, drink and be merry places around here!
The Hippodrome - Leicester Square
The Hippodrome was designed by theatre Architect Frank Matcham and opened in 1900 with a circus and variety show - and a 100,000-gallon pool with elephants, polar bears and carriages pulled by racing teams of horses. It hosted the first UK jazz band - (Original Dixieland) in 1919. In the 1950s, the Hippodrome was transformed into the legendary Talk of the Town. Today it is a popular casino and entertainment venue.
The Vue - Leicester Square
The 1893 Daly’s Theatre previously occupied the site. In 1938, an 1800-seat Warner Brothers cinema replaced it with the film The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn. In the 1990s, it was completely remodelled as a new nine-screen multiplex and became the Warner Village. It’s been the Vue since 2003, with around 1400 VIP-style luxurious recliner seats.
VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE AREA
Click on the picture below to go on a 360 virtual tour of the shopping areas and look around.
Use the route to explore this location by looking around in 360, taking in the sights and sounds, listening to an audio recording about the area and going on a virtual tour.
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