The Quadrant, Regent Street, From Piccadilly Circus

In this view of Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus can be seen Swan & Edgar's department store, the County Fire Office and the statue of Eros, otherwise known as the Shaftesbury memorial fountain installed in 1893.

By 1914 Piccadilly Circus was, in the words of the writer Robert Machray in 1902, 'the centre of the Night Side of London'. 'It is a scene that stirs the fancy, that touches the imagination .... As the theatres and music-halls of London empty themselves into the streets, the Circus is full of the flashing and twinkling of the multitudinous lights of hurrying hansoms, of many carriages speeding homeward to supper, of streams of people, men and women, mostly in evening dress, walking along, smiling and jesting, and talking of what they have been to see.'