137-576: 50 Carnaby Street in London's Soho district was the site of several important music clubs in the 20th century. These clubs were often run for and by the black community, with jazz and calypso music predominating in the earlier years. From 1936, it was the Florence Mills Social Parlour. In the 1940s it was the Blue Lagoon Club. In 1950, it was briefly Club Eleven, and from the early 1950s it
274-579: A pop art -style, and putting their personal signatures on their style. Mods adopted new Italian and French styles in part as a reaction to the rural and small-town rockers , with their 1950s-style leather motorcycle clothes and American greaser look. Male mods adopted a smooth, sophisticated look that included tailor-made suits with narrow lapels (sometimes made of mohair ), thin ties, button-down collar shirts, wool or cashmere jumpers (crewneck or V-neck), Chelsea or Beatle boots , loafers , Clarks desert boots, bowling shoes, and hairstyles that imitated
411-403: A street market since the early 18th century, which has been formally organised since 1892. Mod culture Mod , from the word modernist , is a subculture that began in late 1950s London and spread throughout Great Britain, eventually influencing fashions and trends in other countries. It continues today on a smaller scale. Focused on music and fashion, the subculture has its roots in
548-482: 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
685-489: A "rebellion based on consuming pleasures". The influence of British newspapers on creating the public perception of mods as having a leisure-filled club-going lifestyle can be seen in a 1964 article in The Sunday Times . The paper interviewed a 17-year-old mod who went out clubbing seven nights a week and spent Saturday afternoons shopping for clothes and records. However, few British teens and young adults would have had
822-639: 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
959-437: A clerk, messenger or office boy. According to Dick Hebdige , mods created a parody of the consumer society that they lived in. According to Hebdige, by around 1963, the mod subculture had gradually accumulated the identifying symbols that later came to be associated with the scene, such as scooters, amphetamine pills and R&B music. While clothes were still important at that time, they could be ready-made. Dick Hebdige wrote
1096-510: A considerable influence on the worldwide spread of mod. As mod was going through transformation in England, it became all the rage in the United States and around the world, as many young people adopted its look. However, the worldwide experience differed from that of the early scene in London in that it was based mainly on the pop culture aspect, influenced by British rock musicians. By now, mod
1233-469: A different kind of attire, that emulated the rude boy look of Trilby hats and too-short trousers. These Mods listened to Jamaican ska and mingled with black rude boys at West Indian nightclubs like Ram Jam, A-Train and Sloopy's. Hebdige claimed that the hard mods were drawn to black culture and ska music in part because the educated, middle-class hippie movement's drug-orientated and intellectual music did not have any relevance for them. He argued that
1370-557: 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
1507-689: A fashion accessory. Italian scooters were preferred due to their clean-lined, curving shapes and gleaming chrome , with sales driven by close associations between dealerships and clubs, such as the Ace of Herts . For young mods, Italian scooters were the "embodiment of continental style and a way to escape the working-class row houses of their upbringing". Mods customised their scooters by painting them in "two-tone and candyflake and overaccessorized [them] with luggage racks, crash bars, and scores of mirrors and fog lights". Some mods added four, ten, or as many as 30 mirrors to their scooters. They often put their names on
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#17328581264031644-419: 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
1781-499: A glamorous sense of dressing up and going into town to work. Hall and Jefferson argued that the presentable image of female mod fashions meant it was easier for young mod women to integrate with the non-subculture aspects of their lives (home, school and work) than for members of other subcultures. The emphasis on clothing and a stylised look for women demonstrated the "same fussiness for detail in clothes" as their male mod counterparts. Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss claimed that
1918-569: A larger audience. Mod-culture continues to influence fashion, with the ongoing trend for mod-inspired styles such as 3-button suits, Chelsea boots and mini dresses. The Mod Revival of the 1980s and 1990s led to a new era of mod-inspired fashion, driven by bands such as Madness , the Specials and Oasis . The popularity of the This Is England film and TV series also kept mod fashion in the public eye. Today's mod icons include Miles Kane (frontman of
