A Brief History Of Soho

I was first attracted to visiting Soho along with some of my school friends in 1959 when I was only 16-years-old. The attraction was obvious to us young rites of passage teenagers. This was London’s red-light district and trips out from the suburbs by underground train to this iniquitous district, just yards from the exit at Piccadilly Circus Tube station, was an audacious adventure. Prostitutes, in high heels, garish make-up and tight alluring dresses, still walked the streets plying their trade. Not that we could do anything but think wishfully at that age, but it was watching this daring and dangerous slice of immoral life, that was intoxicating to us libidinous, hormonal teenagers. When we got tired of merely watching the streetwalkers, we headed for the frothy coffee bars. Everyone had begun drinking proper coffee dispensed by Italian espresso machines. And skiffle, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll music venues sprang up, one of them being the 2i’s coffee bar in Old Compton Street which gave early rock ‘n’ rollers a chance to show off their pop music abilities, and is known as the birthplace of British rock ‘n’ toll. This Soho culture was defined by the stage musical Expresso Bongo, a satire on the burgeoning rock ‘n’ roll industry. It starred Paul Scofield as a shady Tin Pan Alley manager, later made into a film starring Laurence Harvey in the same part, with Cliff Richard in the role of Bongo the singer, but the satire in the film was watered down.

The first coffee bar, Mika, opened in the early 1950s, which was later followed by hundreds of coffee bars, not only in Soho, but all over London. Some of them were gimmicky. I remember one in Richmond, Surry, called the Open City, where tables were set inside gondolas. But the trip to Soho to the Heaven and Hell Coffee Bar, was for us youngsters a treat like a child’s visit to Disneyworld. We thought we were sophisticated sitting in a coffin in the darkened ambience of the establishment, done out like a Hammer horror film set sipping our foamy brew. But in that same year, the Street Offences Act, made it illegal for prostitutes to solicit for trade on the streets and they became call girls, euphemistically calling themselves ‘models’, in what might have been a pathetic attempt to fool the law but actually fooled no one. They advertised with notices stuck to seedy shop doorways or postcards distributed to telephone boxes where punters could find whatever was on offer, ring up, make an appointment and climb those rickety stairs to see if the ‘model’ looked anything like the photograph on the postcard. Sex shops increased during the sixties, as did clubs and restaurants, because Soho has for many years been London’s adult playground, whether it be for sex, food and drink or music.

It was mainly food in the beginning. In the early days of the 16th century, when the area was under populated, it gained a reputation for its cuisine. The name Soho is believed to be the call of huntsmen, crying ‘So-Hoe!’ as they chased game in those fields and afterwards the dignitaries adjourned to a nearby banqueting house to feast on their catches. In the early 17th century a parish grew bit by bit north of Leicester Fields (later Leicester Square). In France the Huguenots were persecuted, and many escaped into exile and a life in London, gravitating towards the parish of Soho, opening French shops, cheap cafés and restaurants. Many other migrants were also attracted to the area, often exiled from far-flung European countries because of their religion or simply to search for a better life. Greek Street, at the heart of Soho, takes its name from the arrival of the many Greek Christians fleeing from persecution in the Ottoman Empire.

Music has always been a magnet to the area. In 1866 there were more than 30 music halls in the square mile, and in the 1930s American jazz was imported to Great Britain. Soho and West End clubs presented many famous American jazz musicians. In 1932 Louis Armstrong performed at Soho’s most renowned theatre, The London Palladium in Argyll Street, at the north west of Soho, close to Oxford Circus. The Palladium, designed by the prominent theatre architect Frank Matcham, is a theatre that is loved by audiences and performers alike. It has hosted countless variety shows, pantomimes and musicals over the years, and was the venue for the long-running television show Sunday Night at the London Palladium.

Dozens of Soho theatres have disappeared since Victorian times, but there are still many in the area and on the fringes of the district. A popular theatre is the Piccadilly Theatre, situated as it is behind Piccadilly Circus’s glittering array of neon. I remember in the seventies attending the first night of Clarence Darrow for the Defence with Henry Fonda in this one-man play giving a stunning performance. At the top end of Shaftsbury Avenue, facing Cambridge Circus is the Palace Theatre, home to Les Miserables for many years. I suppose it could be argued that most of the theatres in Shaftsbury Avenue are in Soho (their stage doors certainly lead into the district) and it has been asserted by many people that although Shaftsbury Avenue divides Soho and Chinatown, many people still regard that area immediately north of Leicester Square as Soho.

Another famous Soho theatre is the Prince Edward Theatre in Old Compton Street, a street which is now the heart of the gay community in Soho. The theatre was the first West End theatre to be built in 1930 and is named after Edward VIII, who abdicated and married Wallis Simpson. It became a cabaret restaurant in 1936, then after the war it was converted back to a theatre. In the past decades it has been the venue for many successful shows, including Mama Mia and The Jersey Boys. The return of Miss Saigon in May 2014 has broken all advance booking records with a staggering £4.4 million taken on the first day of sale.

