115-544: Dean Street is a street in Soho , central London , running from Oxford Street south to Shaftesbury Avenue . It crosses Old Compton Street and is linked to Frith Street by Bateman Street . In 1764 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , then a young boy, gave a recital at 21 Dean Street. Admiral Nelson stayed in Dean Street the day before setting sail for the Battle of Trafalgar . He spent
230-502: A street market since the early 18th century, which has been formally organised since 1892. Crossrail Crossrail is a completed railway project centred on London. It provides a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system, known as the Elizabeth line , that crosses the capital from suburbs on the west to east and connects two major railway lines terminating in London:
345-482: A "nude entertainment" venue until 1981. The upstairs became known as the Boulevard Theatre and in 1980 was adopted as a comedy club called " The Comic Strip " by a small group of alternative comedians including Rik Mayall , Dawn French , Jennifer Saunders , Alexei Sayle and Adrian Edmondson , before they found wider recognition with the series The Comic Strip Presents on Channel 4 . The name and control of
460-639: A basement studio on Gerrard Street. The Soho area has been at the heart of London's sex industry for more than 200 years; between 1778 and 1801, 21 Soho Square was location of the White House, a brothel described by the magistrate Henry Mayhew as "a notorious place of ill-fame". Shortly before World War I, two rival gangs, one led by Chan Nan (also called " Brilliant Chang ") and the other by Eddie Manning, controlled drugs and prostitution in Soho. Both were eventually arrested and imprisoned; Manning died midway through
575-617: A competition in January 2012 to name the TBMs, in which over 2,500 entries were received and 10 pairs of names short-listed. After a public vote in February 2012, the first three pairs of names were announced on 13 March and the last pair on 16 August 2013: In September 2012, a gantry supporting a spoil hopper, used to load rail wagons with excavated waste at a construction site near Westbourne Park Underground station , collapsed. It tipped sideways, causing
690-557: A drugs raid. The Harmony Inn was a hang-out for musicians on Archer Street operating during the 1940s and 1950s. The Ken Colyer Band's 51 Club, a venue for traditional jazz , opened on Great Newport Street in 1951. Blues guitarist and harmonica player Cyril Davies and guitarist Bob Watson launched the London Skiffle Centre, London's first skiffle club, on the first floor of the Roundhouse pub on Wardour Street in 1952. It
805-419: A façade of terracotta and coloured brick designed by Aston Webb . A significant event in the history of epidemiology and public health was John Snow 's study of an 1854 outbreak of cholera in Soho. He identified the cause of the outbreak as water from the public pump at the junction of Broad Street (now Broadwick Street ) and Cambridge Street (now Lexington Street), close to the rear wall of what
920-455: A fire broke out on Dean Street. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries but nobody else was hurt. The building that caught fire was gutted. The start of a dramatic change to Dean Street began in March 2010 as the demolition commenced of an entire block (Great Chapel Street and Dean Street) in preparation for a western entrance to the new Crossrail station at Tottenham Court Road , which would have
1035-614: A government investigation into blacklisting at Crossrail. Further allegations of blacklisting against Crossrail were made in Parliament in September 2017. In March 2023, a former Crossrail worker made a High Court statement regarding a damages claim against Crossrail, Skanska, Costain, T Clarke and NG Bailey for blacklisting. The case had been settled out of court in December 2021. Electrician Daniel Collins had raised health and safety concerns at
1150-509: A major impact on the area. From north to south: 51°30′50″N 0°07′58″W / 51.51389°N 0.13278°W / 51.51389; -0.13278 Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster in the West End of London . Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area
1265-441: A new wetland nature reserve ( Wallasea Wetlands ). The project eventually moved seven million tons of earth. Restoration of Connaught Tunnel by filling with concrete foam and reboring, as originally intended, was deemed too great a risk to the structural integrity of the tunnel, and so the docks above were drained to give access to the tunnel roof in order to enlarge its profile. This work took place during 2013. Boring of
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#17328485446191380-460: A new parish of St Anne was established for it. The parish stretched from Oxford Street in the north to Leicester Square in the south and from what is now Charing Cross Road in the east to Wardour Street in the west; it therefore included all of contemporary eastern Soho, including the Chinatown area. The western portion of modern Soho, around Carnaby Street, was part of the parish of St James , which
1495-478: A number of other schemes including a "Thameslink Metro" route enhancement, and the Chelsea–Hackney line. The cost of the east–west scheme including rolling stock was estimated at £885 million. In 1991, a private bill was submitted to Parliament for a scheme including a new underground line from Paddington to Liverpool Street. The bill was promoted by London Underground and British Rail, and supported by
1610-554: A rallying call for his men at the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685, half a century after the name was first used for this area of London. The Soho name has been reused by other entertainment and restaurant districts such as SoHo, Hong Kong , which derives its name from being located south of Hollywood Road , and the cultural and commercial area of Soho in Málaga , Spain. The New York City neighbourhood of SoHo, Manhattan , gets its name from its location south of Houston Street , but
1725-624: A series of corruption trials in 1975, following which several senior police officers were imprisoned. This caused a small recession in Soho which depressed property values at the time Paul Raymond had started buying freeholds there. By the 1980s, purges of the police force along with pressure from the Soho Society and new and tighter licensing controls by the City of Westminster led to a crackdown on illegal premises. The number of sex industry premises dropped from 185 in 1982 to around 30 in 1991. By 2000, substantial relaxation of general censorship ,
