The world-famous Piccadilly Lights are officially back

The famous Piccadilly Lights were switched back on at 8am today (October 26), after a nine-month period of renovation.

A display of colours, sponsored by members of the public as part of a fundraising campaign for Barnardo’s, was the first image to appear on the new screen.

Vasiliki Arvaniti, portfolio director at Landsec, said: “The Piccadilly Lights have been one of London’s icons for over a century, and are an unmissable sight for the 100m people who pass through Piccadilly Circus every year.

“We know people have really missed the screen while renovation work has been carried out and both we, and the brands that light [it up], are excited to have switched the Lights back on today.

“We want to say a huge thank you to everyone that has been part of the #PiccadillyOn campaign, raising money for Barnardo’s.”

Landsec, the owner of Piccadilly Lights, has replaced the original patchwork of screens with a single state-of-the-art 4K LED digital screen and live technology hub, which allows the screen to react to certain external factors, such as the weather or temperature.

This feature enables brands to display creative, innovative content, such as weather-appropriate clothing. Crucially however, the technology does not collect or store any personal data and is unable to record images or audio.

Coca-Cola, Samsung, Hyundai, L’Oréal Paris, eBay, Hunter and Stella McCartney are now advertising on the newly-launched screen, managed by Ocean Outdoor.

The countdown and launch moment was streamed live across Facebook and YouTube, and the launch display will be repeated on the screens a number of times until 11.59pm on Friday October 27.

Ocean Outdoor’s chief executive officer, Tim Bleakley, added: “Piccadilly Lights is one of the world’s most responsive, feature-rich advertising displays.

“Today is a major milestone in the history of Piccadilly Lights and to mark it we have a superb line-up of iconic global brands across six categories ready to exercise its creativity.”

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