Piccadilly Circus, London 1973

From the late 1960s to the late 1980s, the City of Westminster council chose to paint some of its street furniture, including street lights, in a gold—or more accurately, bronze—colour in several busy and high-profile areas. This included well-known locations such as Piccadilly Circus, Regent Street, Upper Regent Street, Oxford Street, and Marble Arch. The intention was to create a more upmarket atmosphere in the core tourist areas of the West End.

In most other parts of Westminster, a different colour scheme was used, with street lights typically painted in a combination of black, white, and sky blue. By the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, the council gradually moved towards a uniform all-black colour scheme for street lights across nearly all areas, usually applied when street lighting was being replaced. However, it seems that Piccadilly Circus retained its distinctive bronze-gold finish for a while longer