Cutting link with the past will make Circus worse
Photo: London, Holborn Circus, 1890. Courtesy City of London
Grade II-listed, 1874, Charles Bacon
Holborn Circus, meeting point of six highways, was designed by engineer William Haywood in 1867 as a commanding and visually striking junction. The highways all terminate at the same point – a statue of Prince Albert – which gives the termination of Holborn Viaduct its visual focus. Dickens’s Dictionary of London (1879) described Holborn Circus as ‘perhaps…the finest piece of street architecture in the City’, though unfortunately, following the Second World War, many buildings lining the Circus were demolished and the building line was set back, resulting in a vast and windy area unfriendly to pedestrians. The City of London now intends to obliterate the Victorian plan by moving the statue off to the side and blocking one of the roads, creating a vast area of tarmac without focus. The statue should remain at the heart of the Circus and future redevelopment should respect the historic lines of this important piece of townscape.
Status Update / March 2026
In 2015, the £3.5 million public realm ‘improvement’ works went ahead as planned. The City of London’s scheme involved the relocation of the Prince Albert statue, which had been in position for 139 years as well as significant alterations to the street layout.