1840-506: A small mosque on Berwick Street. The French Protestant Church of London , the only one of its kind in the city and constructed in the Flemish Gothic style, has been at Nos. 8–9 Soho Square since 1893. The music scene in Soho can be traced back to 1948 and Club Eleven , generally regarded as the first venue where modern jazz, or bebop , was performed in the UK. It closed in 1950 following
1955-472: A specialist investigation by the Railway (London Plan) Committee, appointed in 1944 and reporting in 1946 and 1948. The term "Crossrail" emerged in the 1974 London Rail Study Report. Although the idea was seen as imaginative, only a brief estimate of cost was given: £300 million. A feasibility study was recommended as a high priority so that the practicability and costs of the scheme could be determined. It
2070-575: A three-year sentence in 1933. Following World War II, gangs set up rings of prostitutes in the area, concentrated around Brewer Street and Rupert Street. Photographers also visited Soho in the hope of being able to blackmail people caught in the act of visiting prostitutes. When the Street Offences Act 1959 drove prostitution off the streets, many clubs such as the Blue Lagoon at No. 50 Carnaby Street became fronts for it. Gangs controlled
2185-407: A timetable through the core section, to check the reliability of the railway. In November 2021, Crossrail entered trial operation which is the final stage before opening. With an initial budget of £14.8 billion, the total cost rose to £18.25 billion by November 2019, and increased further to £18.8 billion by December 2020. Delays to the project of several months were caused by
2300-787: A tunnel under the Thames , was awarded to Hochtief and J. Murphy & Sons in 2011. By September 2009, preparatory work for the £1 billion developments at Tottenham Court Road station had begun, with buildings (including the Astoria Theatre ) being compulsorily purchased and demolished. In March 2010, contracts were awarded to civil engineering companies for the second round of 'enabling work' including 'Royal Oak Portal Taxi Facility Demolition', 'Demolition works for Crossrail Bond Street Station ', 'Demolition works for Crossrail Tottenham Court Road Station' and 'Pudding Mill Lane Portal'. In December 2010, contracts were awarded for most of
2415-458: Is a public house that was the unofficial headquarters of Charles de Gaulle and the French resistance during World War II . The street has an association with healthcare. Over the years there have been various hospitals on the street including pioneering establishments for prevention and cure of diseases. The Royal Ear Hospital occupied number 10. An early maternity hospital was also located here and
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#17328485446192530-489: Is also a reference to London's Soho. The Pittsburgh neighbourhood of Uptown was also formerly called Soho, most likely having been named by its founder James Tustin after the London district, though it may refer to Soho, West Midlands . Soho has never been an administrative unit with formally defined boundaries; it is about 1 square mile (2.6 km ) in area, and is usually considered to be bounded by Shaftesbury Avenue to
2645-524: Is nicknamed the British Tin Pan Alley due to its large concentration of shops selling musical instruments. The Sex Pistols lived beneath No. 6 and recorded their first demos there. Jimi Hendrix , the Rolling Stones and David Bowie have all recorded at studios on Denmark Street and Elton John wrote his hit " Your Song " in the street. Led Zeppelin 's first rehearsal in 1968 was in
2760-547: Is now the Hart Brothers restaurant Quo Vadis . The Marxes shared their house in Dean Street with Italian teachers and a cook and were very poor while living in the street. Their rooms were described by one visitor as being in "One of the worst, therefore one of the cheapest, quarters of London..." Three of their five children died while living here, all in infancy. Marx's collaborator Friedrich Engels also lived in an apartment at 28 Dean Street. The French House in Dean Street
2875-639: Is still in operation, but The Bridge was sold to Miloco Studios in 2009, and relocated to the Orinoco Studios Complex at 36 Leroy Street in Greater London. White Lightning also opened a third studio at 16 Dufours Place, named Space Facilities, in late 1995, but it closed in the same year The Bridge was sold. Twentieth Century House in Soho Square was built in 1937 for Twentieth Century Fox . The British Board of Film Classification , formerly known as
2990-566: Is today the John Snow public house . Snow mapped the addresses of the sick and noted that they were mostly people whose nearest access to water was the Broad Street pump. He persuaded the authorities to remove the handle of the pump, thus preventing any more of the infected water from being collected. The spring below the pump was later found to have been contaminated with sewage. This is an early example of epidemiology, public health medicine and
3105-518: The British Board of Film Classification offices. The area has been popular for restaurants since the 19th century, including the long-standing Kettner's which was visited by numerous celebrities. Near to Soho is London's Chinatown , centred on Gerrard Street and containing several restaurants and shops. The name "Soho" first appears in the 17th century. The name is derived from a former hunting cry. James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth , used "soho" as
3220-603: The COVID-19 pandemic in England , and in late 2020 this reduced the number of workers that could be safely on-site. By August 2021, seven of the nine new stations had been handed over to TfL. The Abbey Wood to Paddington section opened to passengers on 24 May 2022, although initially trains did not run on Sundays to allow for further testing, nor did they call at Bond Street, which opened on 24 October 2022. From Sunday 6 November trains began running directly from Reading and Heathrow in
3335-690: The Great Western Main Line and the Great Eastern Main Line . The project was approved in 2007, and construction began in 2009 on the central section and connections to existing lines that became part of the route, which has been named the Elizabeth line in honour of Queen Elizabeth II who opened the line on 17 May 2022 during her Platinum Jubilee . The central section of the line between Paddington and Abbey Wood opened on 24 May 2022, with 12 trains per hour running in each direction through
