Soho

Soho
Middlesex
Christmas lights in Carnaby Street
Location
Grid reference:	TQ294810
Location:	51°30’47"N, 0°8’12"W
Data
Post town:	London
Postcode:	W1
Dialling code:	020
Local Government
Council:	Westminster
Parliamentary constituency:	Cities of London and Westminster

Soho is a district of Westminster, in Middlesex, forming the heart of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.

The area was developed from farmland by Henry VIII in 1536, when it became a royal park. It became a parish in its own right in the late 17th century, when buildings started to be developed for the upper class, including the laying out of Soho Square in the 1680s. St Anne's Church was established during the late 17th century, and remains a significant local landmark.

The aristocracy had mostly moved away by the mid-19th century, when Soho was particularly badly hit by an outbreak of cholera in 1854. For much of the 20th century Soho had a sleezy reputation, but also for night life and as a location for the headquarters of leading film companies. Since the 1980s, the area has undergone considerable gentrification. It is now predominantly a fashionable district of upmarket restaurants and media offices, with only a small remnant of former low dives.

Soho's reputation as a major entertainment district of London stems from theatres such as the Windmill Theatre on Great Windmill Street and the Raymond Revuebar owned by entrepreneur Paul Raymond, and music clubs such as the 2i's Coffee Bar and the Marquee Club. Trident Studios was based in Soho, and the nearby Denmark Street has hosted numerous music publishing houses and instrument shops from the 20th century onwards. The independent British film industry centres on Soho, including the British headquarters of Twentieth Century Fox and the British Board of Film Classification offices. The area has been popular for restaurants since the 19th century, including the long-standing Kettner's which was visited by numerous celebrities. Near to Soho is Chinatown, centred on Gerrard Street and containing several restaurants and shops. Soho has never had formally defined boundaries. It is about one square mile in area, and is usually considered to be bounded by Shaftesbury Avenue to the south, Oxford Street to the north, Regent Street to the west, and Charing Cross Road to the east. Apart from Oxford Street, all of these roads are 19th-century metropolitan improvements. The area to the west is known as Mayfair, to the north Fitzrovia, to the east St Giles and Covent Garden, and to the south St James's.

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  Bar in Soho
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  Gardeners' Hut Soho Square
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  Greek Street
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  Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club and Comptons
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  Kingly Court

Name

The name "Soho" first appears in the 17th century. The name is derived from a former hunting cry. James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, used "soho" as a rallying call for his men at the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685, half a century after the name was first used for this area of London.

The Soho name has been reused by other entertainment and restaurant districts such as SoHo, Hong Kong, which derives its name from being located south of Hollywood Road, and the cultural and commercial area of Soho in Málaga, Spain. The New York City neighbourhood of SoHo, Manhattan, gets its name from its location south of Houston Street, but is also a reference to London's Soho. The Pittsburgh neighbourhood of Uptown]] was also formerly called Soho, most likely having been named by its founder James Tustin after the London district, though it may refer to Soho in Staffordshire.

History

Early history

During the Middle Ages, the area that is now Soho was farmland that belonged to the Abbot and Convent of Abingdon and the master of Burton St Lazar Hospital in Leicestershire, who managed a leper hospital in St Giles in the Fields. In 1536, the land was taken by Henry VIII as a royal park for the Palace of Whitehall. The area south of what is now Shaftesbury Avenue did not stay in the Crown possession for long; Queen Mary sold around seven acres in 1554, and most of the remainder was sold between 1590 and 1623. A small two-acre section of land remained, until sold by Charles II in 1676.

In the 1660s, ownership of Soho Fields passed to Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans, who leased 19 out of the 22 acres of land to Joseph Girle. He was granted permission to develop property and quickly passed the lease and development to bricklayer Richard Frith. Much of the land was granted freehold in 1698 by William III to William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland, while the southern part of Soho was sold piecemeal in the 16th and 17th centuries, partly to Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester.

Soho was part of the ancient parish of St Martin in the Fields, forming part of the Liberty of Westminster. As the population started to grow, a new church was provided, and in 1687 a new parish of St Anne was established for it. The parish stretched from Oxford Street in the north to Leicester Square in the south and from what is now Charing Cross Road in the east to Wardour Street in the west; it therefore included all of contemporary eastern Soho, including the Chinatown area. The western portion of modern Soho, around Carnaby Street, was part of the parish of St James, which was split off from St Martin in 1686.

