Piccadilly Circus Time Lapse (1972)

Take a look at a bustling Picadilly Circus in 1972. This film was made to examine traffic patterns in central London and was shot from a fixed camera position looking at the roundabout and up Shaftsbury Avenue. Notice the surrounding billboards and advertisements for Cinzano bianco, Skol lager, and Wrigley's chewing gum. A branch of H. Samuels jewellers is also prominent on the corner of Shaftsbury Avenue and Regent Street. A few pedestrians are filmed stood or sat around the statue of Anteros (popularly referred to as Eros), and a street sweeper briefly works on the island. Later in the day many more pedestrians pass across the island while navigating the roads. How does the traffic compare to a contemporary view of the same scene?
This film is among the interesting collection of the City of Westminster Archives Centre. (The full catalogue record for this film, LSA/1155, is available at www.londonsscreenarchives.org.uk).