2055-581: A sense of evil excitement in a club. The atmosphere was so vivid that the red glow from the stand and the savage beat made me think of hell on earth!" The club was raided by the Drugs Squad on the evening of 15 April 1950. Denis Rose was arrested by the Royal Military Police for desertion from the Army. Six of the musicians were arrested and appeared in court on drugs charges. The club closed soon after. From
2192-670: 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 ,
2329-466: A small group of stylish London-based young men and women in the late 1950s who were termed modernists because they listened to modern jazz . Elements of the mod subculture include fashion (often tailor-made suits); music (including soul , rhythm and blues, ska and mainly jazz ) and motor scooters (usually Lambretta or Vespa ). In the mid-1960s when they started to fade out, the subculture listened to rock groups with jazz and blues influences such as
2466-506: 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
2603-575: 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
2740-521: A while (after dressing like rockers earlier), their beat music was not as popular as British R&B among mods. A notable part of the mod subculture was recreational amphetamine use, which was used to fuel all-night dances at clubs. Newspaper reports described dancers emerging from clubs at 5 a.m. with dilated pupils. Some mods consumed a combined amphetamine/barbiturate called Drinamyl , nicknamed "purple hearts". Due to this association with amphetamines, Pete Meaden's "clean living" aphorism about
2877-432: Is about 1 square mile (2.6 km ) in area, and is usually considered to be bounded by Shaftesbury Avenue to 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
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#17328581264033014-464: 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 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
3151-627: 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 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
3288-524: 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
3425-639: 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
3562-566: 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
3699-862: The Last Shadow Puppets ), cyclist Bradley Wiggins and Paul Weller , 'The ModFather'. The early mods listened to the "sophisticated smoother modern jazz" of musicians such as Miles Davis , Charlie Parker , Dave Brubeck and the Modern Jazz Quartet , as well as the American rhythm and blues (R&B) of artists such as Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters . The music scene of the Mods was a mix of modern jazz, R&B, psychedelic rock and soul. Terry Rawlings wrote that mods became "dedicated to R&B and their own dances." Black American servicemen, stationed in Britain during
3836-535: 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
3973-531: The Teddy Boys , from whom mod fashion inherited its "narcissistic and fastidious [fashion] tendencies" and the immaculate dandy look. The Teddy Boys paved the way for making male interest in fashion socially acceptable. Prior to the Teddy Boys, male interest in fashion in Britain was often associated with underground homosexuals' subculture and dressing style. Jobling and Crowley argued that for working class mods,
4110-508: The hippie subculture grew more popular in the United Kingdom, much of mod, for a time, seemed intertwined with those movements. However, it dissipated after 1968, as tastes began to favor a less style-conscious, denim and tie-dyed look, along with a decreased interest in nightlife. Bands such as the Who and Small Faces began to change and, by the end of the decade, moved away from mod. Additionally,
4247-553: The miniskirt , is credited for popularizing mod subculture. Miniskirts became progressively shorter between the early and mid-1960s. As female mod fashion became more mainstream, slender models like Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy began to exemplify the mod look. Maverick fashion designers emerged, such as Quant, who was known for her miniskirt designs, and John Stephen , who sold a line named "His Clothes" and whose clients included bands such as Small Faces. The television programme Ready Steady Go! helped spread awareness of mod fashions to
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4384-420: The "drunken rowdiness of previous generations". Wilson argued that the significance of amphetamines to the mod culture was similar to that of LSD and cannabis within the subsequent hippie counterculture. Dick Hebdige argued that mods used amphetamines to extend their leisure time into the early hours of the morning and as a way of bridging the gap between their hostile and daunting everyday work lives and
4521-412: The "faulty pap" of 1950s pop music and sappy love songs. They aimed at being "cool, neat, sharp, hip, and smart" by embracing "all things sexy and streamlined", especially when they were new, exciting, controversial or modern. Hebdige claimed that the mod subculture came about as part of the participants' desire to understand the "mysterious complexity of the metropolis" and to get close to black culture of