Gentrification

Building progressed rapidly in the late 17th century, with large properties such as Monmouth House (built for James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, Charles II's eldest illegitimate son), Leicester House, Fauconberg House, Carlisle House and Newport House.

Soho Square was first laid out in the 1680s on the former Soho Fields; by 1691, 41 houses had been completed there. It was originally called King Square in honour of Charles II, and a statue of him was based in the centre. Several upper-class families moved into the area, including those of Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston, and Edward Howard, 2nd Earl of Carlisle. The square had become known as Soho Square by 1720, at which point it had fashionable houses on all sides. Only No 10 and No 15 from this period have survived into the 21st century.

Though the Earls of Leicester and Portland had intended Soho to be an upper-class estate comparable to Bloomsbury, Marylebone and Mayfair, it never developed as such. Immigrants began to settle in the area from around 1680 onwards, particularly French Huguenots after 1688. The area became known as London's French quarter. The French church in Soho Square was founded by Huguenots and opened on 25 March 1893, with a façade of terracotta and coloured brick designed by Aston Webb.

Cholera outbreak

John Snow memorial

A significant event in the history of epidemiology and public health was John Snow's study of an 1854 outbreak of cholera in Soho. He identified the cause of the outbreak as water from the public pump at the junction of Broad Street (now Broadwick Street) and Cambridge Street (now Lexington Street), close to the rear wall of what is today the John Snow public house.

Snow mapped the addresses of the sick and noted that they were mostly people whose nearest access to water was the Broad Street pump. He persuaded the authorities to remove the handle of the pump, thus preventing any more of the infected water from being collected. The spring below the pump was later found to have been contaminated with sewage. This is an early example of epidemiology, public health medicine and the application of science—the germ theory of disease—in a real-life crisis. Science writer Steven Johnson has written about the changes related to the cholera outbreak, and notes that almost every building on the street that existed in 1854 has since been replaced. A replica of the pump, with a memorial plaque and without a handle (to signify Snow's action to halt the outbreak) was erected in 1992 near the location of the original.

Decline

By the mid-18th century, the aristocrats who had been living in Soho Square or Gerrard Street had moved away, as more fashionable areas such as Mayfair became available. The historian and topographer William Maitland wrote that the parish "so greatly abound with French that is an easy Matter for a Stranger to imagine himself in France." Soho's character stems partly from the ensuing neglect by rich and fashionable London, and the lack of the redevelopment that characterised the neighbouring areas.

The aristocracy had mostly disappeared from Soho by the 19th century, to be replaced by 'ladies of negotiable virtue', music halls and small theatres. The population increased significantly, reaching 327 inhabitants per acre by 1851, making the area one of the most densely populated areas of London. Houses became divided into tenements with chronic overcrowding and disease. The 1854 cholera outbreak caused the remaining upper-class families to leave the area. Numerous hospitals were built to cope with the health problem; six were constructed between 1851 and 1874. Businesses catering to household essentials were established at the same time.

The restaurant trade in Soho improved dramatically in the early 20th century. The construction of new theatres along Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road improved the reputation of the area, and a meal for theatre-goers became common. Public houses in Soho increased in popularity during the 1930s and were frequented by struggling authors, poets and artists.

Recent history

In the 20th century, several Soho pubs and private members clubs gained notoriety for both their proprietors and drunken clientele from amongst the arts. Clive Jennings wrote that "the lethal triangle of The French, The Coach & Horses and The Colony were the staging points of the Dean Street shuffle, with occasional forays into other joints such as The Gargoyle or the Mandrake ... The Groucho or Blacks". Christopher Howse notes of the coterie of bohemian heavy drinkers that "There was no worry about pensions in Soho. People didn't live that long."

The sleazy and criminal element of Soho life into the 1970s was carried on with the aid of lavish bribes that proprietors paid to police officers, resulting in a free-for-all for which the area was infamous.

By the 1980s, purges of the police force along with pressure from the Soho Society and new and tighter licensing controls by the City of Westminster led to a crackdown on illegal premises. By 2000, the red-light area was reduced to just a small area around Berwick Street. By the end of 2014, gentrification and competition from the internet had driven much of the rest out.

Since the decline of the sleaziest end of business in Soho in the 1980s, the area has returned to being more residential. The Soho Housing Association was established in 1976 to provide reasonable rented accommodation. By the 21st century, it had acquired around 400 flats. St Anne's Church in Dean Street was refurbished after decades of neglect, and a Museum of Soho was established.