3450-463: The Lock Hospital too was in Dean Street, Lock being a euphemism for venereal disease . Today there are two Sexual Health clinics on Dean Street: 56 Dean Street , and Dean Street Express at number 34, opposite Royalty Mews. Dean Street has in recent years been a centre of the creative and advertising industries including film and video editing facilities; this was especially true from the 1960s to
3565-842: The Middle Ages , the area that is now Soho was farmland that belonged to the Abbot and Convent of Abingdon and the master of Burton St Lazar Hospital in Leicestershire , who managed a leper hospital in St Giles in the Fields . In 1536, the land was taken by Henry VIII as a royal park for the Palace of Whitehall . The area south of what is now Shaftesbury Avenue did not stay in the Crown possession for long; Queen Mary sold around 7 acres (2.8 ha) in 1554, and most of
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3680-535: The New Romantic movement in the early 1980s, originally met at Billy's. The club changed its name to Gossip's and became part of London's clubland heritage by spawning several weekly club-nights that influenced British music and fashion during the 1980s. Gerrard Street is the centre of London's Chinatown , and along with Lisle Street and Little Newport Street, house a mix of import companies, oriental food shops and restaurants. Street festivals are held throughout
3795-585: The Raymond Revuebar owned by entrepreneur Paul Raymond , and music clubs such as the 2i's Coffee Bar and the Marquee Club . Trident Studios was based in Soho, and the nearby Denmark Street has hosted numerous music publishing houses and instrument shops from the 20th century onwards. The independent British film industry is centred around Soho, including the British headquarters of Twentieth Century Fox and
3910-542: The Thames Tideway Scheme and the High Speed 2 projects, which were under development in London at the same time as Crossrail, the excavation works that took place during the project gave archaeologists a valuable opportunity to explore the earth underneath London's streets that was previously seen as inaccessible. Crossrail undertook what was described as one of the most extensive archaeological programmes ever seen in
4025-465: The 18th century. It initially opened as the Palais de Luxe in 1910 as a small cinema, but was unable to compete with larger venues and was converted into a theatre by Howard Jones. It re-opened in December 1931, but was still unsuccessful. In 1932, the general manager Vivian Van Damm introduced a non-stop variety show throughout the afternoon and evening. It was famous for its nude tableaux vivants , in which
4140-455: The 1990s. There have been many music and theatre venues on the street, including the Soho Theatre , which presents new plays and stand-up comedy. The celebrated Gargoyle Club ran for 27 years in the upper floors at number 69, an address that also housed the nightclub Billy's in its cellars during the late 1970s. There, New Romanticism , a landmark youth movement, took root. On 10 July 2009
4255-471: The 21st century, it had acquired around 400 flats. St Anne's Church in Dean Street was refurbished after decades of neglect, and a Museum of Soho was established. On 30 April 1999, the Admiral Duncan pub on Old Compton Street, which serves the gay community, was damaged by a nail bomb that left three dead and 30 injured. The bomb was the third that had been planted by David Copeland , a neo-Nazi who
4370-493: The 21st century. Though the Earls of Leicester and Portland had intended Soho to be an upper-class estate comparable to Bloomsbury , Marylebone and Mayfair , it never developed as such. Immigrants began to settle in the area from around 1680 onwards, particularly French Huguenots after 1688. The area became known as London's French quarter. The French church in Soho Square was founded by Huguenots and opened on 25 March 1893, with
4485-402: The 3rd and 4th of February 2020. All road junctions connecting to the streets closed during retrieval of the bomb fragments as well. Soho is near the heart of London's theatre area . It is home to the Soho Theatre , built in 2000 to present new plays and comedy. The Windmill Theatre was based on Great Windmill Street, and was named after a windmill at this location that was demolished in
4600-460: The Assumption and St Gregory and St Patrick's Church in Soho Square. The aristocracy had mostly moved away by the mid-19th century, when Soho was particularly badly hit by an outbreak of cholera in 1854. For much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation as a base for the sex industry in addition to its night life and its location for the headquarters of leading film companies. Since the 1980s,
4715-569: The Bond Street station site in February 2015, was fired three days later, and faced repeated difficulties in gaining new employment on the project. He alleged there was a "secretive system of misuse of private information" about union activists. Crossrail and the contractors denied all Collins' allegations, saying they settled the court case "for purely commercial reasons" and "without admission of liability or wrongdoing". Collins received an undisclosed sum for damages and to cover court costs. Much like
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4830-501: The British Board of Film Censors, has been based in Soho Square since 1950. Soho's key fibre communications network has been managed by Sohonet since 1995, which connects the Soho media and post-production community to British film studios such as Pinewood and Shepperton , along with other locations worldwide include HBO and Warner Brothers . In the 2010s, research commissioned by Westminster City Council showed 23 per cent of
4945-500: The Crossrail scheme, and also a Wimbledon–Hackney scheme. While CLRL was promoting the Crossrail project, alternative schemes were being proposed. In 2002, GB Railways put forward a scheme called SuperCrossRail which would link regional stations such as Cambridge , Guildford , Oxford , Milton Keynes Central , Southend Victoria and Ipswich via a west–east rail tunnel through central London. The tunnel would follow an alignment along
5060-751: The Hon David Tennant as a place where writers, artists and musicians could mingle with the upper crust and eat and drink at affordable prices for the next three decades. In May 1979 the Gargoyle's uppermost room started hosting a weekly club-night on Saturdays called the Comedy Store , which made the reputations of many of the UK's upcoming " alternative comedians ". Among the original lineup here were Alexei Sayle , Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson who broke away in 1980 to establish The Comic Strip team at Raymond's Revue Bar, before they found wider recognition with
