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The Trouble with Soho

Conflict over noise in the West End goes back centuries

When I was growing up the name had a strong whiff of naughtiness, being the centre of London’s sex trade, home to numerous brothels, strip clubs and porn shops; it was also the city’s gay quarter when homosexuality was first illegal and then stigmatised, as well as the heart of the advertising industry, Chinatown and countless pubs frequented by actors, journalists and other wastrels. During lockdown the streets of Soho were closed to cars so that alfresco dining could be enjoyed but, unlike in Paris and other European cities of a similar climate, this was then reversed and the roads given back to vehicles. Some being (I suppose) amaz’d, made their escape, the rest desired that party of the club-men (who call’d themselves Watch-men) to carry them before a Magistrate, declaring they knew not of any mischief or affront, and protested they intended none to his Grace.

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