In turn, the square began to serve as a venue for popular entertainments.[1] Brothels began to appear around Leicester Square during the century, and visitors could pay to watch the severed heads of traitors executed at Temple Bar through a telescope.[17] Leicester House became home of a museum of natural curiosities called the Holophusikon in the 1780s.[15][18] It was demolished in 1791–72 due to rising debts following the extinction of the Leicester peerage, and replaced by Leicester Place.