5175-535: The River Thames, with stations at Charing Cross , Blackfriars and London Bridge . In 2004 another proposal named Superlink was promoted by a group of senior railway managers. Like SuperCrossRail, Superlink envisaged linking a number of regional stations via a tunnel through London, but advocated the route already safeguarded for Crossrail. CLRL evaluated both proposals and rejected them due to concerns about network capacity and cost issues. The Crossrail Act 2008
5290-562: The Sheffields, and recorded their first four albums at Trident. Other artists who recorded at Trident include David Bowie , Elton John , Free and Thin Lizzy . It closed as a general-purpose recording studio in 1981, but has since reopened in various guises, including providing sound and mixing services for television. Although technically not part of Soho, the adjacent Denmark Street is known for its connections with British popular music , and
5405-454: The Thames tunnel, which involves tunnelling through chalk ; and 'Earth Pressure Balance Machines' (EPBM) for tunnelling through clay, sand and gravel (at lower levels through Lambeth Group and Thanet Sands ground formation). The TBMs weigh nearly 1,000 tonnes and are over 100 metres (330 feet) long. The main tunnelling contracts were valued at around £1.5 billion. Crossrail ran
5520-486: The UK. Over 100 archaeologists have found tens of thousands of items from 40 sites, spanning 55 million years of London's history and prehistory. Many of the items were placed on show at the Museum of London Docklands from February to September 2017. Some of the most notable finds include: In the first half of 2021, Crossrail entered trial running stage of construction. Crossrail, in partnership with TfL, ran trains to
5635-476: The Windmill. It closed on 31 October 1964 and was again turned into a cinema. The Raymond Revuebar at No. 11 Walker's Court was a small theatre specialising in striptease and nude dancing. It was owned by Paul Raymond and opened in 1958. The facade supported a brightly lit sign declaring it to be the "World Centre of Erotic Entertainment". Raymond subsequently bought the lease of the Windmill and ran it as
5750-662: The adjacent Network Rail line to be closed. On 7 March 2014, Rene Tkacik, a Slovakian construction worker, was killed by a piece of falling concrete while working in a tunnel. In April 2014, The Observer reported details of a leaked internal report, compiled for the Crossrail contractors by an independent safety consultancy. The report was alleged to have pointed to poor industrial relations arising from safety concerns, and that workers were "too scared to report injuries for fear of being sacked". Three construction workers died from suspected heart attacks over six months in 2019, but Crossrail announced that, following extensive testing,
5865-480: The air quality at Bond Street station was within acceptable limits. In 2012, Crossrail faced accusations of blacklisting . It was revealed that an industrial relations manager, Ron Barron, employed by Bechtel , had routinely cross-checked job applicants against the Consulting Association database. An employment tribunal in 2010 heard that Barron introduced the use of the blacklist at his former employer,
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#17328485446195980-412: The application of science—the germ theory of disease —in a real-life crisis. Science writer Steven Johnson has written about the changes related to the cholera outbreak, and notes that almost every building on the street that existed in 1854 has since been replaced. A replica of the pump, with a memorial plaque and without a handle (to signify Snow's action to halt the outbreak) was erected in 1992 near
6095-462: The area has undergone considerable gentrification . It is now predominantly a fashionable district of upmarket restaurants and media offices, with only a small remnant of sex industry venues. London's gay community is centred on Old Compton Street in Soho. Soho's reputation as a major entertainment district of London stems from theatres such as the Windmill Theatre on Great Windmill Street and
6210-455: The area remains a red-light district and a centre of the sex industry in London. The National Hospital for Diseases of the Heart and Paralysis was established at No. 32 Soho Square in 1874. The property had previously been owned by the naturalist and botanist Sir Joseph Banks . It moved to Westmoreland Street in 1914, and then to Fulham Road in 1991. In July 2019, Soho was reported to be
6325-567: The area. On 24 June 2009 it was reported that no traces of anthrax or bubonic plague had been found on human bone fragments discovered during tunnelling. Invitations to tender for the two principal tunnelling contracts were published in the Official Journal of the European Union in August 2009. 'Tunnels West' (C300) was for twin 6.2-kilometre-long (3.9-mile) tunnels from Royal Oak through to
6440-529: The centre of the fledgling rock scene in London. Clubs included the Flamingo Club , a regular gig for Georgie Fame , Ronan O'Rahilly 's The Scene , which opened in 1963 and catered for the Mod movement with regular attendees including Steve Marriot and Andrew Loog Oldham , and jazz clubs like Ronnie Scott's , which opened in 1959 at 39 Gerrard Street and moved to 47 Frith Street in 1965. Soho's Wardour Street
6555-551: The clubs and the prostitutes, and the police were bribed. In 1960 London's first sex cinema, the Compton Cinema Club (a members-only club to get around the law), opened at 56 Old Compton Street. It was owned by Michael Klinger and Tony Tenser who later produced two early Roman Polanski films, including Repulsion (1965). As post-war austerity relaxed into the "swinging '60s", clip joints also surfaced; these unlicensed establishments sold coloured water as champagne with
6670-440: The construction firm Chicago Bridge & Iron Company (CB&I), and referred to it more than 900 times in 2007 alone. He was found to have unlawfully refused employment to a Philip Willis. Aggravated damages were awarded because Barron had added information about Willis to the blacklist. In May 2012, a BFK manager challenged their subcontractor, Electrical Installations Services Ltd. (EIS), saying that one of their electricians
