Tourist Information on Soho

Soho is roughly bounded by Regent Street, Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road.  In medieval times area was used for farming but in the 16th and 17th centuries it became a hunting ground for London's aristocracy. Only when the City became too crowded, after the Great Fire of 1666, did this area become residential. 

Many of the houses were  constructed by the builder Richard Frith, who gave his name to Frith Street.  Among the first residents were Greek Christians, remembered by Greek Street, who fled Ottaman persecution. These were followed by the Huguenots - French Protestants who had been forced out of France by Louis XIV. 

In the early-18th century the area's wealthy residents left their Soho Square mansions for the new Mayfair, replaced by writers, radicals, artists and foreign immigrants, particularly Italians. 

In the 1950s many Chinese from Hong Kong and London's original Chinatown at Limehouse, moved to the Soho area, particularly around Gerrard Street and Lisle Street.   

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In the 20th century, as the local population began to fall, Soho became known for its cheap restaurants and entertainment's, both legal and illegal.   In the 1950's Soho was famous for its jazz,   Ronnie Scott opened his first jazz club in 1959 on Gerrard Street, before moving to Frith Street in 1965. 

At the same time the sex industry, for which Soho had been renowned since the mid-19th century, expanded during the 1960's and 1970's.   However, in the 1980's and 1990's Soho began to improve.  Soho pubs revived as a boom in gay business injected life into its cafés, restaurants and shops, giving vitality into the neighbourhood. 

Chinatown has also developed in a very vibrant part of Soho and is very popular with tourists, especially at Chinese New Year.    

Today, Soho's narrow streets are home to around 5,000 residents, a mix of local tenants, artists, media workers, tailors, market traders, dealers, prostitutes and the homeless people, who shelter in Soho's doorways and alleyways.  

Soho hasn't become a tourist trap like Covent Garden, and Old Crompton Street is the closest London gets to a 24-hour culture.   top >