This was last Saturday night, an unusually warm and dry one for October, and this photo does not convey the insanity of the crowds. I may never go back to Leicester Square on a Saturday night again.
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London photo: Saturday night in Leicester Square
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Is that a nightclub or a real casino?
Casino, restaurant, four bars including one with “night club action” whatever that means.
It’s a real casino. There’s several of them in Leicester Square. Gambling is legal throughout the U.K… which means there are sad little betting franchise outlets and shops with one-armed bandits on every high street.
How new are the London casinos? We were just there this last weekend, and they seemed new to me, but the last time I was there was 2011.
There’s been a bit of a boom recently, as there usually is when times are hard. The law was changed in 2005 to make it easier to build them, but local authorities can still slow things down.
They’ve certainly been there since I’ve been living here (since January 2011). My previous visit was in 2009, and I just don’t recall how prevalent they were then.
Well they certainly weren’t there in ’99, when, I hope I would have been most likely to notice. Those signs pop out. And it is a sadder kind of desperate feeling they add to a block rowed with chicken joints. Regardless, I love London and the whole UK and I’m already planning my next trip back…Wanted to get to the BFI Mediatheque and dig in the archives this last time, but a certain someone’s feet got hurting too much.