6785-502: The core section in Central London . The main feature of the project was the construction of a new railway line that runs underground from Paddington Station to a junction near Whitechapel. There it splits into a branch to Stratford , where it joins the Great Eastern Main Line ; and a branch to Abbey Wood in southeast London. When the Elizabeth line became fully operational in May 2023,
6900-457: The culture of Soho through our vibrant and diverse content". There is no playlist policy, and presenters are allowed to play any music they like. In 2016, it was voted the world's best radio station at Mixcloud 's Online Radio Awards. Soho is home to numerous religious and spiritual groups. St Anne's Church on Wardour Street was built between 1677 and 1686, possibly to the design of Sir Christopher Wren or William Talman . An additional tower
7015-525: The ensuing neglect by rich and fashionable London, and the lack of the redevelopment that characterised the neighbouring areas. The aristocracy had mostly disappeared from Soho by the 19th century, to be replaced by prostitutes , music halls and small theatres. The population increased significantly, reaching 327 inhabitants per acre by 1851, making the area one of the most densely populated areas of London. Houses became divided into tenements with chronic overcrowding and disease. The 1854 cholera outbreak caused
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#17328485446197130-846: The existing Great Eastern Main Line at Stratford . The south-eastern branch runs underground to Abbey Wood via Canary Wharf , Custom House and Woolwich . This branch takes over a stretch of the former North London line built by the Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway , and connects it with the North Kent Line via a tunnel under the Thames at North Woolwich . The tunnelled sections are altogether approximately 42 km (26 miles) in length. There are new stations at Paddington , Bond Street , Tottenham Court Road , Farringdon , Liverpool Street and Whitechapel , with interchanges with London Underground and National Rail services. Due to
7245-519: The government; it was rejected by the Private Bill Committee in 1994 on the grounds that a case had not been made, though the government issued "Safeguarding Directions", protecting the route from any development that would jeopardise future schemes. In 2001, Cross London Rail Links (CLRL), a joint-venture between TfL and the Department for Transport (DfT), was formed to develop and promote
7360-482: The handful opened by Carl Slack in the early 1960s. From 1976 to 1982, Soho had 54 sex shops, 39 sex cinemas and cinema clubs, 16 strip and peep shows, 11 sex-oriented clubs and 12 licensed massage parlours. The proliferation of sex shops dissuaded some people from visiting Soho. The growth of the sex industry in Soho during this time was partly caused by corruption in the Metropolitan Police . The vice squad at
7475-466: The land was granted freehold in 1698 by William III to William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland , while the southern part of Soho was sold piecemeal in the 16th and 17th centuries, partly to Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester . Soho was part of the ancient parish of St Martin in the Fields , forming part of the Liberty of Westminster . As the population started to grow, a new church was provided, and in 1687
7590-614: The length and positioning of the new platforms, Farringdon station is also connected to Barbican station, and Liverpool Street to Moorgate station. From the western end of the tunnel Elizabeth line services continue to Hayes and Harlington where they either remain on the Great Western Main Line and run to Reading or Maidenhead via Slough or split off to the Heathrow branch terminating at Heathrow Terminals 4 or 5 . Existing stations were refurbished and upgraded, including
7705-563: The line would not open in 2021, with TfL not expecting the full line from Heathrow to Shenfield to open until the early part of the 2023/24 financial year. In August 2020, Crossrail announced that the central section would be ready to open "in the first half of 2022". In May 2021, trial running commenced, with the core section opened by Queen Elizabeth II for passenger service on 24 May 2022. The project used eight 7.1-metre (23-foot) diameter tunnel-boring machines (TBM) from Herrenknecht AG (Germany). Two types are used; 'slurry' type for
7820-461: The location of the original. By the mid-18th century, the aristocrats who had been living in Soho Square or Gerrard Street had moved away, as more fashionable areas such as Mayfair became available. The historian and topographer William Maitland wrote that the parish "so greatly abound with French that is an easy Matter for a Stranger to imagine himself in France." Soho's character stems partly from
7935-474: The models had to remain motionless to avoid the censorship laws then in place. The theatre claimed that, aside from a compulsory closure between 4 and 16 September 1939, it was the only theatre in London which did not close during the Second World War; this led it to use the slogan "We never closed". Several prominent comedians including Harry Secombe , Jimmy Edwards and Tony Hancock began their careers at
8050-499: The new Crossrail Farringdon Station , with a portal west of Paddington . The 'Tunnels East' (C305) request was for three tunnel sections and 'launch chambers' in east London . Contracts were awarded in late 2010: the 'Tunnels West' contract was awarded to BAM Nuttall , Ferrovial Agroman and Kier Construction (BFK); the 'Tunnels East' contract was awarded to Dragados and John Sisk & Son . The remaining tunnelling contract (C310, Plumstead to North Woolwich ), which included
8165-693: The new nine-carriage Class 345 trains started to run at frequencies in the central section of up to 24 trains per hour in each direction through the central core, after which services divide into two branches: in the west to Reading and to Heathrow Central ; in the east to Abbey Wood and to Shenfield . Local services on the section of the Great Eastern Main Line between Liverpool Street and Shenfield had been transferred to TfL Rail in May 2015; TfL Rail also took over Heathrow Connect services in May 2018 and replaced some local services between Paddington and Reading in December 2019. The TfL Rail brand
8280-433: The night drawing up his final battleplans, including the masterstroke of painting identifiable gold and black checks on the ships. He is said to have spent the early part of the evening at a nearby undertakers selecting the coffin he would like to be buried in were the battle not to go according to plan, which proved to be time well spent, for he died in the battle despite leading the British fleet to victory. Charles Dickens
