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Thirty places to see first, in order, for somebody who has never been to London. Each says what it is, whether it is free, whether you must book, and whether the queue is worth it.
Five streets meeting under a curved wall of advertising screens, with a winged archer on a fountain in the middle. Free, and at its best after dark.
Also in Harry Potter.
Piccadilly Circus is the junction where Regent Street, Piccadilly, Shaftesbury Avenue, Coventry Street and the Haymarket meet. It was cut in 1819 when Regent Street was driven north through the city and given its curve, and it has been lit by advertising since 1908, first in light bulbs, then neon, and since 2017 as a single curved screen. Only the buildings on the north-west corner are allowed to carry any, which is why all the light comes from one side.
In the middle stands a winged archer in aluminium on a bronze fountain, put up in 1893 in memory of Lord Shaftesbury, the reformer who spent his life on factory laws and the schooling of poor children. The sculptor meant it for Anteros, the god of love returned; everybody has called it Eros ever since. Free, open, with traffic running through it, and it only looks like the photographs after dark.
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Photo by Lily.Smith, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.