Piccadilly Circus, London 1959

This colour photograph from 1959 captures a wide-angle view of Piccadilly Circus, looking towards the south side of the junction. The elegant facade of the Criterion Restaurant and the Lillywhites department store building are prominent on the right. To the left, a large advertising hoarding features a prominent BP shield alongside advertisements for Max Factor, Gordon’s Gin, and Associated-Rediffusion. The street is active with late-fifties life, featuring a red double-decker bus, several black saloon cars, and a variety of pedestrians in period attire crossing the road. The statue of Eros is visible in the middle ground, set against the historic architecture of the Haymarket. This archival print is a magnificent record of London’s urban landscape at the end of the decade and is a perfect resource for editorial publishing, historical research, or as a nostalgic piece of wall art.