About the village

Theatre and film

Colourful shop windows in a typical Soho backstreet

Soho is near the heart of London's theatre area. It is home to the Soho Theatre, built in 2000 to present new plays and comedy.

More 'exotic' entertainment was provided in their time by the Windmill Theatre (based on Great Windmill Street, and named after a windmill in the spot demolished in the 18th century) and the Raymond Revuebar in Walker's Court. The upstairs of the Windmill became known as the Boulevard Theatre and in 1980 was adopted as a comedy club called "The Comic Strip", whose comedians found fame on television.

Soho is a centre of the independent film and video industry as well as the television and film post-production industry. The British Board of Film Classification, formerly known as the British Board of Film Censors, has been based in Soho Square since 1950. In the 2010s, research commissioned by Westminster City Council showed 23 per cent of the workforce in Soho worked in the creative industries.

Restaurants and clubs

Kettner's

Many small and easily affordable restaurants and cafes were established in Soho during the 19th century, particularly as a result of Greek and Italian immigration. The restaurants were not looked upon favourably at first, but their reputation changed at the start of the 20th century. In 1924, a guide reported "of late years, the inexpensive restaurants of Soho have enjoyed an extraordinary vogue." Arthur Ransome's Bohemia in London (1907) mentions Old and New Soho, including details about Soho coffee-houses including The Moorish Café and The Algerian.

Gerrard Street is the centre of London's Chinatown, and along with Lisle Street and Little Newport Street, house a mix of import companies, oriental food shops and restaurants. Street festivals are held throughout the year, particularly on the Chinese New Year.

Churches

St Anne's Church

• Church of England:
  • St Anne's Church on Wardour Street
• Roman Catholic:
  • The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory on Warwick Street; built in 1788 and the only remaining 18th-century Roman Catholic embassy chapel in London
  • St Patrick's in Soho Square, built in 1792 to accommodate Irish immigrants

St Anne's Church was built between 1677 and 1686, possibly to the design of Sir Christopher Wren or William Talman. An additional tower was built in 1717 by Talman and reconstructed in 1803. The church was damaged by a V1 flying bomb during Second First World Warn 1940, but the tower survived. In 1976, John Betjeman campaigned to save the building. The church was fully restored in the late 1980s and formally re-opened by the Princess Royal on 12 March 1990.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Soho)

• The museum of Soho
• Soho memories
• The Soho Society

References

• Allen, Carl (2016). London Gig Venues. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-445-65820-9. 
• Clayton, Antony (2003). London's Coffee Houses: A Stimulating Story. Historical Publications. ISBN 978-0-948-66786-2. 
• Conte, Joseph (2008). Flies in My Spaghetti, Chocolates Over the Wall. Tate Publishing. ISBN 978-1-604-62251-5. 
• During, Simon (30 June 2009). Modern Enchantments: The Cultural Power of Secular Magic. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03439-6. https://books.google.com/books?id=Sr1DrJrFqNMC. 
• Girling, Brian (2012). Soho & Theatreland Through Time. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-445-63091-5. 
• Glinert, Ed (2012). The London Compendium. Penguin UK. ISBN 978-0-718-19203-7. 
• Gorman, Paul (2001). The Look: Adventures in Pop & Rock Fashion. Sanctuary. ISBN 9781860743023. https://books.google.com/books?id=1zwUAQAAIAAJ. 
• Haslam, Dave (2015). Life After Dark: A History of British Nightclubs & Music Venues. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-857-20700-5. 
• Hutton, Mike (2012). The Story of Soho: The Windmill Years 1932–1964. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-445-61231-7. 
• Johnson, Steven (19 October 2006). The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-101-15853-1. 
• Kirby, Dick (2013). The Scourge of Soho: The Controversial Career of SAS Hero Detective Sergeant Harry Challenor MM. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-781-59350-9. 
• Mee, Arthur (30 July 2014). King's England: London. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-4456-4239-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=PyxmBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT7. 
• Moore, Tim (2003). Do Not Pass Go. Vintage. ISBN 978-0-099-43386-6. 
• Nicholson, Virginia (2003). Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900–1939. Penguin UK. ISBN 978-0-141-93340-5. 
• Room, Adrian (15 December 1983). A Concise Dictionary of Modern Place-names in Great Britain and Ireland. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-211590-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=zogYAAAAIAAJ. 
• Tames, Richard (1994). Soho Past. London: Historical Publications. ISBN 978-0-94866-726-8.