
I know that here in London, we’re all perpetually in a rush. And when navigating some of the city’s busiest Tube stations, the majority of us opt for the tried and tested ‘keep-your-head-down-and-walk-at-the-speed-of-light’ approach. But the next time you’re passing through Piccadilly Circus station, we’d highly recommend slowing down, averting your eyes from the floor, and seeking out a truly twinkling hidden treasure: the World Time Linear Clock.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Why would you put yourself through the discomfort of squeezing through the sea of tourists that seem to constantly be congregated right next to the ticket barriers just to look at a clock? And the answer is quite simple, folks. Because this is not any old clock. This is a unique and historic piece of architecture – and it’s actually pretty darn interesting to look at.
The World Time Linear Clock
The truly timeless timekeeping device is neatly nestled in the wall of Piccadilly Circus’ entrance hall. It was installed during the station’s expansion in the early 1920’s, and designed and created as part of an architectural collaboration between Charles Holden and John Mowlem & Company. It features a map of the world, and the time is displayed on a westward-scrolling time band with Roman numerals, which moves along at the exact speed as the Earth rotates around the equator. Pretty cool, right?
It displays both Greenwich Mean Time and British Summer Time, offering a rough indication of the time of day in different time zones across the world. It also features little lightbulbs that highlight certain cities across the globe, including London, Cape Town, Sydney, New York, Victoria (Canada), and Buenos Aires. The highlighted cities were once key reference points for international travellers in the 1920s.
An inscription underneath the clock reads: ‘This clock shows the time of day in any part of the world. The time band moves across the map to correspond with the earth’s rotation so that the solar time at any place can be ascertained by taking a vertical line from that point to the band’.
It’s a wonderfully fascinating piece of machinery, offering a glimpse into the station’s past, and well worth making a little detour for on your way out of the station. Apparently, if you press your ear to the clock, you can hear it ticking away, too. And I’m sure that absolutely nobody would bat an eyelid at you giving it a go to see for yourself if that’s true…
You can find the World Time Linear Clock inside the entrance hall of Piccadilly circus station, opposite the Frank Pick memorial.