{"id":404930,"date":"2025-09-07T09:49:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T09:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/404930\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T09:49:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T09:49:15","slug":"best-places-to-eat-near-londons-leicester-square-and-a-history-of-the-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/404930\/","title":{"rendered":"Best places to eat near London\u2019s Leicester Square and a history of the area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">With binoculars in hand, I am gazing out over the London skyline from an entirely new perspective. The shimmering pods of the London Eye slowly churn, while the iconic spire of St Martin-in-the-Fields Church stands in contrast to the striking glass skyscraper known as The Shard.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Shifting my view to the streets below, tiny figures bustle down St Martin\u2019s Street and Orange Street, possibly on their way to the nearby National Gallery and Trafalgar Square.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">My vantage point is about six floors up from street level, inside the \u201csuper boutique\u201d hotel The Londoner, located right in the heart of the city\u2019s famed Leicester Square.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The five-star property, envisioned by design firm Yabu Pushelberg and architects Woods Bagot, is one of the most impressive construction projects to hit central London in recent years.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Due to building height restrictions in the area, the hotel appears modest with eight floors \u2013 the highest point is the property\u2019s signature rooftop bar, 8 at The Londoner \u2013 but has widely been referred to as an \u201ciceberg hotel\u201d due to the fact that six more levels are underground.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Engineering firm Arup described the project as \u201cthe deepest habitable-grade commercial building in London, and among the deepest in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The view of The Londoner hotel (right) from across Leicester Square. The hotel was completed in 2021 and features 16 storeys, with six underground. Photo: The Londoner\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/67a94ad4-1496-4b59-821d-91da51b81957_72a55c45.jpg\" title=\"The view of The Londoner hotel (right) from across Leicester Square. The hotel was completed in 2021 and features 16 storeys, with six underground. Photo: The Londoner\"\/>The view of The Londoner hotel (right) from across Leicester Square. The hotel was completed in 2021 and features 16 storeys, with six underground. Photo: The Londoner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With binoculars in hand, I am gazing out over the London skyline from an entirely new perspective. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[139572,748,59399,8835,15340,11843,393,97658,4884,139574,139573,139571,139570,12249,257,7584,134,2550,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-404930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-alhambra-theatre","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-carnaby-street","11":"tag-chinatown","12":"tag-covent-garden","13":"tag-empire-theatre","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-four-seasons","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-imads-syrian-kitchen","18":"tag-karl-marx","19":"tag-leicester-fields","20":"tag-leicester-house","21":"tag-leicester-square","22":"tag-london","23":"tag-national-gallery","24":"tag-river-thames","25":"tag-soho","26":"tag-uk","27":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115162393288570277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}