3-021-036 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A sketch in Leicester-Square, [London], 1868. 'Few sites in the metropolis have exhibited so many phases of its motley life as Leicester-square. Other squares may be more abundantly storied with memories of the wealthy and the great; but there is no area or "garden-space" which has experienced a lot so chequered with light and shade as that which bears the noble name of Leicester. In its two centuries and a half of existence it has been the abode of the Heir to the Throne and "the pouting-place of princes"; but it now presents a desert waste in the foreground of our view, and in its mid-distance a sad scene of ruin; while the laurelled effigy of Royalty [equestrian statue of King George I] sits aloft upon his charger, as if to proclaim the nothingness of human grandeur'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.