INTRODUCTION
Leicester Square is London's entertainment epicentre, and it is both a cultural hub and a London icon - an ideal place to eat, drink and be merry. This Photorun is 1.4 Km long.
This will provide you with all the information you need for the Photorun, including a video of the route, interactive maps, history, sights, 360 views, and locations to eat, drink and be merry. If you have any recommendations or great images from doing this Photorun, please share them in the comments below.
The Location - Leicester Square - Eat, Drink and Be Merry
This shows the route's location in relation to the main Entertainment Photoruns.
Start at Piccadilly Station and ends at Leicester Square Station. The best time to do this Photorun is in the early morning at the weekend.
1 - Getting to know the area
Use this to get an overview of the area, the route and the venues
Experience the Route at Speed
Use this to see what the route looks like as if you were doing it at speed and to make you more familiar with what you will see along the way.
The Photorun Google Map Guide
Leicester Square - Eat, Drink and Be Merry
Use this to explore the venues in Chinatown and Leicester Square, If you are on a mobile, you can use it to help you find the start or places of interest and to show your position on the map.
Virtual Tour of the Area
Use this to explore these locations by looking around in 360, taking in the sights and sounds, going on a tour and learning more about the place.
Picture Gallery
Browse the gallery to find out what you can see along the way.
2 Getting to know the venues
Explore the Eat Drink and Be Merry Venues
Use this Google map and the maps below to explore the places for breakfast, pubs, bars, and other venues. Use the filters and the map features to refine your search.
This will help you locate the pubs and bars around this Photorun. These are spread out along the edges of the route with a concentration in the middle.
There are a wide variety of entertainment venues around Leicester Square, including cinemas, theatres, casinos, exhibitions and art galleries.
This will help you locate the place to eat around this Photorun - which are numerous. These are spread out along the route, with a concentration around to the north of Leicester Square in Chinatown and Soho. Use the food links to find your perfect spot.
Food Links
Nothing brings people together like good food, so where do you go in this part of London that will cater to your taste and pocket and provide the ambience you want?
The art of finding and recommending the perfect place to eat can be tricky as there is so much variety in London, and tastes and budgets vary widely. To try and get around this, I have provided the most common links to help you find, select and book eating venues – just add the location into the search.
Open Table London – They pride themselves in bringing together people and the restaurants they love in the moments that matter, giving you dining options, experiences, and offers.
The Fork – This is a Tripadvisor company that relies as much on its communities of users as its communities of restaurateurs. You can search on price, cuisine, rating, and special offers.
Hardens – This is probably the UK's most comprehensive independent restaurant guide, with reviews written by its members. It ranks each place by its food, services and ambience and has extensive search capabilities.
Design My Night This site is designed to help you discover and unlock secret, new and unique city experiences, from events to bars and restaurants, but it is also a site to help plan and book online. It has categories for restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, and 'what's on'.
Afternoon tea This is an Afternoon Tea guide to help you find the 'perfect venue for afternoon tea' in London and the UK. It provides descriptions, offers, booking facilities and an extensive search option.
London Eat Drink and Be Merry Themes
The British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal once said:
"To me, food is as much about the occasion, the location and the company as it is about the taste."
And since Photoruns is about exploring new things, you could also be adventurous and try new ways to discover menu items that are outside your comfort zone but will grow your palate.
So here are a few Photorun 'occasion' ideas that may help your 'eat, drink and be merry' London quest. Please let me know which one you like or if you have better ones.
Breakfast Lotto
When you do a photorun, seek out some breakfast locations and number them. Then select one at random and try it out. You can even do this with items on the breakfast menu and let chance dictate your selection - or some of them.
Foodie Vows
This is based on the Victorian rhyme that symbolises luck for a bride on her wedding day, but in this version, it is to do with food and drink. You can do this for a whole meal or at a location or venue.
Something Old – have the food and drink that you know you will like.
Something New – try something that is new to you and that you want to try
Something Borrower – taste or drink something you have been recommended to try
Something Blue - Select something spontaneously - out of the blue. It's best to have a trigger for spontaneity, like a specific colour.
Tipple Tours
There are so many pubs and bars in London that you can easily create your tour based upon your favourite tipple, for example, a Negroni, Whisky or Guinness tour. The aim is to select a drink type, investigate the venues, and then have your favourite tipple in each of them. An alternative is to try out the different variations in just one venue!
Around the World in 8 Hours.
Phileas Fogg is the protagonist in the 1872 Jules Verne novel "Around the World in Eighty Days", where he visited eleven nations to complete his adventure. The aim is to map an 'around the world' route and have something to eat or drink that comes (or is connected to) each of your destinations - in the proper order. Top marks if you match Phileas Fogg's eleven places.
Letters from London
The objective is to choose a letter, word or name and visit venues with the letter(s) in the correct order. Alternatively, you can select based on your menu and drink choices.
Horses for courses
As the name suggests, this is about discovering the best place for each course for your perfect meal - which could be three courses or more if you include the drinks before, during and after.
Groundhog Food Tours
This is a take on the film Groundhog Day, but this time it is about having your favourite menu item each day at different venues, so you can compare and contrast the same dish and then rank them.