4658-404: The "first sign of the youth movement" , young people met collectors of R&B and blues records. As the mod subculture grew in London during the early-to-mid-1960s, tensions arose between the mods, often riding highly decorated motor scooters, and their main rivals, the rockers , a British subculture who favoured rockabilly , early rock'n'roll , motorcycles and leather jackets, and considered
4795-488: The "inner world" of dancing and dressing up in their off-hours. Many mods drove motor scooters, usually Vespas or Lambrettas . Scooters were a practical and affordable form of transportation for 1960s teens, since until the early 1970s, public transport stopped relatively early in the night. For teens with low-paying jobs, scooters were cheaper and easier to park than cars, and they could be bought through newly available hire purchase plans. Mods also treated scooters as
4932-652: The "mods rejected the rocker's crude conception of masculinity, the transparency of his motivations, his clumsiness"; the rockers viewed the vanity and obsession with clothes of the mods as immasculine. Scholars debate how much contact the two subcultures had during the 1960s. Hebdige argued that mods and rockers had little contact with each other because they tended to come from different regions of England (mods from London and rockers from rural areas), and because they had "totally disparate goals and lifestyles". Mark Gilman, however, claimed that both mods and rockers could be seen at football matches. John Covach wrote that in
5069-421: 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 the land was granted freehold in 1698 by William III to William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland , while the southern part of Soho
5206-491: The 17th century. The name is derived from a former hunting cry. James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth , used "soho" as 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
5343-516: 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
5480-402: 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, 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
5617-604: The 20th century onwards. The independent British film industry is centred around Soho, including the British headquarters of Twentieth Century Fox and 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
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5754-525: 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
5891-493: 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
6028-456: 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
6165-602: The Action , the Smoke and John's Children . The Who's early promotional material tagged them as playing "maximum rhythm and blues", and a name change in 1964 from The Who to The High Numbers was an attempt to cater even more to the mod market. After the commercial failure of the single " Zoot Suit/I'm the Face ", the band changed its name back to The Who. Although the Beatles dressed like mods for
6302-843: The Blue Lagoon. The Inquest found that there was no evidence that she had been assaulted by a man at the club as had been reported. Club Eleven were resident for six months in 1950 until they were closed by a police raid. It then became the calypso Sunset Club. Club Eleven had been founded at 44 Great Windmill Street in 1948 as a co-operative to promote bebop jazz. It was named after the eleven founders who included business manager Harry Morris along with ten British bebop players: Lennie Bush , Leon Calvert , Tony Crombie , Bernie Fenton (1921-2001, piano), Laurie Morgan (1926-2020, drums), Joe Mudele , Johnny Rogers (1926-2016, saxophone), Tommy Pollard (1923-1960, piano and vibes), Ronnie Scott , and Hank Shaw . Scott and Dankworth were group leaders. Tony Hall writing in 1960 said, "I can never recall such
6439-568: The Bluetones . Popular 21st century musicians Miles Kane and Jake Bugg are also followers of the mod subculture. Dick Hebdige argued that when trying to understand 1960s mod culture, one has to try and "penetrate and decipher the mythology of the mods". Terry Rawlings argued that the mod scene developed when British teenagers began to reject the "dull, timid, old-fashioned, and uninspired" British culture around them, with its repressed and class-obsessed mentality and its "naffness" . Mods rejected
6576-547: 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
6713-751: 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
6850-537: The Jamaican rude boy , because mods felt that black culture "ruled the night hours" and that it had more streetwise " savoir faire ". Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss argued that at the "core of the British Mod rebellion was a blatant fetishising of the American consumer culture" that had "eroded the moral fiber of England." In doing so, the mods "mocked the class system that had gotten their fathers nowhere" and created
6987-556: The Margate and Brighton brawls between mods and rockers , some mods were seen wearing boots and braces and sporting close cropped haircuts (for practical reasons, as long hair was a liability in industrial jobs and street fights). Mods and ex-mods were also part of the early northern soul scene, a subculture based on obscure 1960s and 1970s American soul records. Some mods evolved into, or merged with, subcultures such as individualists, stylists, and scooterboys . A mod revival started in