8395-404: The overhead lines were powered up between Westbourne Park and Stepney , the installation of platform doors was completed, and video was released of the first trains travelling through the tunnels. TfL Rail took over Heathrow Connect services from Paddington to Heathrow in May 2018. At the end of August 2018, four months before the scheduled opening of the core section of the line, it
8510-679: The peak of construction up to 14,000 people were expected to be needed in the project's supply chain. Work began on 15 May 2009 when piling works started at the future Canary Wharf station . The threat of diseases being released by work on the project was raised by Lord James of Blackheath at the passing of the Crossrail Bill. He told the House of Lords select committee that 682 victims of anthrax had been brought into Smithfield in Farringdon with some contaminated meat in 1520 and then buried in
8625-561: The project was repeatedly delayed, including several months caused by the COVID-19 pandemic . The concept of large-diameter tunnels crossing central London to connect Paddington in the west and Liverpool Street in the east was first proposed by railwayman George Dow in The Star newspaper in June 1941. The project that became Crossrail has origins in the 1943 County of London Plan and 1944 Greater London Plan by Patrick Abercrombie . These led to
8740-422: The promise of sex to follow, thus fleecing tourists looking for a "good time". Harrison Marks , a "glamour photographer" and girlie magazine publisher, had a photographic gallery on Gerrard Street and published several magazines in the 1950s and '60s. The model Pamela Green prompted him to take up nude photography, and she remained the creative force in their business. By the 1970s, the sex shops had grown from
8855-405: The prospect of delays to the project in updates to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, and called for TfL commissioner Mike Brown to consider his position. Crossrail said major challenges before completion included writing and testing the software that would integrate the train with three different track signalling systems, and installing equipment inside the tunnels. In July 2019, it was announced that
8970-476: The provision of step-free access at all stations, and platform lengthening at most to accommodate the new 200-metre-long (660 ft) trains. Earlier plans suggested terminating at Maidenhead, with an extension to Reading safeguarded. Various commentators advocated an extension further west as far as Reading because it was seen as complementary to the Great Western Electrification project which
9085-579: The railway tunnels was officially completed at Farringdon on 4 June 2015 in the presence of the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London . Installation of the track was completed in September 2017. The ETCS signalling was scheduled to be tested in the Heathrow tunnels over the winter of 2017–2018. The south east section of the infrastructure was energised in February 2018, with the first test train run between Plumstead and Abbey Wood that month. In May 2018
9200-410: The ready availability of non-commercial sex, and the licensing or closing of unlicensed sex shops had reduced the red-light area to just a small area around Berwick Street. Much of the business has been reported to have been run by Albanian gangs. By the end of 2014, gentrification and competition from the internet had reduced the number of flats in Soho used for prostitution (see Soho walk-up ), but
9315-433: The remainder was sold between 1590 and 1623. A small 2-acre (0.81 ha) section of land remained, until sold by Charles II in 1676. In the 1660s, ownership of Soho Fields passed to Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans , who leased 19 out of the 22 acres (89,000 m ) of land to Joseph Girle. He was granted permission to develop property and quickly passed the lease and development to bricklayer Richard Frith. Much of
9430-415: The remaining upper-class families to leave the area. Numerous hospitals were built to cope with the health problem; six were constructed between 1851 and 1874. Businesses catering to household essentials were established at the same time. The restaurant trade in Soho improved dramatically in the early 20th century. The construction of new theatres along Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road improved
9545-409: The reputation of the area, and a meal for theatre-goers became common. Public houses in Soho increased in popularity during the 1930s and were frequented by struggling authors, poets and artists. Since the decline of the sex industry in Soho in the 1980s, the area has returned to being more residential. The Soho Housing Association was established in 1976 to provide reasonable rented accommodation. By
9660-491: The series The Comic Strip Presents on Channel 4 . The Gargoyle's success and Bohemian clientele led to other restaurants being founded around Soho, including the Eiffel Tower and Bellotti's. During the 1970s the building at 69 Dean Street housed another nightspot in its cellars, initially known as Billy's, and run by Soho's only Jamaican club owner, Vince Howard. The Blitz Kids , a group of London clubgoers who spearheaded
9775-612: The south, Oxford Street to the north, Regent Street to the west, and Charing Cross Road to the east. Apart from Oxford Street, all of these roads are 19th-century metropolitan improvements. The area to the west is known as Mayfair , to the north Fitzrovia , to the east St Giles and Covent Garden , and to the south St James's . Soho is part of the West End electoral ward which elects three councillors to Westminster City Council . The nearest London Underground stations are Oxford Circus , Piccadilly Circus , Tottenham Court Road , Leicester Square and Covent Garden . During
9890-509: The staging points of the Dean Street shuffle, with occasional forays into other joints such as The Gargoyle or the Mandrake ;... The Groucho or Blacks". Christopher Howse notes of the coterie of bohemian heavy drinkers that "There was no worry about pensions in Soho. People didn't live that long." The Gargoyle Club opened at 69 Dean Street in 1925. It was founded by the socialite
10005-423: The theatre (but not the property itself) were bought by Raymond's business associate Gérard Simi in 1996. The theatre suffered financial difficulties owing to increasing rent, leading to its closure in 2004. It became a gay bar and cabaret venue called Too2Much; in 2005, Elton John staged a joint bachelor party there with his longtime partner David Furnish in anticipation of their civil partnership . The venue
