Leicester Square gets written off as the tourist trap you rush through on the way to somewhere better, but slow down and it’s actually a decent day out: a statue that isn’t who everyone thinks it is, a Chinatown gate you’ll want a photo with, and one of the best cinemas in London hiding in plain sight.
We get why Leicester Square has a reputation problem. The chain restaurants ringing the square don’t do it any favours, and the crowds can be relentless on a Saturday night. But this patch of London, wedged between Soho, Covent Garden and Westminster, has been at the centre of London’s entertainment scene since the 19th century, and it still is: this is where the film premieres roll out the red carpet, where the West End’s biggest shows sell out nightly, and where an entire Chinatown packs itself into a few streets you could walk in ten minutes.
Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus both sit close enough to fold into the same afternoon, so we’ve included the best of those too rather than force you to treat them as separate trips.
Here’s what we’d actually do with a day around Leicester Square.
The best things to do in Leicester Square
Find Shakespeare’s bust in Leicester Square Gardens
Leicester Square Gardens sits at the centre of the square, complete with a fountain, a bust of Shakespeare and plenty of benches. Catch it on a quiet moment, which admittedly doesn’t happen often, and it’s still possible to picture the fashionable square that once drew high society here, long before the chain restaurants moved in.
Spot Mr Bean among the Scenes in the Square statues
A series of statues of well-known fictional characters, known as Scenes in the Square, was installed to bring some life to what had long felt like an underused stretch of paving. Look out for Mr Bean and Mary Poppins among them, and there’s an official Spotify playlist to go with the trail, one song per character, if you want a reason to linger a bit longer.
See a West End play
No trip to London is complete without a West End show, and the area around Leicester Square is home to some of the city’s best-known theatres, hosting a genuinely wide range of plays and musicals at any given time. Book ahead through a reputable ticket seller rather than the touts who work the square itself, and you’ll save yourself both money and disappointment.
Grab last-minute tickets from TKTS
For same-day theatre tickets, head to the TKTS booth in the middle of Leicester Square, run by the Society of London Theatre. There’s always a decent range on offer, and the discounts are worth the queue. Worth knowing: it’s the only official discount booth in London, so be wary of anyone else selling tickets from a stand nearby.
Walk through the gates into Chinatown
Chinatown sits just off Leicester Square and feels like a different world, its four main entrances marked by ornate gates with red lanterns overhead. Each gate is designed in a different style, and the newest, on Wardour Street, was only added in 2016. It’s worth visiting for more than the photographs, this is a genuinely good spot to eat, drink and shop, and we’ve rounded up our favourites in a full Leicester Square restaurants guide if you want the detail.
Work out who the Eros statue actually is
Perched on the edge of Piccadilly Circus, the Eros statue is one of London’s best-known landmarks, though the figure isn’t actually Eros at all, it’s Anteros, the god of requited and platonic love. There’s more to the statue’s story too, including a missing arrow and the controversy it caused when it was first erected as a memorial to the philanthropist Lord Shaftesbury, of all things.
Take in the lights at Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus is one of London’s busiest junctions, a crush of tourists, neon lights and huge advertising screens that shouldn’t be as entrancing as they are. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but it makes for a good photograph, particularly after dark when the lights are at their best.
Catch a film premiere on the red carpet
Leicester Square is where London’s glitzy film premieres roll out the red carpet, which makes it a decent spot for a bit of celebrity-spotting if your timing is right. Check the schedules of the square’s cinemas to see what’s coming up, and get there early if you actually want a view.
Sing along at the Prince Charles Cinema
Skip the big chain cinemas on the square in favour of the Prince Charles Cinema, one of London’s most characterful screens. Its schedule is packed with sing-along and dress-up screenings of classics like Grease and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, alongside current releases and cult classics you won’t find showing anywhere else in town.
Listen for the Swiss Glockenspiel
Just outside M&M’s World stands a large Swiss glockenspiel decorated with the flags of the Swiss cantons, a leftover from the days when the building was the Swiss Centre, a shop and exhibition space dedicated to Swiss culture. The clock still plays its melody with an accompanying figurine show at set times through the week and weekend. Hint: check the times before you plan around it, it’s easy to turn up and just miss the show.
