The closest thing Basseterre has to a centre, The Circus is a small traffic roundabout where four streets meet, vaguely inspired by London's Piccadilly Circus. In its middle stands the green cast-iron Berkeley Memorial clock tower, erected in 1883 in memory of a popular local statesman.
The surrounding two-storey colonial buildings, painted in pinks and yellows and greens, house jewellers, banks, and cafés. It is where cruise passengers tend to gather, where taxis wait, and where most walking tours of the old town begin. Nothing about it is grand, but it is unmistakably the heart of the place.