Brewer's: Leicester Square

(London). So called from a family mansion of the Sydneys, Earls of Leicester, which stood on the north-east side.

“The Earl of Leicester, father of Algernon Sidney the patriot ... built for himself a stately house at the north-east corner of a square plot of `Lammas Land.' belonging to the parish of St. Martin's which plot henceforth became known to Londoners as Leicester Fields. A square gradually grew up on the spot, and was completed in 1671.” —Cassell's Magazine, London Legends, x

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