1) In 1611, twenty-two acres of land was bought by the successful tailor and businessman, Robert Baker.  He built residential buildings and shops.  
2) In 1612, Robert Baker, built a mansion for himself to the north of what is now known as Piccadilly Circus. He made his fortune selling Picadils to the noble, rich and famous.  
3) Robert Baker was not popular with the locals, who called the mansion ‘Picadil Hill’ behind his back. Yet the name ‘Piccadilly’ has still stuck.

4) (before the cups were stolen) it was actually possible to drink from the fountain. Even The Duchess of Westminster participated in this during the unveiling in 1893. 
5) The Statue of Eros is not actually Eros himself, but his twin brother Anteros. Anteros represents mature, selfless love whilst Eros was the god of romantic, frivolous love. This gives an entirely different meaning to the statue’s purpose altogether. It was the first of its kind to be cast entirely from aluminium, and still stands to this very day.
6) Since 1954 there is a Coca Cola sign that has been located at Piccadilly Circus.
7) The first sign to be illuminated was a Perrier advertisement in 1908, which used incandescent lightbulbs. Neon was first used for a Bovril sign in the 1940s.
8) The light advertisements had to be switched off during World War II, and also for the funeral of Winston Churchill and Lady Diana, Princess of Wales.
9) There are ‘7 noses in Soho’, one of which can be seen in Piccadilly Circus.
10) Apx. 100 million tourists pass through Piccadilly Circus every year.

 

Piccadill is a large broad collar of cut-work lace that became fashionable in the late 16th century and early 17th century, worn predominantly by upper-class people such as Queen Elizabeth I. Piccadilly is believed to be named after the Piccadill.

·      The statue isn’t really of Eros, but Anteros, his twin brother. But most visitors refer to the statue by his erroneous name.

·      Gilbert spent a long time considering how to celebrate the life of Shaftesbury, a philanthropist and social reformer. Lord Shaftesbury campaigned against many injustices, such as child labour condition, limiting child employment in factories and mines.

·      The statue seems to attract vandalism and men have been coaxed down from their perches or broken bits off the statue throughout the decades: in 2016, 2012, 2011, 2002, and in the 1990s and 1980s.

2)    Visit the Theatre District.

3)    Discover Harry Potter Locations.

4)    Tour Piccadilly Circus.

5)    Visit Trafalgar Square.

6)    Shop on Regent Street.

7)    Visit Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

8)    Visit the Cartoon Museum.

9)    Go to the Hard Rock Café.

10) Go to the Rainforest Café.

11) Go to Leicester Square.

12) See Memorials & Statues.

13) Visit M&M’s World.

14) Visit Planet Hollywood

15) Visit St. James’s Square.

16) Go on a Hop-on-Hop-off Bus Tour.

17) Save money with a Tourist Attraction Discount Pass.

18) Visit the Curzon Cinema in Soho/Mayfair.

19) Visit Benjamin Frankin’s House.

20) Watch the Buskers and Dancers.

The National Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery

The Royal Academy of Arts

The Institute of Contemporary Art

 

Visit Memorials & Statues:

Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain

Equestrian Statue of Charles I

The Horses of Helios

Swiss Glockenspiel

Nelson’s Column

King George IV Statue

King William III Statue

William Shakespeare Statue

Trafalgar Square Fountains

Bars and clubs including: Zoo bar, Tiger Tiger, Café de Paris, Piccadilly institute, The cuckoo club, Toy room, Cirque Le Soir, Libertine, Maddox Club and many more.

 

“The importance or worth of something for someone, variable according to values that individuals have”

 

 

“The action of using up a resource”

“A strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen”

 

 

Shopping Research

Transaction and exchange 

 

Types of shoppers/shopping behaviours:

 

 

Types of shops that surround the Piccadilly Circus site:

 

Flagship stores – A multinational brand’s main retail unit 

 

Apple store, 24-36 Regents street and Niketown, Oxford circus 

Interior shop designs follow a corporate aesthetic of the brand.

 

Landmark stores – very specific non multinational brands but had formed a huge name though tradition and location.

 

Hamliey’s toy store, 188-196 Regents street 

 

Fortnum and Maison, 181 Piccadilly 

Isn’t affected by online shopping/Highstreet decline due to its renowned name and the customer experience. 

 

Liberty, Great Marlborough street

Not only are costumers attracted to the store to buy high-quality textiles, fashion, homeware and Jewellery but also to experience the historic mock tutor building the store is located within. The preserved beauty and care taken of the building itself heavily reflects the liberty product range.

