Picadilly Circus

This photograph taken at night from the southside of the circus, facing north (21/10/03). Similar to New York's Times Square perhaps the circus connects Regent St, Picadilly and Shaftsbury Ave; because of its proximity to Soho, the circus was a significant meeting point in the underground history of homosexuals in Britain, especially for prostitution and informal 'encounters.'

When Alfred Kinsey visited London to study English sexual attitudes, he immediately asked to be taken on a sexual tour of Soho. The area around Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square astounded him. Comparing London to the Hispanic sexual cultures of central America, Kinsey claimed that he had never seen so much street prostitution, except in Havana. And there you have it.