Soho is bounded by Oxford Street to the north, Charing Cross Road to the east, Shaftesbury Avenue to the south, and Regent Street to the west. In this square kilometre, more of London’s cultural history has been made than in any other equivalent area of the city.
The Bohemian History
Karl Marx lived in Soho in the 1850s, writing the Communist Manifesto in poverty in Dean Street. Dylan Thomas drank in the Fitzroy Tavern. Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud used the Gargoyle Club. The French House on Dean Street was the London HQ of the Free French during the Second World War. Soho has always attracted the creative, the outcast and the unconventional.
Chinatown
Chinatown, on Gerrard Street at Soho’s southern edge, has been a centre of Chinese life in London since the 1970s. The restaurants range from the excellent to the tourist-trap; the best are the roast-duck specialists and the dim sum houses. The area is at its most spectacular during Chinese New Year celebrations in February.
Soho Today
Soho has gentrified substantially but retains its character. The Berwick Street market still runs. Independent record shops, film labs and music publishers still occupy small offices above the restaurants. The gay village around Old Compton Street remains one of London’s most vibrant social communities. It connects naturally to Covent Garden to the east.
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