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#17328581264037124-562: 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
7261-558: The Swinging London scene and the burgeoning hippie movement. By 1967, they considered most of the people in the Swinging London scene to be "soft mods" or "peacock mods", as styles, there, became increasingly extravagant, often featuring highly ruffled, brocade d, or laced fabrics in Day-Glo colours. Many of the hard mods lived in the same economically depressed areas of South London as West Indian immigrants, so these mods favoured
7398-467: The United Kingdom, rockers were often engaged in brawls with mods. BBC News stories from May 1964 stated that mods and rockers were jailed after riots in seaside resort towns on the south and east coasts of England, such as Margate , Brighton , Bournemouth and Clacton . The "mods and rockers" conflict was explored as an instance of " moral panic " by sociologist Stanley Cohen in his study Folk Devils and Moral Panics , which examined media coverage of
7535-554: The West End where black kids used to go were white owned. Some of them used black staff as a 'front' like the Colombo does now". After his followers began to demand admittance, however, the management was forced to change its "whites only" admittance policy and soon it was a mainly black club. Drug use was common in the club. Count Suckle recalled, "I left the Twenties because it was rough ... it
7672-399: The Who and Small Faces . The original mod scene was associated with amphetamine -fuelled all-night jazz dancing at clubs. During the early to mid-1960s, as mod grew and spread throughout Britain, certain elements of the mod scene became engaged in well-publicised clashes with members of a rival subculture: rockers . The mods and rockers conflict led sociologist Stanley Cohen to use
7809-514: The Who's manager Peter Meaden summarised as "clean living under difficult circumstances." George Melly wrote that mods were initially a small group of clothes-focused English working class young men insisting on clothes and shoes tailored to their style, who emerged during the modern jazz boom of the late 1950s. Early mods watched French and Italian art films and read Italian magazines to look for style ideas. They usually held semi-skilled manual jobs or low grade white-collar positions such as
7946-476: 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
8083-412: 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
8220-455: 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
8357-529: 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
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#17328581264038494-551: 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
8631-555: 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 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
8768-457: 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
8905-414: The definition of mod can be difficult to pin down, because throughout the subculture's original era, it was "prone to continuous reinvention." They claimed that since the mod scene was so pluralist, the word mod was an umbrella term that covered several distinct sub-scenes. Terry Rawlings argued that mods are difficult to define because the subculture started out as a "mysterious semi-secret world", which
9042-462: The earliest examples of the term being written to describe young British style-conscious modern jazz fans. This usage of the word modernist should not be confused with modernism in the context of literature, art, design and architecture. From the mid-to-late 1960s onwards, the mass media often used the term mod in a wider sense to describe anything that was believed to be popular, fashionable or modern . Paul Jobling and David Crowley argued that
9179-600: The early hippie movement, and by 1967 more exotic looks, such as Nehru jackets and love beads came into vogue. Its trappings were reflected on popular American TV shows such as Laugh-In and The Mod Squad . Dick Hebdige argued that the subculture lost its vitality when it became commercialised and stylised to the point that mod clothing styles were being created "from above" by clothing companies and by TV shows like Ready Steady Go! , rather than being developed by young people customising their clothes and combining different fashions. As psychedelic rock and
9316-546: The early 1950s it was the Sunset Club, a racially mixed club where jazz was played until seven in the morning. American GIs were regular customers, as they were in many London clubs in the 1940s and 50s. Caribbean music became more important in the club and the Russ Henderson Steel Band , the first steel band in Britain, formed late 1952, played their first gig there. The influential Trinidadian musician Rupert Nurse
