London History, Up Close

In 1961, Peter Cook opened a comedy club in a former strip club in Soho, beneath a satirical magazine’s office, and next to a photography studio where one of the decade’s most notorious photographs would shortly be taken. He chose the location for its seediness. He called the club the Establishment. The irony was entirely intentional. Why Soho, Why Now The building at what is now 18 Greek Street has had a complicated life. It began as a soap warehouse, became a Chartist...

Dean Street runs through the heart of Soho, a district still full of theatres. From at least 1740 until 1748, number 78 was home to the Irish actress Margaret Woffington, known to everyone as ‘Peg’. She was, by that point, one of the most talked-about performers in London. She was also a woman who refused to marry, kept control of her own money, and lived as she chose in full public view, at a time when that required considerable nerve. As unconventional as the neighbourhood itself,...

Mecklenburgh Square lies on the eastern edge of Bloomsbury, quieter than its more famous neighbours, its garden enclosed by late Georgian terraces. A plaque on the facade of number 21 marks the residence of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan from 1869 to 1870. Khan arrived in London in May 1869, stayed for seventeen months, and returned to India with a plan that would reshape Muslim education on the subcontinent for generations. He was also, at various points in his life, condemned as a traitor to his...

Charing Cross Road runs south from Oxford Street through the heart of the West End. Nothing at 107–109 Charing Cross Road, now occupied by Foyles, indicates what once stood here. But in 1677, in what was then a half-built district of raw brick on the northern edge of London, a group of Greek Orthodox refugees raised a church on this spot. They had fled the expanding Ottoman Empire and had petitioned the King. What they built did not last long. But its story – one of displacement,...

In 1935, a basement on Wardour Street brought Harlem to London. The Metropolitan Police took detailed notes. Anonymous neighbours wrote letters to Scotland Yard. A sergeant questioned the musicians about their wages. But none of it worked. The Shim Sham Club was London’s first Black-led music venue, and it was going to do what it liked. London’s Miniature Harlem The dark green-fronted building at 37 Wardour Street sits in the heart of Chinatown, in the southern part of...

In the 1930s, the second floor of a waiters’ cooperative on Greek Street housed the London headquarters of Mussolini’s Fascist Party. Downstairs, Italian waiters clocked in and out. Upstairs, the Fascio di Londra distributed propaganda, organised the community, and plotted to take over Soho’s café industry. The espresso machines kept hissing. Nobody talked about the second floor. Little Italy’s Secret Soho was the heart of London’s Italian community: some...

Broadwick Street runs through the middle of Soho, lined with the usual modern mix of offices and restaurants. William Blake House now stands at Number 62, a sixteen-storey tower block erected in the 1960s after the original building was demolished. A plaque at the entrance to the block and a note at nearby Marshall Street are all that mark the spot. It is not much of a memorial for the man the building is named after, the prolific artist and writer of Jerusalem. He was born here on the 28th...

Soho Square sits at the northern end of Soho, a small public garden ringed by Georgian and Victorian buildings. Number 31 is hard to find today. It should be in the square’s South West corner, but there’s a gap – or rather a road: Frith Street – between 32 and 30, the NHS building that was formerly the home of celebrated Victorian actress Fanny Kemble. 31 was the abode of another Victorian actress. The actress Nelly Moore lived there in the 1860s. Beautiful and talented,...

Soho in 1960 At some point in the late 1950s, officers from Special Branch began making regular visits to a coffee house on Carlisle Street, a narrow turning off Soho Square. They would sit down, order a drink, and play chess. They were listening. The conversations happening at number 7 were considered worth monitoring at the highest levels of the British state. The place was called the Partisan Coffee House. It was open from half past ten in the morning until midnight, it served famously...

Number 29 Soho Square sits on the north side of the square, a few minutes’ walk from the noise and colour of Oxford Street. These days it’s an NHS walk in centre, and has been in the medical game for a while. A large engraving on the top of the building reads ‘The Hospital For Women, Supported By Voluntary Contributions‘. Before that part of its history though, this site housed a woman whose own voluntary contributions provided a form of support to a large...