 

Specialist streets – attracts costumers due to their exclusivity and uniqueness

 

Burlington Arcade, located between Burlington Gardens and Piccadilly

No whistling/humming, expectations to behave well and respect the environment.

 

Carnaby Street

Renowned for fashion, youthfulness, art and culture - famous bands such as the rolling stones used to shop there.

 

Savile Row 

bespoke tailers, exclusive, traditional, made to measure, the shops aren’t inviting to prevent passers-by from entering without intention of making a purchase.

 

Showcase retail – Places that curate their products around a theme designed to educate and inform visitors as well as selling them. 

The Design Centre, 28 Haymarket 

Established in 1944 (closed in 1994). The public face of the design cancel. Presented awards for young designers. 

 

Finmar, Haymarket (closed 1965) 

Established in 1948 as a showcase for what is now known as Mid-century modern furniture.

The Portas Review – The future of shopping on our highstreets 

Prepared in response to the 2008 global financial crisis, the drift to out of town shopping centres and the rise of online shopping.

 

·       Experience – Needs to become more exciting in order to draw in costumer’s to physically coming to the shops. A 3-dimential retail experience is by far the best way to engage with the costumers and build loyalty.

·       Service – costumer service needs to be improved to make costumers feel welcome and comfortable within the shop

·       Specialism – value of real expert shops need to become more specialised

 

The way a shop appears internally and externally hugely effects the number and types of people that would choose to go to that shop. 

 

In retail, value is often placed on items by the retailer in the way this item is presented to us. For example, jewellery locked in a cabinet may appear more valuable than jewellery on a stand because it’s physically more inaccessible in the shop and therefore we feel it is special. As a society (rightly or wrongly) we maybe place more value on things when we feel they’re exclusive and not available to all. Spotlighting items as well as displaying them at elevation adds to this idea of an item being valuable. 

·      Bicester, Oxfordshire.

·      It’s claimed that only Buckingham Palace receives more visits from Chinese citizens. 

·      Opened in 1995.

·      There are busses from airports going directly to Bicester Village. Outlet stores.

- Westfield 
- Selfridges 
- Blue Water

·      A new way of presenting. 

·      Artists often use this to release new designs to an exclusive range. 

·      You go for the experience even if you aren’t going to buy anything – they often given freebies, have photo booths it is an event/day out. 

·      Exclusive / Limited edition / Time Limited / Unusual / Expensive / Experience. 

·       Pop-up retail, also known as pop-up store (pop-up shop in the UK, Australia and Ireland) or flash retailing, is a trend of opening short-term sales spaces that last for days to weeks before closing down, often to catch onto a fad or scheduled event.

·       The trend of pop-up retail started in Los Angeles and now can be found all over the United States, Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia. The pop-up industry is now estimated to be a $50 billion industry. 

·       Temporary retail establishments date at least to the Vienna December market in 1298 and the European Christmas markets that followed. Seasonal farmer's markets, holiday fireworks stands, Halloween costume shops, consumer expos, and event-specific concessions are other examples of temporary retailing.

·      The Ritual Expo was one of the first iterations of the modern pop-up retail store. Not yet referred to as pop-up retail, the 1997 Los Angeles event was created by Patrick Courrielche and was later branded as a one-day "ultimate hipster mall.” The event quickly caught the eye of large brands that saw the potential of creating short-term experiences to promote their products to target audiences. AT&T, Levi-Strauss, and Motorola worked with Courrielche to create pop-up shopping experiences across the country to market their products to young audiences.

 

·      A pop-up retail space is a venue that is temporary: the space could be a sample sale one day and host a private cocktail party the next evening. The trend involves "popping up" one day, then disappearing anywhere from one day to several weeks later. These shops, while small and temporary, are used by companies to build interest in their product or service and seed their product with cultural influencers.

The store showcases photographs, prints, exclusive Live Aid footage and show-stopping costumes. In addition to this, there is official Bohemian Rhapsody film merchandise, a tattoo artist, a grooming station and a large collection of Queen products for sale.

Visitors to the pop-up shop and exhibition can also expect further activity including a visit from the official Madame Tussauds’ Freddie Mercury waxwork.

This pop-up was an experience people had travelled specifically to view it and the light display was a piece of art of its own. However, when I visited, I went for the experience I did not go to buy anything as it was expensive and only a select view were actually purchasing products. I remember a pair of swimming trunks were priced at £170.