9453-497: The early hours of the morning. Coffee bars had jukeboxes , which in some cases reserved space in the machines for the customers' own records. In the late 1950s, coffee bars were associated with jazz and blues, but in the early 1960s, they began playing more R&B music. Frith noted that although coffee bars were originally aimed at middle-class art school students, they began to facilitate an intermixing of youth from different backgrounds and classes. At these venues, which Frith called
9590-593: The early part of the Cold War , brought over R&B and soul records that were unavailable in Britain, and they often sold these to young people in London. Starting around 1960, mods embraced the off-beat, Jamaican ska music of artists such as the Skatalites , Owen Gray , Derrick Morgan and Prince Buster on record labels such as Melodisc , Starlite and Bluebeat . The original mods gathered at all-night clubs such as The Flamingo and The Marquee in London to hear
9727-479: The early skinheads were, except in isolated situations, largely devoid of the overt racism and fascism that would later become associated with whole wings of the movement in the mid to late 1970s. The early skinheads retained basic elements of mod fashion—such as Fred Perry and Ben Sherman shirts, Sta-Prest trousers and Levi's jeans—but mixed them with working class-orientated accessories such as braces and Dr. Martens work boots. Hebdige claimed that as early as
9864-490: The emphasis in the mod subculture on consumerism and shopping was the "ultimate affront to male working-class traditions" in the United Kingdom, because in the working-class tradition, shopping was usually done by women. They argued that British mods were "worshipping leisure and money ... scorning the masculine world of hard work and honest labour" by spending their time listening to music, collecting records, socialising, and dancing at all-night clubs. In early-1960s Britain,
10001-753: The energy of new wave music . The British mod revival was followed by a revival in North America in the early 1980s, particularly in Southern California , led by bands such as the Untouchables . The mod scene in Los Angeles and Orange County was partly influenced by the 2 Tone ska revival in England, and was unique in its racial diversity, with black, white, Hispanic and Asian participants. The 1990s Britpop scene featured noticeable mod influences on bands such as Oasis , Blur , Ocean Colour Scene and
10138-525: 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
10275-522: The flames of hysteria, such as a Birmingham Post editorial in May 1964 which warned that mods and rockers were " internal enemies " in the United Kingdom who would "bring about disintegration of a nation's character". The magazine Police Review argued that the mods and rockers' purported lack of respect for law and order could cause violence to "surge and flame like a forest fire". As a result of this media coverage, two British members of parliament travelled to
10412-669: The focus began to change. By 1966, proletarian aspects of the scene in London had waned as fashion and pop-culture elements continued to grow, not only in England, but elsewhere. This period, portrayed by Alberto Sordi 's film in Thank you very much , and in Michelangelo Antonioni 's 1966 film Blowup , was typified by pop art , Carnaby Street boutiques, live music, and discothèques. Many associate this era with fashion model Twiggy , miniskirts , and bold geometrical patterns on brightly coloured clothes. During these years, it exerted
10549-482: 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
10686-410: The hard mods were attracted to ska because it was a secret, underground, non-commercialised music that was disseminated through informal channels such as house parties and clubs. By the end of the 1960s, the hard mods had become known as skinheads , who, in their early days, would be known for the same love of soul , rocksteady and early reggae . Because of their fascination with black culture,
10823-604: The late 1970s in the United Kingdom, with thousands of mod revivalists attending scooter rallies in locations such as Scarborough and the Isle of Wight. This revival was partly inspired by the 1979 film Quadrophenia , which explores the original 1960s movement, and by mod-influenced bands such as the Jam , Secret Affair , the Lambrettas , Purple Hearts , the Specials and the Chords , who drew on
10960-615: The latest records and show off their dance moves. As the mod subculture spread across the United Kingdom, other clubs became popular, including Twisted Wheel Club in Manchester. The British R&B / rock bands the Rolling Stones , the Yardbirds and the Kinks all had mod followings, and other bands emerged that were specifically mod-oriented. These included the Who, Small Faces, the Creation ,
11097-461: 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
11234-913: The look of French Nouvelle Vague film actors. A big part of the Mod look was borrowed from the Ivy League collegiate style from the United States. A few male mods went against gender norms by using eye shadow, eye-pencil or even lipstick. Mods chose scooters over motorbikes partly because they were a symbol of Italian style and because their body panels concealed moving parts and made them less likely to stain clothes with oil or road dust. Many mods wore ex-military parkas while driving scooters to keep their clothes clean. Many female mods dressed androgynously, with short haircuts, men's trousers or shirts, flat shoes, and little makeup – often just pale foundation, brown eye shadow, white or pale lipstick and false eyelashes. British fashion designer Mary Quant , who helped popularize
