Centre Point is another iconic London landmark and was the subject of a long-running property scandal in the the mid-1960s.
According to Wikipedia London County Council bent its own rules to allow a developer called Harry Hyams to build this unusually tall office block (32 floors) in the heart of the West End. In return Hyams agreed to provide a new road junction underneath it, which the council itself couldn’t afford to build.
With property prices rising Hyams made so much profit from it simply standing empty that he had no need to let it out as office space – and for many years the vacant building towered over the skyline as a symbol of capitalist greed. Perhaps it’s appropriate that when he did finally allow the building to be used in 1980, it became the headquarters of the Confederation Of British Industry.
Pic taken with Instagram
They used to say that if you stood long enough at Piccadilly Circus (above) you’d eventually bump into everyone you know. But that can’t be true, can it ? The Statue Of Eros there is one of London’s most famous landmarks, but that isn’t true either.
Its sculptor Alfred Gilbert always claimed the figure portrayed Anteros – the God of “selfless and mature love” as opposed to his brother “Eros or Cupid, the frivolous tyrant.” Though if he was trying to portray mature love it’s odd that Gilbert chose his willowy 16-year-old Italian studio assistant, Angelo Colarossi as his model.
Photo by Carli Peters on Panoramio
Back in 1893, depicting a nude figure on a public monument – even with the addition of wings and convenient drapery – was considered a bit daring. To quell the outcry, Gilbert quickly renamed his statue “The Angel of Christian Charity” – but nobody has ever really called it that. In due course the general public quickly shortened Anteros to Eros in any case and the name has stuck ever since.