One of the most famous theatres in the district, offering entertainment more in keeping with its dissolute image is the Windmill, in Great Windmill Street, which took its name from an actual windmill which stood there from the reign of Charles II until the late 18th century. The Windmill began life as the Palais de Luxe, showing silent films from 1909. Laura Henderson purchased it in 1930 and had it rebuilt as a small theatre and it reopened as the renamed Windmill Theatre in 1931. She is portrayed in a film about the Windmill starring Judi Dench, titled Mrs Henderson Presents. After losses incurred presenting straight plays, new theatre Manager Vivian Van Damm persuaded the Lord Chamberlain (whose office controlled what was or wasn’t allowed in theatres) that there is nothing obscene about the female form as nude statues are seen as works of art, and so the tableaux vivants was born in 1932. Young women could pose in the nude but had to remain absolutely still. During the war, and the heavy bombing of London during the Blitz, the Windmill’s boast was that “We Never Closed”. Following the sirens signalling an air raid the performers and crew would descend to deep basement shelter for safety, but after an air raid it was business as usual. In the late forties and early fifties, the Windmill became a training ground for many young comedians, who discovered it was hard getting laughs when all the mostly male audiences wanted was to ogle the immovable girls, perhaps hoping one might sneeze.

The man who found a way of circumventing the Lord Chamberlain’s rules and presenting strip-tease was Paul Raymond, later known as the King of Soho when he became an immensely rich property tycoon, buying up leasehold and freehold buildings in the district. His Raymond Revuebar in Walker’s Court just off Brewer Street, was a members only club, boasting a membership of thousands of eminent people from all walks of life. The neon sign outside his club gloated: “The World Centre of Erotic Entertainment”. Raymond was portrayed in the 2013 film The Look of Love by Steve Coogan.

But Raymond was not the only Soho king. In St Anne’s churchyard is the grave of Theodore I, King of Corsica. A German adventurer, Theodore made the acquaintance of Corsican rebels who sought freedom from Genoese rule and tyranny. Theodore

offered to take on the onerous task of organising an army and was duly elected King of Corsica. Eventually he made his way to England, attempting to raise support for his cause, but in 1749 he fell into debt and was jailed in a debtors’ prison. He regained his freedom by declaring himself bankrupt but died in 1756. Horace Walpole was one of his supporters, and his epitaph, written by Walpole reads:

The grave, great teacher, to a level brings

Heroes and beggars, galley slaves and kings

But Theodore this moral learned ere dead

Fate poured its lessons on his living head

Bestowed a kingdom but denied him bread.

During the Blitz, St Anne’s Church was bombed and burnt out on 24 September1940. The tower which to a certain extent survived was used as a chapel in the 1950s, partly restored in 1979 and the church was rebuilt in the early nineties. The tower is now a Grade II listed building.

In the sixties, satire and a strong urge to rock the establishment became all the rage, and a club was opened in Greek Street in 1961, aptly named the Establishment, founded by Peter Cook and Nicholas Luard. In the same year, not far from the Establishment, Private Eye, a satirical and current affairs magazine, began building its circulation. The magazine often exposed malpractices and regularly fought for survival when writs were issued against it. The Establishment shut its doors in 1964, while Private Eye continues to prosper.

As well as rock ‘n’ roll taking off in the fifties, it was jazz clubs that gripped Soho, the most renowned being Ronnie Scott’s club. Scott was a saxophone player, and as well as playing with his own band, famous jazz musicians from all over the world enjoyed performing in the intimacy of his club. Another famous music venue was the Marquee Club, which moved from Oxford Street to Wardour Street in 1964. The Marquee began life as a jazz and skiffle club, but in the sixties became rhythm ‘n’ blues and rock, and musicians like the Yardbirds and Manfred Mann and the Rolling Stones often performed there in the early days.

Back in 1914 drinking laws became stringent and pubs were only allowed to open for so many hours in a day. Up until the early-eighties, the licensing laws continued to stop anyone enjoying an afternoon drink beyond 2.30 p.m., until pubs’ early-doors when they opened again at 5.30 p.m. So to get around these severe drinking laws, Members Only drinking clubs opened up, many of them catering for misfits, artists, writers and actors. The most famous, or infamous of these, depending on your attitude, was the Colony Room, opened by Muriel Belcher in 1979 and regulars to the club included artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, journalists Daniel Farson and Jeffrey Bernard, and many actors, writers and poets. It was rumoured that Dylan Thomas once puked on the carpet of the Colony Room.

The wonderful thing about Soho is that it still has the thrilling atmosphere of a sort of diverse enclave in the middle of London, an urban village teeming with creative characters. Media establishments, from recording studios and editing suites, to publishing houses are central to its existence And the small retail outlets are fascinating: off-licences which sell exotic liquor unobtainable in local supermarkets, including the mind-blowing absinthe; newsagents where you can purchase magazines and newspapers in hundreds of languages from all over the world; and music shops selling esoteric recordings of long-forgotten divas and crooners.

Soho has attracted and been home to hundreds of famous writers, politicians, artists and actors. Karl Marx who lived in the district for six years, held the second congress of the Communist League and wrote the Communist Manifesto in a room above the Red Lion pub in Great Windmill Street. The young nine-year-old Mozart stayed in Soho when he toured with his family, and a plaque commemorating his stay is fixed to the wall near the Stage Door of the Prince Edward Theatre. Other notable residents included Casanova, Canaletto, William Blake, Shelley and Isaac Newton, to name just a few The list goes on and on. For a complete record of Soho’s famous residents and blue commemorative plaques, go to www.thesohosociety.org.uk

There have, of course, been many changes in the area over the years. The famous Windmill Theatre is now a table-dancing club rather than a cabaret venue, but I guess that’s still in keeping with its reputation for titillation. And pubs like the Intrepid Fox in Wardour Street, where Mick Jagger famously persuaded Ronnie Wood to join the Rolling Stones, have long since disappeared. But changes happen in most districts. Thankfully Soho retains its cosmopolitan character, and long may that continue.