11371-772: 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 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
11508-402: The mid-1960s focused on the mod obsession with clothes, often detailing the prices of the expensive suits worn by young mods, and seeking out extreme cases such as a young mod who claimed that he would "go without food to buy clothes". Two youth subcultures helped pave the way for mod fashion by breaking new ground: the beatniks , with their Bohemian image of berets and black turtlenecks, and
11645-542: The mod and rocker riots in the 1960s. Although Cohen acknowledged that mods and rockers had some fights in the mid-1960s, he argued that they were no different from the evening brawls that occurred between non-mod and non-rocker youths throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, both at seaside resorts and after football games. Newspapers of the time were eager to describe the mod and rocker clashes as being of "disastrous proportions", and labelled mods and rockers as "sawdust Caesars", "vermin" and "louts". Newspaper editorials fanned
11782-572: The mod scene gave young women high visibility and relative autonomy. They wrote that this status may have been related both to the attitudes of the mod young men, who accepted the idea that a young woman did not have to be attached to a man, and to the development of new occupations for young women, which gave them an income and made them more independent. Hall and Jefferson noted the increasing number of jobs in boutiques and women's clothing stores, which, while poorly paid and lacking opportunities for advancement, gave young women disposable income, status and
11919-688: The mod subculture had its roots in the 1950s beatnik coffee bar culture, which catered to art school students in the radical Bohemian scene in London. Steve Sparks, whose claim is to be one of the original mods, agrees that before mod became commercialised, it was essentially an extension of the beatnik culture: "It comes from 'modernist', it was to do with modern jazz and to do with Sartre " and existentialism . Sparks argued that "Mod has been much misunderstood ... as this working-class, scooter-riding precursor of skinheads." Coffee bars were attractive to British youth because, in contrast to typical pubs , which closed at about 11 pm, they were open until
12056-498: The mod subculture may seem contradictory, but the drug was still legal in Britain in the early 1960s, and mods used the drug for stimulation and alertness , which they viewed as different from the intoxication caused by alcohol and other drugs. Andrew Wilson argued that for a significant minority, "amphetamines symbolised the smart, on-the-ball, cool image" and that they sought "stimulation not intoxication ... greater awareness, not escape" and "confidence and articulacy" rather than
12193-474: 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
12330-408: The mods effeminate because of their interest in fashion. There were some violent clashes between the two groups. This period was later immortalised by songwriter Pete Townshend , in the Who's 1973 concept album, Quadrophenia . After 1964, clashes between the two groups largely subsided, as mod expanded and came to be accepted by the larger youth generation throughout the UK as a symbol of all that
12467-665: The new towns of the south. Due to the increasing affluence of post-war Britain, the youths of the early 1960s were one of the first generations that did not have to contribute their money from after-school jobs to the family finances. As mod teens and young adults began using their disposable income to buy stylish clothes, the first youth-targeted boutique clothing stores opened in London in the Carnaby Street and King's Road districts. The streets' names became symbols of, one magazine later stated, "an endless frieze of mini-skirted, booted, fair-haired angular angels". Newspaper accounts from
12604-409: The original mods of the early 1960s were coming to the age of marriage and child-rearing, which meant many of them no longer had the time or money for their youthful pastimes of club-going, record-shopping, and buying clothes. Some street-oriented mods, usually of lesser means, sometimes referred to as hard mods, remained active well into the late 1960s, but tended to become increasingly detached from
12741-473: The police had gone with nobody being searched or arrested. Initially the music was a combination of R & B , soul , and bluebeat / ska . Later, the Beatles , the Rolling Stones and Georgie Fame played there. Other early 1960s visitors included British R&B pioneers Cyril Davies All Stars , the Who and the Animals . Later in the 1960s, Lloyd Coxsone the sound system operator performed. Every Sunday
12878-422: 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
13015-410: 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
