Piccadilly Circus is a transport interchange and town square in central London. It was created in 1819 between Regent Street and Piccadilly Street, later Shaftesbury Avenue was added to these streets. In 1906, a metro station of the same name was built under the square.
One of the main attractions of Piccadilly is the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain, installed here in 1892. The fountain's author was Alfred Gilbert, who crowned the memorial with the figure of Anteros, the younger twin brother of Eros, who, unlike his older brother, personified selfless love. But Londoners, who were not particularly knowledgeable in ancient Greek mythology, began to call the sculpture Cupid. And those who did not understand what the nude figure had to do with the memorial, were convinced that the sculptor had depicted an "angel of Christian mercy."
The second main attraction of the square is its luminous signs, which appeared at the beginning of the XX century. Soon the "Ilyich light bulbs" were replaced by neon and became the symbol of Piccadilly.
