Piccadilly Circus was full of loneliness.It seethes and echoes with it. To live near it. Looking down on it is a discomforting exercise. You can't feel the pulse of London here, though people expect to. To Londoners it is a maddening obstruction between one place and another, and few voluntarily linger there. The only locals are those who live off the lingerers; the lingerers are primarily sightseers, with a fair sprinkling of people hoping to draw attention to themselves - both typically from the provinces. They have come to see the heart of London and expect to see spectacle, glamour and vice.

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The passage implies that