Piccadilly Circus

On a rainy night in London's West End, pedestrians hurry across the busy thoroughfare, many with umbrellas and coats. The artist depicts the commercial aspect of Piccadilly Circus by focusing on a collage of signs, including advertisements for Coca Cola and Air India among others. Several red double-decker buses make their way down the street which is occupied by throngs of people. Two old-fashioned clocks are included in the scene, along with the famous memorial, the Fountain of Eros, which dominates the centre of the composition.

Charles Potter (1904-2002) donated this work to the Museum in 1977. He was an accomplished artist who studied at the Central School of Art, and at one of his college exhibitions his work was noticed by Campbell Dodgson, at that time Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum. At the Central School of Art exhibition Dodgson bought Potter's "Power Station at Walthamstow". Several of Potter's prints were then exhibited at the Royal Academy, and were bought by Campbell Dodgson for the Prints and Drawings collection at the British Museum, and were included in Fine Prints of the Year, 1936. Potter's work was exhibited between 1939 and 1942 through the British Council in Oslo, Prague, Warsaw, Buenos Aires and Cairo. Dodgson wrote in 17 November 1939 in the London Evening Standard: " No collection of Modern British prints comparable to this has ever been assembled before. There is one exhibit which is of special interest to Londoners. It is an aquatint by Charles Potter entitled "Palace of Power - the Palace of Power being Battersea Power Station which is (at that time) the biggest electrical Power Station and one of the finest pieces of modern architecture in London".