13152-415: 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
13289-409: 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
13426-514: The seaside resort brawls, the media began to associate Italian scooters with violent mods. Much later, writers described groups of mods riding scooters together as a "menacing symbol of group solidarity" that was "converted into a weapon". With events like the 6 November 1966, "scooter charge" on Buckingham Palace , the scooter, along with the mods' short hair and suits, began to be seen as a symbol of subversion. Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson argued in 1993 that compared to other youth subcultures,
13563-491: 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
13700-487: The small windscreen. They sometimes took their engine side panels and front bumpers to electroplating shops to get them covered in highly reflective chrome. Hard mods (who later evolved into the skinheads) began riding scooters more for practical reasons. Their scooters were either unmodified or cutdown , which was nicknamed a "skelly". Lambrettas were cutdown to the bare frame, and the unibody (monocoque)-design Vespas had their body panels slimmed down or reshaped. After
13837-507: 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 the Middle Ages , the area that is now Soho was farmland that belonged to the Abbot and Convent of Abingdon and
13974-650: 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 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
14111-509: 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
14248-552: The subculture's focus on fashion and music was a release from the "humdrum of daily existence" at their jobs. Jobling and Crowley noted that while the subculture had strong elements of consumerism and shopping, mods were not passive consumers; instead they were very self-conscious and critical, customising "existing styles, symbols and artefacts" such as the Union flag and the Royal Air Force roundel , and putting them on their jackets in
14385-467: The term mod covered a number of styles including the emergence of Swinging London , though to him it defined Melly's working class clothes-conscious teenagers living in London and south England in the early to mid-1960s. Mary Anne Long argued that "first hand accounts and contemporary theorists point to the Jewish upper-working or middle-class of London's East End and suburbs." Simon Frith asserted that
14522-477: The term " moral panic " in his study about the two youth subcultures , in which he examined media coverage of the mod and rocker riots in the 1960s. By 1965, conflicts between mods and rockers began to subside and mods increasingly gravitated towards pop art and psychedelia . London became synonymous with fashion, music, and pop culture in these years, a period often referred to as " Swinging London ". During this time, mod fashions spread to other countries; mod
14659-423: 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
14796-432: The time and money to spend this much time going to nightclubs. Paul Jobling and David Crowley argued that most young mods worked 9 to 5 at semi-skilled jobs, which meant that they had much less leisure time and only a modest income to spend during their time off. Paul Jobling and David Crowley called the mod subculture a "fashion-obsessed and hedonistic cult of the hyper-cool" young adults who lived in metropolitan London or
14933-492: 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
15070-423: The two main youth subcultures were mods and rockers . Mods were described in 2012 as "effeminate, stuck-up, emulating the middle classes, aspiring to a competitive sophistication, snobbish, [and] phony", and rockers as "hopelessly naive, loutish, [and] scruffy", emulating the motorcycle gang members in the film The Wild One , by wearing leather jackets and riding motorcycles. Dick Hebdige claimed in 2006 that
15207-501: 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
15344-548: 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 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
15481-638: 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
15618-506: 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
15755-498: 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
15892-585: Was a bandleader at the club from 1954. According to Duke Vin (Vincent Forbes), by 1959 the Sunset Club was one of the five main Caribbean music clubs in London, the others being the Contemporanean in Mayfair , club 59, Flamingo and Club 77. The proprietor of the club, Gustavus Alexander Leslie, filed for bankruptcy in December 1959. The Roaring Twenties opened on 4 July 1962, Count Suckle (Wilbert Augustus Campbell)
16029-672: 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
16166-483: 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
16303-423: 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
16440-457: 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
16577-632: 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
