Piccadilly Circus - The rise of the north east side of Piccadilly Circus

The Shaftesbury Avenue leases granted by the Metropolitan Board of Works and the London County Council had been drawn up before the appearance of illuminated advertising, and therefore contained no specific provisions against it. But they did contain two clauses under which the tenant covenanted not to 'cut or maim' the walls, or to alter the elevation of the building or its architectural decoration without the landlord's consent. The sign at Piccadilly Mansions had been fixed so as not to 'cut or maim' the wall, and in 1914 the High Court decided that it did not constitute an alteration in the elevation of the building.


There was now little to prevent the use of the buildings on the north-east side of the Circus as advertising stations. 

'The rebuilding of Piccadilly Circus and the Regent Street Quadrant', Survey of London: volumes 31 and 32: St James Westminster, Part 2