PAPER, Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus

“Look at London, a city that existed for several centuries before

anything approximating England had been thought of. It has a
far stronger sense of itself and its identity than Britain as a
whole or England. It has grown, layer on layer, for 2000 years,
sustaining generation after generation of newcomers”.
DEYAN SUDJIC,”Cities on the edge of Chaos”

Introduction,
How was Regent street conceived? historical, political and social context.
The morphology and style of the buildings of the street.

“In the facades of late Victorian Regent Street seem the last word in in bleached perfection,
that is because the lease holders are obliged to to repaint their stucco at least once every
year. Regent Street is a promenade for the Olympians.” (Green, 1983, page 153)

The economic and social aspects visible in the physical aspects of the street.

Case study,
for a more detailed study of the phenomena visible in Regent Street, there is an emphasis
made in Piccadilly Circus, which is nowadays a road junction, public space and metro
station.Originally made in 1819 in order to connect the area of Piccadilly with Regent street,
it has suffered several transformations throughout the years. The toponymy of this places
comes from two different origins, “Piccadilly” refers to a house where the famous taylor
Robert Baker sold his piccadills (a type of collar), which was then transformed to Piccadily
Hall and then later on the name stuck to this intersection; on the other hand “Circus” refers to
the roman shape of the circus which was a circle, but in actuality:

“ Throughout the twentieth century the British, confronted by the bold

challenge of this open space, will bungle and vacillate, remove poor Eros and
put him back again, rearrange the buildings in such a way that a more
appropriate name would be Piccadilly Square,and generally show an
irresponsability regarding the Circus´s amenities amounting to moral
imbecility” (Green, 1983, page 147)

Although one thing has remained constant in Piccadilly Circus, and it is being a place of high
density of traffic, which its Piccadillys main core value, it is it's more remarkable virtue but
also its downfall.Since its very beginning Piccadilly has been high traffic and crowded place.
Many cultural and artistic practices take place here. Piccadilly is enclosed by very important
historical buildings that host the heart of London´s appealing activities. To name a few, there
is the London Pavillon, and the Criterion Theatre.

Piccadilly is also known for its big advertising screens. The now iconic neon signs began
appearing at the turn of the 20th century, and they have rarely ever stopped shining over the
years, only to show respect for important public figures deaths such as Winston Churchill
and Princess Diana. Which entails a very interesting dynamic between this places actual
financial and commercial value and its role in the identity of the city.

Piccadilly Circus holds a very relevant role in today's consumer society. This place could not
have foreseen that its historical component would come to be second to its retail and
commercial value component. Regent Street and Piccadilly specifically its were all of the big
brands are represented, it is definitely not cheap to hold an advertisement here, yet some
companies have had their logos on this street for decades, which begins to shift the identity
from the landmark to the actual commercial corporations.

This phenomenon could be described as a symbiosis, since both the physical space is
benefited from the commercial implications of the actions that take place within it, But also
the hole capitalist system is benefited from the identity and turistic aspects attached to the
iconic transport junction. Although this a desirable condition for the present, there is no way
to guarantee this will continue to occur, so new ideas have emerged and are beginning to be
implemented that involve the concept of a sustainable business model.

So these new business models would propose benefits for the actual companies in itself, so
it would be very beneficial to the economy but also in the environmental and social aspects
as well. One of the concepts at the forefront of these pioneering activities is the idea of
Urban Consolidation Centers, that usually in theory is highly sustainable, specially for the
environment since it resolves many of the most urgent issues of cities, such as air quality,
noise pollution, traffic safety.etc. But the problem with this models its its financial viability.
Projects of these sort must create an added value to them so that their profits can be higher
than their expenses.

In the case of Regent Street, 7,5 million tourist visit each year and “ Regent Street has a
reputation for beign the premier retail destination in London´s West End” (Duin, 2016). So
there is a lot of interest in every m2 that can be utilized for retail. But also the whole
experience for the consumers must be bettered. “It was discovered that retail deliveries were
uncontrolled, causing unnecessary congestion and road blockages during peak retail
periods” (ARUP,2014). So the solution was to introduce Automatic electric vehicles in the
hole delivery system of regent street and in this way although an investment has to be made,
there is an added value for the involved system stakeholders (Porter and Kramer, 2011).

Making it possible for AI and different Autonomous tecnologies to engage with the historical
sites in a sustainable way seems to be what the future should hold.

How has the street and Piccadilly circus changed with the rise of capitalism and
consumerism?
The overlapping meanings of Regent Street and specifically piccadilly circus, (historical site,
monument turism + comercial, (2. Representing

Conclusion

How a Space can be resignificated through time.

How a historical space maintains the identity of a city, but also adapts itself to
serve very different needs that the ones it was conceived for?

Looking at a public space without the context of its history is like seeing only the
last layer of its composition, sort of like looking at a palimpsest and seeing what
parts of it still work for the current context.

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