10120-492: The time suffered from police officers enforcing against organised crime in the area, while simultaneously accepting bribes. This changed following the appointment of Robert Mark as chief constable, who began to crack down on corruption. In 1972 local residents started the Soho Society in order to control the increasing expansion of the sex industry in the area and improve it with a comprehensive redevelopment plan. This led to
10235-697: The tunnel to the Great Western Main Line and the Metropolitan line on the Underground. The City route was shown as a new connection across the City of London linking the Great Northern Route with London Bridge. The north–south line proposed routing West Coast Main Line , Thameslink, and Great Northern trains through Euston and King's Cross / St Pancras , then under the West End via Tottenham Court Road , Piccadilly Circus and Victoria towards Crystal Palace and Hounslow . The report also recommended
10350-554: The tunnelling work. To assist with the skills required for the Crossrail project, Crossrail opened in 2011 the Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy in Ilford . The academy was handed over to TfL in 2017, who have sub-contracted its management to PROCAT . In February 2010, Crossrail was accused of bullying residents whose property lay on the route into selling for less than the market value. A subsequent London Assembly report
10465-551: The unhealthiest place to live in Britain. Researchers from the University of Liverpool found that the area had the greatest access to takeaways, pubs and off-licences and these were combined with high levels of air pollution and low levels of parks and green spaces. Berwick Street was built between 1687 and 1703, and is probably named after James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick , the illegitimate son of James II of England . It has held
10580-442: The west to Abbey Wood, and from Shenfield in the east through to Paddington as the surface railways connect with the central tunnels. TfL expects that the full line, with final timetable, will be operational by May 2023. In the west, the new tunnel connects with the Great Western Main Line at Royal Oak , west of Paddington . East of Whitechapel the line splits at an underground junction. The north-eastern branch emerges to join
10695-638: The workforce in Soho worked in the creative industries. Many small and easily affordable restaurants and cafes were established in Soho during the 19th century, particularly as a result of Greek and Italian immigration. The restaurants were not looked upon favourably at first, but their reputation changed at the start of the 20th century. In 1924, a guide reported "of late years, the inexpensive restaurants of Soho have enjoyed an extraordinary vogue." Arthur Ransome 's Bohemia in London (1907) mentions Old and New Soho, including details about Soho coffee-houses including The Moorish Café and The Algerian. Kettner's
10810-506: The year, particularly on the Chinese New Year . In March 2022, Cadbury opened a temporary vegan chocolate shop at 15 Bateman Street. Soho Radio is an internet radio station on Great Windmill Street, next to the Windmill Theatre . Since May 2014 it has been streaming live and pre-recorded programming from its premises, which also function as a retail space and coffee shop. The station states on its website that it aims "to reflect
10925-498: Was a Sunday afternoon club organised by the beat poet Pete Brown , active in the mid-1960s. For the rest of the week, it operated as an illegal gambling den . Pink Floyd played at the club at the beginning of their career. The 2i's Coffee Bar was one of the first rock clubs in Europe. It initially opened on No. 44 Gerard Street in 1956, but soon moved to its more famous venue of No. 59 Old Compton Street. Soho quickly became
11040-672: Was a restaurant on Romilly Street, established in 1867 by Napoleon III 's chef Auguste Kettner. It was frequently visited by Albert, Prince of Wales (where he is alleged to have dined with his mistress, Lillie Langtry ) and Oscar Wilde . The restaurant survived both World Wars without incident, and was regularly visited by Agatha Christie and Bing Crosby . In the 20th century, several Soho pubs and private members clubs gained notoriety for both their proprietors and clientele. Clive Jennings says of regular clientele such as Jeffrey Barnard and Francis Bacon that "the lethal triangle of The French , The Coach & Horses and The Colony were
11155-560: Was a trade union activist. Some days later, Pat Swift, the HR manager for BFK and a regular user of the Consulting Association , again challenged EIS. EIS refused to dismiss their worker and lost the contract. Flash pickets were held at the Crossrail site and also at the sites of the BFK partners. The Scottish Affairs Select Committee called on the UK Business Secretary , Vince Cable , to set up
11270-418: Was also a regular on Dean Street when he was a young actor enthusiastically participating in amateur productions at Fanny Kelly's Royalty Theatre at number 73–74. In 1845 he starred in an adaptation of Ben Jonson 's Every Man in his Humour , which met mixed reviews; Dickens' acting was said to be of debatable merit. Dickens's artistic contemporary George Cruikshank was also a resident of Dean Street and it
11385-417: Was also suggested that the alignment of the tunnels should be safeguarded while a final decision was taken. The Central London Rail Study of 1989 proposed tunnels linking the existing rail network as the "East–West Crossrail", "City Crossrail", and "North–South Crossrail" schemes. The east–west scheme was for a line from Liverpool Street to Paddington/Marylebone with two connections at its western end linking
11500-450: Was announced in July 2009. A Reading terminus was also recommended by Network Rail's 2011 Route Utilisation Strategy . On 27 March 2014 it was announced that the line would indeed extend to Reading. A flyover at Airport Junction near Hayes & Harlington station allows Heathrow Express trains to pass over the track used by Crossrail, avoiding delays caused by crossings. The line between
11615-409: Was announced that completion was delayed and that the line would not open before autumn 2019. In April 2019, it was announced that Crossrail would be completed between October 2020 and March 2021, two years behind schedule, and that it would not include the opening of the Bond Street station, one of ten new stations on the line. The London Assembly's transport committee concluded that TfL played down