16714-415: Was fashion night when everyone was expected to wear a suit and tie. The doorman was Charles (Charlie) Brown, the boxer and Jamaican landlord of murderer John Christie at 10 Rillington Place. Malcolm McLaren thought the name was a reference to the U.S. television show The Roaring '20s which was popular in Britain at the time. In the late 1970s the name changed to Columbo's. Lloyd Coxsone continued and
16851-538: Was first laid out in the 1680s on the former Soho Fields; by 1691, 41 houses had been completed there. It 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
16988-479: Was followed by a similar mod revival in North America in the early 1980s, particularly in southern California . The term mod derives from modernist , a term used in the 1950s to describe modern jazz musicians and fans. This usage contrasted with the term trad , which described traditional jazz players and fans. The 1959 novel Absolute Beginners describes modernists as young modern jazz fans who dress in sharp modern Italian clothes . The novel may be one of
17125-568: Was joined by Denzil Exodus. Bob Marley played in 1975 and the club featured an autographed picture of Peter Falk as the TV detective "Columbo" on its walls. The club was mentioned in the NME Guide to Rock & Roll London in 1978 and is thought to have closed in the early 1980s. As of July 2014 it is a Ben Sherman shop. 51°30′45″N 0°08′19″W / 51.512543°N 0.138580°W / 51.512543; -0.138580 Soho Soho
17262-421: Was just a dump. It was a drugs scene, dope pushing, young kids smoking dope, people fighting, the police raiding the club, hundreds of young black kids taken to jail y`know! I just couldn`t stand it." One former Mod remembers a less oppressive atmosphere with a few white Ska-lovers being admitted who saw perfunctory police raids during which small amounts of drugs were dropped on the floor then picked up again when
17399-412: Was new. During this time London became a mecca for rock music, with popular bands such as the Who and Small Faces appealing to a largely mod audience, as well as the preponderance of hip fashions, in a period often referred to as Swinging London . As numerous British rock bands of the mid-1960s began to adopt a mod look and following, the scope of the subculture grew beyond its original confines and
17536-629: Was part restaurant, part social centre and part jazz club, and a location where black intellectuals and anyone interested in Pan-Africanism could meet. Visitors included the historian C.L.R. James , the Trinidadian journalist George Padmore , the future president of Kenya Jomo Kenyatta , the Guyanese Pan-Africanist T. Ras Makonnen and the Ghanaian politician J.B. Danquah . In the 1940s it
17673-663: 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,
17810-460: 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 a new parish of St Anne was established for it. The parish stretched from Oxford Street in the north to Leicester Square in
17947-505: 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
18084-424: Was the Blue Lagoon Club, supposedly a front for prostitution. In November 1946, Margaret Cook was shot dead outside the club and it was said that guns had to be handed in at the door with coats. The police investigation into the murder of blonde Mrs Cook was hampered by the discovery that she had several different names. Also in 1946, Mrs Violet Boofty was found gassed in her flat the night after her birthday party at
18221-508: Was the Sunset Club. From 1961, it was occupied by the Roaring Twenties nightclub. In the 1970s it was Columbo's. It is now a Ben Sherman shop. From 1936 it was the location of the Florence Mills Social Parlour, named after the black actress Florence Mills and run by Amy Ashwood , first wife of Marcus Garvey . Garvey started the venture with Sam Manning , a pioneering black recording artist and calypso singer from Trinidad , and it
18358-415: Was the first DJ at the club and also the bouncer. Suckle claimed in 1974 that "the club wasn't opened for black people, it was owned by Jewish people and it only catered for Jewish kids. I was the only black guy there because I was the leading DJ at the time and they wanted a popular 'front' figure to pull in the crowds so I was hired". Suckle complained: "There weren't any black owned clubs then. The places in
18495-566: 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
18632-423: Was then viewed less as an isolated subculture, but as emblematic of the larger youth culture of the era. As mod became more cosmopolitan during the "Swinging London" period, some working class "street mods" splintered off, forming other groups such as the skinheads . In the late 1970s, there was a mod revival in Britain which attempted to replicate the "scooter" period look and styles of the early to mid-1960s. It
18769-581: Was thought of more as a general youth-culture style rather than as a separate subgroup among different contentious factions. American musicians, in the wake of the British Invasion , adopted the look of mod clothes, longer hairstyles, and Beatle boots . The exploitation documentary Mondo Mod provides a glimpse at mod's influence on the Sunset Strip and West Hollywood scene of late 1966. Mod increasingly became associated with psychedelic rock and
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