For generations, street musicians have provided the soundtrack for Leicester Square, a tourist hub in London’s West End, where the likes of Rod Stewart and George Michael busked before becoming superstars.
Now the city is changing its tune.
The Westminster City Council, the local borough authority, this week banned street performances in Leicester Square after a judge described them as a “nuisance,” noting that repetitive sounds (including famous pop songs) were a well-known feature of “psychological torture.”
The ban was announced on Thursday after Global, a media company with an office building on the square, took the council to court, arguing that the noise from the performances was “overwhelming.” The company said its office workers were forced to take phone calls in cupboards to escape the sounds from the street below.
Buskers have long been polarizing in big cities. Some see whimsy in a cover band in subway stations; others would rather keep it out of public spaces. In one London square, at least, the critics seem to have won out.
On Thursday morning in Leicester Square (pronounced “Lester”), the yellow circles where buskers had performed were empty. News of the ban provoked joy, indignation and relief.
“Oh, thank God,” said Abu Khan, 28, after a reporter told him about the ban.
Khan, who works 12 hours a day at a convenience store in Leicester Square, said the music was sometimes so loud he couldn’t hear customers.
“I have to scream loud, and my customer thinks I’m fighting with him,” he said. “I’m losing my customers because of my voice.”
The shows also drew crowds of tourists who blocked the entrance to the shop, he said. The blaring tunes also stressed him out.
For others, the music has been part of the square’s charm.
Dorian Ronne, a pub manager, noted that people had been performing in the square longer than some of the nearby businesses had existed.
“It’s like people going to the countryside and complaining about the hogs and cows,” Ronne, 27, said. Sandy Malai, a 22-year-old deputy manager at a fast-food restaurant, said the buskers’ soundtrack lightened her workdays and delighted her customers.
New York Times News Service