11730-483: Was attempting to stir up ethnic and homophobic tensions by carrying out a series of bombings. In early February 2020, parts of an unexploded Second World War bomb was discovered by construction workers developing a new mixed residential building in Richmond Mews, near Dean Street . Residents, employees, and pedestrians on Richmond Mews, Dean Street , Meard Street and St Anne's Court were evacuated on both
11845-423: Was based at 17 St Anne's Court , Soho and was a major London recording studio. It was established by Norman and Barry Sheffield in 1968, who wanted to expand from the small studio they had above their music shop. It became immediately successful after The Beatles decided to record several tracks on The White Album there, as the facilities were better than Abbey Road studios . Queen were originally managed by
11960-457: Was built in 1717 by Talman and reconstructed in 1803. The church was damaged by a V1 flying bomb during World War II in 1940, but the tower survived. In 1976, John Betjeman campaigned to save the building. The church was fully restored in the late 1980s and formally re-opened by the Princess Royal on 12 March 1990. The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory on Warwick Street
12075-632: Was built in 1788 and is the only remaining 18th-century Roman Catholic embassy chapel in London and principal church of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham . St Patrick's Church in Soho Square was built in 1792 to accommodate Irish immigrants who had moved to the area. Other religious buildings in Soho include the Hare Krishna Temple off Soho Square, which was part-funded by George Harrison and opened in 1979. There exists
12190-460: Was developed from farmland by Henry VIII in 1536, when it became a royal park. It became a parish in its own right in the late 17th century, when buildings started to be developed for the upper class, including the laying out of Soho Square in the 1680s. St Anne's Church was established during the late 17th century, and remains a significant local landmark; other churches are the Church of Our Lady of
12305-564: Was discontinued when the core section of the Elizabeth line opened in May 2022. The Elizabeth line is operated by MTR Corporation (Crossrail) Ltd as a London Rail concession of Transport for London (TfL), in a similar manner to London Overground . TfL's annual revenues from the line were forecast in 2018 to be nearly £500 million in 2022–23 and over £1 billion from 2024 to 2025. The total estimated cost rose from an initial budget of £14.8 billion to £18.8 billion by December 2020. Originally planned to open in 2018,
12420-618: Was given royal assent in July 2008, giving CLRL the powers necessary to build the line. In September 2009, TfL was loaned £1 billion towards the project by the European Investment Bank . Both Conservatives and Labour made commitments in their 2010 election manifestos to deliver Crossrail, and the coalition government following the election was committed to the project. In April 2009, Crossrail announced that 17 firms had secured 'Enabling Works Framework Agreements' and would now be able to compete for packages of works. At
12535-524: Was here that he drew the illustration for Dickens's early works. Cruikshank is perhaps best known as a cutting caricaturist with scant regard for his targets. He was once bribed £100 for his pledge not to "caricature His Majesty ( George III ) in any immoral situation." He obliged and instead created a humorous caricature of England which came to be known as John Bull . Furniture maker William Hean lived at 17 Dean Street between 1827 and 1845. Karl Marx lived at 28 Dean Street between 1851 and 1856, above what
12650-583: Was highly critical of the insensitive way in which Crossrail had dealt with compulsory purchases and the lack of assistance given to the people and businesses affected. There were also complaints from music fans , as the London Astoria was forced to close. In December 2011, a contract to ship the excavated material from the tunnel to Wallasea Island was awarded to a joint venture comprising BAM Nuttall Limited and Van Oord UK Limited. Between 4.5 and 5 million tonnes of soil would be used to construct
12765-431: Was originally called King Square in honour of Charles II, and a statue of him was based in the centre. Several upper-class families moved into the area, including those of Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston , and Edward Howard, 2nd Earl of Carlisle . The square had become known as Soho Square by 1720, at which point it had fashionable houses on all sides. Only No 10 and No 15 from this period have survived into
12880-663: Was renamed the London Blues and Barrelhouse Club in the late 1950s, and closed in 1964. In the early 1950s, Soho became the centre of the beatnik culture in London. The first coffee bar to open was Moka at No. 29 Frith Street. It was formally opened in 1953 by the film star Gina Lollobrigida , and the frothed coffee produced from stainless steel machines was pioneering in British culture. Le Macabre on Wardour Street, had coffin-shaped tables, fostered beat poetry, jive dance and political debate. The Goings On, in Archer Street,
12995-423: Was split off from St Martin in 1686. Building progressed rapidly in the late 17th century, with large properties such as Monmouth House (built for James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, Charles II's eldest illegitimate son), Leicester House , Fauconberg House, Carlisle House and Newport House. Soho Square was first laid out in the 1680s on the former Soho Fields; by 1691, 41 houses had been completed there. It
13110-505: Was subsequently renamed to the Soho Revue Bar, but closed in 2009. Soho is a centre of the independent film and video industry as well as the television and film post-production industry. Audio post duo White Lightning (Robbie Weston and Rick Dzendzera) opened two audio post-production facilities in different parts of Soho in 1986: Silk Sound at 13 Berwick Street , and The Bridge Facilities at 55-57 Great Marlborough Street . Silk Sound
13225-519: Was the home of the Marquee Club , which opened in 1958. In the 1960s, numerous major rock bands played at the venue, including early performances from the Rolling Stones in July 1962 and The Who in late 1964, Jimi Hendrix , David Bowie , Led Zeppelin , Pink Floyd , Jethro Tull , AC/DC and Iron Maiden . Eric Clapton and Brian Jones both lived for a time in Soho, sharing a flat with future rock publicist, Tony Brainsby . Trident Studios
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