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Top Attractions in Leicester Square

Statue of William Shakespeare, Leicester Square

A statue of William Shakespeare, sculpted by Giovanni Fontana after an original by Peter Scheemakers, has formed the centrepiece of Leicester Square Gardens, London, since 1874. The marble figure, copied from Scheemakers 18th-century monument to Shakespeare in Poets Corner, Westminster Abbey, stands on a pedestal flanked by dolphins at the centre of a fountain. It is the result of improvements to the gardens made by the financier Albert Grant, who bought the Square in 1874 and had it refurbished to a design by James Knowles. The scroll held by Shakespeare is inscribed with a quotation from Twelfth Night, THERE IS NO DARKNESS BUT IGNORANCE, where the original in Poets Corner has a misquoted passage from The Tempest. The Leicester Square statue also differs from its model in omitting reliefs of Henry V, Richard III and Elizabeth I from the plinth on which Shakespeare rests. The inscription on the pedestal in Leicester Square reads: The statue is listed at Grade II. In 2012 it underwent restoration, and the cleaning was completed and new water features added in 2014.

Wyld's Great Globe

Wyld's Great Globe (also known as Wyld's Globe or Wyld's Monster Globe) was an attraction situated in London's Leicester Square between 1851 and 1862, constructed by James Wyld (1812–1887), a distinguished mapmaker and former Member of Parliament for Bodmin. At the centre of a purpose-built hall was a giant globe, 60 feet 4 inches (18.39 m) in diameter. The globe was hollow and contained a staircase and elevated platforms which members of the public could climb in order to view the surface of the earth on its interior surface, which was modelled in plaster of Paris, complete with mountain ranges and rivers all to scale. Punch described the attraction as "a geographical globule which the mind can take in at one swallow." In the surrounding galleries were displays of Wyld's maps, globes and surveying equipment. Wyld originally proposed that the globe should be constructed at the Great Exhibition, but its size and Wyld's desire to run it as a promotional venture precluded it from being featured inside the Crystal Palace, so Wyld negotiated with the owners of the gardens of Leicester Square, and after much wrangling secured an agreement to site it there for ten years. The exhibition hall and model of the Earth were hastily constructed to coincide with the Great Exhibition. In its first year the Great Globe was a resounding success, with visitor numbers second only to those of the Great Exhibition, but from 1852 onwards public interest in the attraction slowly waned. Though the novelty of a concave globe continued to win accolades for Wyld, he was faced with competition from other educational attractions, and had to adapt the entertainments on offer in order to maintain visitor numbers. Wyld held topical exhibitions and gave lectures on current events, and attempted to transfer ownership of the attraction to the "Cosmos Institute" to establish a national geographic and ethnological museum. In 1862, when Wyld's agreement for the use of the land expired, the exhibition hall was removed and the globe broken up and sold for scrap. The complicated ownership of Leicester Square gardens, combined with Wyld's failure to honour his agreement to restore the gardens after the removal of the exhibition building, led to extensive legal wrangling and questions in Parliament. Wyld finally sold his interests in the gardens, and in 1874 they were donated to the City of London. Although there were other proposals for giant globes, and a few were constructed, it was not until 1935 that a large concave globe was recreated in the form of Chester Lindsay Churchill's Mapparium at the Mary Baker Eddy Library in Boston, Massachusetts.

Leicester Square Theatre

The Leicester Square Theatre is since 2008 the name of a 400-seat theatre near Leicester Square, in the City of Westminster, London, previously known as Notre Dame Hall, Cavern in the Town and The Venue. The theatre, which also has a 70-seat basement lounge theatre, hosts stand-up comedy, cabaret, music, plays and comedies. The building originated as the Notre Dame Hall in 1953, replacing an earlier building that had been destroyed by World War II bombing, and part of the rebuild of the adjacent Notre Dame de France church, and the hall was used as a French cultural centre for a time. It became a popular music venue in the 1960s under the name Cavern in the Town, regularly hosting beat music group The Small Faces. It was renamed Notre Dame Hall in the 1970s and presented The Rolling Stones and The Who, but specialised in punk music, hosting such acts as The Sex Pistols. In 1979, The Clash previewed material from London Calling here shortly before recording the album. The hall continues hosting live music acts venue such as Tommy Emmanuel, Macy Gray Larry Carlton Paul Mcartney John Mayall, Cleo Laine, Ruby Turner and Tony Christie. In 2001, it was converted to a theatre and named The Venue. The theatre's famous productions have included the world premiere of the Boy George musical Taboo, which played a highly successful run in 2002 before transferring to Broadway, Round the Horne After this, the theatre was then named Leicester Square Theatre. American comedian Joan Rivers made her acting debut in August 2008 with her play Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress by a Life in Progress, which played a total of 75 performances to celebrate her birthday. A musical based on the comic strip Alex, by Charles Peattie and Russell Taylor, starring Robert Bathurst, finished the year 2008. and An Evening with Joan Collins ran from 2011 to 2015. Bill Bailey, Rosanne Barr, Sandra Bernhard, Jo Brand, Bill Burr, Julian Clary, Greg Davies, Macy Gray, Richard Herring, Russell Howard, Reginald D Hunter, Stewart Lee, Demetri Martin, Jerry Sadowitz, Miranda Sings, Tom Stade, Doug Stanhope, Ricky Tomlinson, Todrick Hall, and Tim Vine have also performed at the Leicester Square Theatre. In January 2016, Grassroots Shakespeare London was announced as the theatre's first ever resident company and the only resident Shakespeare company in the West End. Following on from their sold out Othello starring James Alexandrou, the company will be participating in the global Shakespeare 400 celebrations with their production of Twelfth Night starring Ellie Nunn and John Pickard. The theatre is owned and managed by artistic director Martin Witts.

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