Centre Point is the 35 storey 325 foot high skyscraper office block, at the corner of Charing Cross Road, and New Oxford Street, which is the most easily visible landmark in the area.
For years after, Centre Point was was at the centre of controversy, as greedy property tycoon Harry Hyams intentionally kept it unoccupied as values soared against its potential rent yield.
It's construction cost in 1964 was £5.5 million whilst its estimated market value in 1973 was £20 million. Moreover, by keeping it empty it was not liable for rates!
GPS grid coordinates:
Latitude: (WGS84) N51:30:58 ( 51.516128 )
Longitude: (WGS84) W0:07:48 ( -0.129875 )
See also this semi-live BBC Jam cam traffic camera image (usually updated every few minutes, unless there is actually some interesting incident, when the feed is censored) from the Oxford Street / Centre Point camera, which usually points south, with the notorious "stinkie" subway corner visible in the top left..
UPDATE 20th August 2009 - everything from Andew Bordes Street to what was the Internet Lounge has been demolished as part of the new Tottenham Court Road Tube and Cross Rail station development..
The subway on the corner, leads into the Tottenham Court Road Tube station, and is ok during the day time, but this whole corner of Andrew Bordes Street is somewhere to avoid if you are on your own at night, as the "Stinkies", crackheads, drunks , and other addicts, trend to gather, just as their ancestors did during the time of William Hogarth.
Update 20th August 2009: this whole block has now been demolished as part of the re-development of Tottenham Court Road Tube Station
