It is among the most well-known squares in the world, synonymous with cinema and glitzy premieres on the one hand and vertical drinking and tourist tat shops on the other. But in recent years that has started to change, and come 2020, when the last of a swathe of major redevelopments completes, Leicester Square should look and feel very different.
Part of the square’s problem has been the focus on evening entertainment, leaving little to draw in footfall during the day. The cheap tourist souvenir shops and proliferation of fast food takeaways are a reflection of the passing trade.
The aim is to broaden the square’s appeal and make it a daytime destination too. Arguably, these plans started taking shape back in 2008 when the late Sir Simon Milton launched a public consultation for Westminster City Council’s £15m transformation of the public realm in the square.
New landscaping, seating and water features took 17 months to complete, before officially opening to the public in 2012. Westminster’s deputy leader Robert Davis says the project has since generated an estimated £0.5bn of private sector investment.
By the time the public space reopened, McAleer and Rushe had completed its redevelopment of the Swiss Centre just off the square with a five-star W Hotel trading and a 35,000 sq ft M&M World (see box). It was a sign of things to come and a change in tone of the offer.
There have been small step-changes to the retail and leisure offer since then – for example, the former Yates’s wine lodge on the west side is now TGI Fridays – but viewed from the middle of the square, a third is either under hoardings or has been demolished.
To the south, the former Odeon West End is a hole in the ground awaiting development into an Edwardian Hotel and new Odeon cinema. The entire west side of the square, formerly Communications House, is under hoardings. The 1920s façade has been retained, but behind this a new building – LSQLondon – is on course for completion in Q3 2016.
Victory House on the north of the square is being redeveloped as a hotel with ground floor retail and leisure. Nickelodeon has opened in part of 1-5 Leicester Square and there is consent to turn the rest of the block into a hotel with further retail/leisure on the ground floor.
“These kinds of mixed uses are vital to the growth and vibrancy of the West End and will create hundreds of jobs, with more to follow as the various developments complete. These are extremely exciting times for Leicester Square,” says Davis.
Sarah Porter, chief executive of Heart of London Business Alliance, which helped secure support from the square’s private landlords for the public realm works, adds. “The investment that Westminster City Council and our property owners have made in the granite footways, fountains, and the pedestrian priority of Leicester Square has set the tone for new developments. As a result there is a broad range of retail, offices, and hospitality uses that are locating here and contributing to Leicester Square as a major destination.”
Tim Sketchley, managing director of LSQLondon developer Old Park Lane Management, says the vision is shared by the private sector, not least because it is an opportunity to rebalance the footfall around the square. “In 2020, you will see something totally different. Pedestrian flows tend to concentrate on the north side of the square – 77m people pass through Swiss Court annually,” he says.
Spend a night in the square
Hotels dominate the new offer being developed around Leicester Square. Radisson Edwardian’s 360-bedroom hotel on the former Odeon West End site will give it frontage on the square to match that of its sister hotel the Radisson Blu Edwardian Hampshire.
These two hotels will be mirrored on the north of the square by Accor’s 80-bedroom MGallery hotel, which is going into Criterion Capital’s Victory House, and 1-4 Leicester Square, where Criterion Capital also has planning permission for a hotel.
Karl Elliott, head of portfolio at Criterion Capital, says: “Leicester Square remains a key destination for huge numbers of visitors and its improving retail and leisure mix, alongside local cinemas and theatres, make it a magnet for leading hotel brands. It has long been a strategic priority to reconfigure some of our existing buildings to satisfy this demand.”
Retail’s sweet success
Historically, Leicester Square has not been renowned for its shops. But when M&M World moved into the Swiss Centre just off the square, the confectioner sowed the seeds for a retail destination unlike any other in the capital.
Cushman & Wakefield partner Toby Comerford was tasked with finding M&M space seven years ago. He says: “They didn’t want to be on Oxford Street, they looked at Regent Street near to Hamleys and the unit The Sting now occupies at Piccadilly Circus. It was only when we walked into Leicester Square they stopped and said: ‘This is it.’”
The deal took 9-10 months as M&M wanted nearly 35,000 sq ft and there were many who needed convincing that it would work, including Comerford, who admits he never thought it would be able to trade over four floors. But if the crowds of shoppers pouring in are anything to go by, it does.
M&M World represents the new breed of “shoppertainment” and come November its opposite neighbour will be a Lego store with the same ethos. The 7,000 sq ft shop is part of the 48 Leicester Square – LSQLondon – development (see map). Comerford did the Lego deal and has a further retail unit to let in the same block. The strategy? “Get another Lego,” he says.
Leicester Square and beyond
There is no point having a vibrant, attractive public square if the streets around it are less salubrious. “One of the areas we want to see more of is improvement in public realm in the streets around the square – and it is starting to happen,” says Tim Sketchley of Old Park Lane Management which is developing LSQLondon, a mixed office, retail and leisure scheme.
The entrance to the offices will be on Whitcomb Street, and Sketchley says the developer is working with Westminster City Council on landscaping around Whitcomb Street and Panton Street. “We want people to wander around the area like they do around Air Street,” he adds.
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