Soho

This report is about

Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 80s, the area has undergone considerable transformation. And now it is predominantly a fashionable district of supermarkets restaurants and media offices.

History: The area of Soho used to be farmland until 1536, when it was taken by Henry VIII as a royal park for the Palace of Whitehall. The name "Soho" first appears in the 17th century. Most authorities believe that the name derives from a former hunting cry. The Duke of Monmouth used “soho” as a rallying call for his men at the Battle of Sedge moor, half a century after the name was first used for this area of London. The second opinion links the chronology to Somerset House that now stands on the edge of the area, with “SoHo” – an abridgement of the building name.

Some time later different owners of this area such as the Earls of Leicester and Portland tried to develop it, but Soho never became a fashionable area for the rich; Immigrants usually settled in there.

By the middle of the 19 century, all respectable families had moved away, and prostitutes, music halls and small theatres had moved in. In the beginning of the 20 century, foreigners opened cheap eating-houses, and the neighborhood became a fashionable place to eat for intellectuals, writers and artists, among them: Dylan Thomas and George Melly

Soho of today is a small, multicultural area of central London; a home to industry, commerce, culture and entertainment, as well as a residential area for both rich and poor. It has clubs, including the former Chinawhite nightclub, public houses, bars, restaurants, and late-night coffee shops that give the streets an "open all night" feel at the weekends. Many Soho weekends are busy enough to warrant closing off of some of the streets to vehicles.

Soho is also home to religious and spiritual groups, notably St Anne's Church on Dean Street (damaged by a V1 flying bomb during World War II, and re-opened in 1990), St Patrick's Church in Soho Square (founded by Irish immigrants in the 19th century), City Gates Church with their centre in Greens Court, the Hare Krishna Temple of Soho Square and a small mosque on Berwick Street.

Theatre and film industry: Soho is near the heart of London's theatre area, and is a centre of the independent film and video industry as well as the television and film post-production industry. It is home to Soho Theatre, built in 2000 to present new plays and stand-up comedy. The British Board of Film Classification, formerly known as the British Board of Film Censors, can be found in Soho Square.

Geography: Soho has an area of approximately one square mile and may be thought of as bounded by Oxford Street to the north, Regent Street to the west, Leicester Square to the south and Charing Cross Road to the east. However apart from Oxford Street, all of these roads are nineteenth-century metropolitan improvements, so they are not Soho's original boundaries. It has never been an administrative unit, with formally defined boundaries. The area to the west is known as Mayfair, to the north Fitzrovia, to the east St Giles's and Covent Garden, and to the south St James's.