Neighbourhoods

London is often described as a collection of distinct urban villages rather than a single sprawling metropolis, due to the way it developed over time. Discover each neighbourhood's unique character and charm.

Soho

A square mile of restaurants, small theatres and jazz clubs that has been London's least respectable district for three centuries.

The upper floors of Comptons on Old Compton Street: red brick and cream stone with carved swags and a relief over the middle window, two Union flags flying from the bay windows, gilt lettering on a black fascia and a rainbow flag over the door. — Comptons, on Old Compton Street. Photo by Ricardalovesmonuments, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Soho Square in early spring, bare plane trees over the garden and red brick behind — Soho Square in April, before the trees come into leaf.

A Soho street filled with England supporters in flags and shirts during a European Championship match — England supporters filling a Soho street during the Euros.

A narrow unlit alley behind Chinatown at night, lanterns strung overhead and bins along the wall — The back of Chinatown at night, lanterns and bins.

Red paper lanterns strung across a Chinatown street at dusk — Chinatown's lanterns, on the south edge of Soho. Photo by Boris Stefanik bstefanik, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

A pale blue Georgian terrace with red awnings over its ground-floor restaurant, a neon 'Quo Vadis' sign on the corner, a Union flag and a rainbow flag, and people at pavement tables in summer sun. — Quo Vadis on Dean Street. Karl Marx lodged upstairs at number 28. Photo by No Swan So Fine, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Carnaby Street at night under its Christmas lights: glowing planets, neon stars and blue foil discs strung across the street, with 'Carnaby celebrates' in lit letters over the shops. — Carnaby Street's Christmas lights, 2022. Photo by The wub, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Frith Street at night: motorbikes and a red bubble car parked down the middle of the road, a crowd of riders and drinkers on both pavements, the neon clock of Bar Italia on the left and the Delhi Brasserie's lit front on the right. — A bikers' meetup on Frith Street, outside longstanding Bar Italia.

The name is a hunting cry, first used for this ground around 1636, when it was open fields. What stopped it becoming a fashionable estate like Mayfair was immigration: Huguenot refugees settled here in numbers from the 1680s, and Soho has been the district where new arrivals set up in business ever since. Every wave has left restaurants behind, which is why you can eat almost anything within these few streets. It has been the disreputable quarter for as long as it has been built. In the 1970s there were more than fifty sex shops and forty cinema clubs; almost all of them have gone. The music arrived in the 1950s, when the 2i's coffee bar on Old Compton Street put British rock and roll on a stage the size of a table, and Ronnie Scott opened his jazz club in 1959. It is still running, three doors from where the Marquee had the Rolling Stones and the Who. One street corner here changed medicine. In 1854 John Snow mapped a cholera outbreak in Broad Street, traced it to a single water pump, and had the handle taken off; a replica pump marks the spot. Chinatown came in the 1950s and settled on Gerrard Street. Berwick Street still has a fruit and vegetable market, Soho Square still has its gardeners' hut, and the theatres are all within a few minutes' walk.

What's On

What’s On141

Things to do

Museums5

Art11

Performance venues11

Shopping7

Food & drink

Coffee6

Bakeries7

Desserts & Gelato10

Breakfast & Brunch4

Food Markets2

Cocktails10

Wine2

Themes

Royal London1

Admiralty ArchThe gateway at the Trafalgar Square end of the processional route, built by Edward VII in memory of his mother.

Power & Politics2

Sacred London1

St Martin-in-the-FieldsThe church on Trafalgar Square, with concerts by candlelight upstairs and a café in the crypt.

Beautiful Streets7

Architecture1

Centre PointA precast concrete lattice of 1966 that stood completely empty for nine years.

Monuments & Ruins7

Classic British Shops9

Science & Engineering2

Secrets & Espionage1

Cambridge Circus: le Carré's CircusThe junction that gave John le Carré's Secret Service its name: the Circus, headquarters of Smiley's people, in a building that was never there.

Literary London5

The World in London5

Harry Potter5