Best places to eat near London’s Leicester Square and a history of the area
From Chinatown and Soho to Covent Garden and Mayfair, there are plenty of great restaurants a short walk from London’s iconic square
With binoculars in hand, I am gazing out over the London skyline from an entirely new perspective. The shimmering pods of the London Eye slowly churn, while the iconic spire of St Martin-in-the-Fields Church stands in contrast to the striking glass skyscraper known as The Shard.
Shifting my view to the streets below, tiny figures bustle down St Martin’s Street and Orange Street, possibly on their way to the nearby National Gallery and Trafalgar Square.
My vantage point is about six floors up from street level, inside the “super boutique” hotel The Londoner, located right in the heart of the city’s famed Leicester Square.
The five-star property, envisioned by design firm Yabu Pushelberg and architects Woods Bagot, is one of the most impressive construction projects to hit central London in recent years.
Due to building height restrictions in the area, the hotel appears modest with eight floors – the highest point is the property’s signature rooftop bar, 8 at The Londoner – but has widely been referred to as an “iceberg hotel” due to the fact that six more levels are underground.
Engineering firm Arup described the project as “the deepest habitable-grade commercial building in London, and among the deepest in the world”.