Look for the Landseer lions in Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square, arguably London’s best-known square, is a short walk from Leicester Square and home to the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, Nelson’s Column, St Martin-in-the-Fields and Britain’s smallest police station. Look closely at the four huge lion sculptures guarding the column and you’ll notice they’re not quite identical, nicknamed the Landseer Lions after the artist who sculpted them, and each one apparently took an engineering miracle to actually get finished. There’s usually something going on beyond the landmarks too, from street musicians to protests to the annual Christmas tree.
Set aside half a day for the National Gallery
The National Gallery is genuinely huge, and art lovers should set aside at least half a day to do it justice. The collection runs from Rembrandt and Vermeer to Turner and Gainsborough, and it’s one of London’s best art galleries by any measure, free to enter as well.
Meet Blur at the National Portrait Gallery
Portraits tell you a lot about the period that produced them, and the National Portrait Gallery offers a window into the lives of influential figures from the Tudor era onwards. Cardinal Wolsey, Mary I, Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Bloomsbury Group and Blur are all represented on its walls, which is a genuinely odd but fun collection of company to keep.
Catch a set at The Comedy Store
The Comedy Store has near-legendary status on London’s comedy scene and helped launch the careers of comics including Paul Merton, Rik Mayall and French and Saunders. The programme ranges from open-mic nights to improv and stand-alone sets from contemporary comedians, with food available to make a full night of it.
Climb the stairs to the Experimental Cocktail Club
The Experimental Cocktail Club takes some finding, climb the stairs behind an unmarked door for access to this high-end speakeasy, where the cocktails are excellent and the setting is suitably moody. It’s the sort of place worth booking ahead for if you don’t fancy being turned away at the door.
Order the Malaysian classics at Rasa Sayang
This no-frills Malaysian restaurant in the middle of Chinatown is one we keep returning to. It’s good value and serves some of the best Malaysian food available in London, and it’s one of the standout picks in our own Leicester Square restaurants guide.
Get the view from Indigo Bar
Hotel bars aren’t usually our thing, but Indigo Bar is the exception, set on the ninth floor of the Hotel Indigo with one of the best bar views in central London. The wrap-around balcony and floor-to-ceiling windows take in the London Eye, The Shard and the City of London.
Eat where The Criterion used to be at Granaio
Granaio occupies the former home of The Criterion, one of London’s historic restaurants until it closed in 2015. The focus here is authentic Italian cooking in a setting that’s far more relaxed than its predecessor’s, without losing the sense of occasion the room still carries.
Queue for a steamed bun at Bun House
For grab-and-go food near Leicester Square, Bun House is hard to beat, judging by the queue out the door. It moves quickly, and the Chinese steamed buns are worth the wait, we’d recommend the pig bun and the veg bun, with the custard bun a solid dessert option. There’s limited seating inside for a more extensive dim sum menu, though space is tight.
Eat past a robot waiter at Chop Chop
Chop Chop is tucked into the basement of the Hippodrome Casino and is worth seeking out for Chinese food that goes well beyond what you’d expect from the location. The faux-Chinese decor and robot waiters are part of the fun, and the roasted meats and duck dishes are a good place to start.
Stock up on Japanese ingredients at the Japan Centre
The Japan Centre is a couple of streets from Leicester Square and a genuinely good source of Japanese ingredients, along with some of the best takeaway sushi in the city, at supermarket rather than restaurant prices.
Browse Stanford’s on Long Acre
Technically part of Covent Garden, Long Acre finishes at one end on Leicester Square and is one of the better shopping streets in the area, mixing familiar chains with smaller independent names and Stanford’s, London’s largest travel bookshop.
Build something at The Lego Store
Lego fans travel from across London to the flagship store on the corner of Leicester Square, which houses full-size models of some of the brand’s biggest builds and has brick specialists on hand to help with the tougher decisions.
